Maksim Chmerkovskiy Dances Jive With Danica McKellar On DWTS

This past Monday on ABC’s hit dancing/reality show Dancing With The Stars, the star contestants did something that has never been done in the history of the nine-year-old show: they switched pro...
Maksim Chmerkovskiy Dances Jive With Danica McKellar On DWTS
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This past Monday on ABC’s hit dancing/reality show Dancing With The Stars, the star contestants did something that has never been done in the history of the nine-year-old show: they switched pro-dancing partners in what has been branded “The Switch-up.” The pairings for “The Switch-up” were chosen by the show’s online Twitter community, and one of the Twitter-created pairings placed Danica McKellar with “bad boy of the ballroom” Maksim (Maks) Chmerkovskiy.

The new switch-up was particularly interesting for McKellar, as her temporary new partner (Maksim Chmerkovskiy) was the older sibling of her current pro-dance partner Val (Valentin) Chmerkovskiy. For this week’s Dancing With The Stars, McKellar and Chmerkovskiy danced a Jive to “Love Me Right” by The Swag Geeks and Brook Penning. The couple performed their Jive with a 50’s theme with a juke box as a centerpiece and included two back-up dancers (a Dancing With The Stars troupe member and pro-dancer Lindsay Arnold) for select sections of their performance.

Not many people noticed, but during the start of their dance performance, there was a slight issue with the music; however, McKellar pressed onward during the performance. McKellar’s “switch-up” partner Maks commended his partner on the way she handled the tiny mishap which mainly went unnoticed.

McKellar and Chmerkovskiy’s Jive routine was comprised of various swing-based content, including the following sections:

  • Precise pointed-toe Jive flicks
  • Clean under-arm turns (first chorus)
  • Sugar pushes with whip (second chorus), more commonly seen in West Coast Swing.

Towards the conclusion of the Jive routine, McKellar runs up and hugs Val, who she will be paired back with for the remaining shows of the season.

Even though McKellar and Chmerkovskiy presented a well-performed Jive for us, the comments from the judging panel are what really gave the dancers some attention. During the judges’ critique of McKellar and Chmerkovskiy’s Jive, guest judge Julianne Hough lashed out at Maks with the following comment:

“I’m going to say this, because I am the brutal Julianne that I am. I almost felt that: Maks, I’m sorry, hun, you’re Mark this year. I felt that it was like this week could get past, so that you can get back with Meryl again.”

The Mark who Hough was referring to was other pro-dancer Mark Ballas, who Hough previously slammed last year during her first guest-judge appearance on the show. According to The Examiner, the “majority of viewers agree that the comments were not very constructive and Hough was way too personal in her feedback.”

Next week, McKellar will return with previous Chmerkovskiy sibling Val, and Maksim will return to Olympic skater Meryl Davis on Dancing With The Stars as they dance to their favorite Disney tunes. .

Image via YouTube (1:30)

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