Valentin Chmerkovskiy Biography

Valentin Chmerkovskiy is an American–Ukrainian professional dancer who is best known for winning the American dancing reality show ‘Dancing with the Stars’ twice. He was born into an upper middle-class family in Odessa, Ukraine. Shortly after the country’s separation from the USSR, the family moved to the US. Valentin began training in a dance studio that his parents owned. By the time he turned 12, he had already become skilled enough to perform in various overseas dance competitions. At age 15, he won his first international dance competition, the ‘IDSF World Championship.’ He became the first American professional dancer to win the honor. Over the years, he has become the ‘US National Latin Dance’ champion 14 times. He has also won several other national and international dance championships. He has participated in the American version of the dance reality show ‘Dancing with the Stars’ 13 times and has won the title twice, paired opposite Rumer Willis and Laurie Hernandez, in the twentieth and the twenty-third seasons, respectively. He also runs a dance studio and is a part-time rapper with the stage name “Val C.”