Professional dancer and beloved Dancing With the Stars pro, Maksim Chmerkovskiy is springing into action this season alongside brother Val and wife Peta Murgatroyd for a brand new nationwide tour, Maks, Val & Peta Live on Tour: Confidential.
In an exclusive with PopCulture.com, the 38-year-old professional dancer and first-time father is dishing on the 50-city showcase, a follow-up to 2016’s Our Way, which will kick off in Springfield, Missouri on March 19.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“I think things of this nature come up not exactly because you made them happen, but because they’re happening around you,” Chmerkovskiy said. “Life happens. Val and I put together the first part, Our Way, based on all the happenings in our life to that point and it was an amazing experience for us, very cathartic.”
When the two were on the road, dancing their hearts out in a new city every night, Peta was pregnant with 1-year-old Shai at the back of the tour bus, with Chmerkovskiy admitting that in the last two years since Our Way, a lot has happened.
“I’m a father now, I’m a husband, Peta just gave birth, she’s back and made a ridiculous comeback, a lot of crazy things happened,” he scoffed. “And what better way to express yourself than explain all this to people who are like, ‘You got us hooked on you guys… we cannot wait to see what happens next.’”
The Ukrainian born, Brooklyn native goes on to share it was important for him, wife, Peta Murgatroyd and brother, Val Chmerkovskiy to undertake the endeavor by themselves.
“We could have just written the script and played somebody else’s story and acted some of it out, but it was important for us that we speak to someone’s heart and someone else’s life and experiences, and maybe they will walk away saying, ‘I’m going through the same s— you’re going through, and there’s a resolution,” he said. “They’ll come out a little more motivated to resolve whatever it is that they’re going through and help somebody with whatever hardships they’re going through in life.”
He adds that he, Peta and Val are also looking to spend two hours with the audience in exchange for the only thing he considers of pure value: time.
“You invest your time in us and we’re going to give you, your time back and make it worth your while — you’re going to walk away having been entertained, cried a little, laughed a lot, go through a lot of emotions and it all came from life,” Chmerkovskiy said.
The Latin Ballroom dance champion, choreographer, Broadway star and actor, has been working tirelessly for years, getting his big break on the ABC reality competition, Dancing With the Stars in 2006. That opportunity was one he tells PopCulture.com opened a “lot of doors” for him.
“We’ve never been given anything [in life] and we’ve never been handed anything, we’re just really lucky,” he said. “We’ve gone through a lot… it’s not something that is written. It’s something that’s been experienced and then we make a decision to do it.”
While Chmerkovskiy admits he met with plenty of challenges growing up, the inspiration behind the new tour stemmed from all the elements he, Peta and Val battled over the years, together and separately, adding it’s important to bring such real emotion to center stage.
“Nobody wants to see a dancer talk — it’s like, nobody wants to see a clown take off his face and be a person, and speak to you about clowning and everything that goes into it,” he said. “People want to see us dance no matter what. I can speak the most profound things, but you’ve got to move, so that’s what we’re doing.”
Chmerkovskiy adds that he’s not just a performer, but a real person who has experienced life like a lot of people.
“[Val] and I have always been champions in our own world, so we’ve always had that spotlight from competitors… but I’m not just a dancer, and Val is not just a dancer, and Peta is not just a dancer — we have things, that you know, non-dancers can relate to and that makes the show one of a kind.”
Likening the emotive response found through each dance in Confidential to Disney’s Inside Out, Chmerkovskiy says both stories prove you have to really feel emotion to understand the moment because it is only then that you learn more about yourself.
“You need to be sad. It’s unnatural to be happy only, it’s unnatural to only want happiness,” he said. “It is unnatural because in retrospect, you’re also never going to experience happiness without sadness, [and] you’re never going to be really laughing without crying, because you’ve got it easy. Nobody’s life is perfect, everyone goes through s—, and so have we.”
Chmerkovskiy is excited for the show that will travel across the U.S. this spring and end in Vegas May 16. As a show driven by his family and their love stories, he discloses he can’t wait to use his favorite medium to express what’s in his mind and heart, while sharing a stage with Peta and Val.
Additionally, he adds fans of Dancing With the Stars are in for a real treat with the new tour.
“If you’re a fan of [the show], good, but you don’t know me,” he laughs. “You don’t know me, you don’t know Val or Peta. You think you know [us], but it’s all real and coming from us. I think that’s the most shocking part. We’re all different — Peta is different, [she’s] incredible on stage in that medium, but you never got to see her be like this.”
In addition to the glitz and glamour, Chmerkovskiy says the tour will entertain audiences with its “killer, beautiful movements, choreographed by some of the best in the industry.”
“These are hand-selected choreographers that we managed personally, which is very unusual,” Chmerkovskiy said. “People come in and say do this, but we work the other way around. So, this is an amazing collaboration… you’ll have an incredible time at the show. We promise!”
Chmerkovskiy, along with Peta and Val kick off their tour in Springfield, Missouri on March 19 and visit 50 cities throughout the U.S. For a complete list of tour dates near you, check out Maks, Val & Peta Live on Tour: Confidential for more details.
Related Posts
-
Danny Amendola and Witney Carson on 'Dancing With the Stars.' Credit: Disney/Eric McCandless
