Maksim Chmerkovskiy was introduced to the world of ballroom dancing at an early age when his parents brought him to a local ballroom dance school in Odessa, Ukraine. He quickly excelled in ballroom dance and the school became his home away from home. As a teenager, he suffered a horrible skiing accident that nearly ripped his leg off, leaving him hospitalized for months. After many surgeries and the insertion of a 12” metal rod, doctors were skeptical that Chmerkovskiy would ever walk without a limp, let alone dance. After completing months of physical therapy, he was back on his own two feet
