Culture / Entertainment

Dancing with the Stars Standouts Try to Turn Texas Into a Happy Dance Mecca: Reality TV Sex Symbols’ New Galleria Studio Will Bring Plenty of Substance — and Heart

BY // 04.27.18
photography Jerry Metellus

Dancing with the Stars favorites Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Valentin Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd swept into the Sugar Land Smart Financial Center Thursday night to put on a show. The three professional dancers each have earned a perfect score from the judges on the juggernaut reality TV franchise.

And the tour that took them to the Sugar Land’s new crown jewel is an offshoot of that. The tour moves on to San Antonio Friday night and Grand Prairie in the Dallas area Saturday night.

But what they’re doing in The Woodlands and The Galleria is even more interesting — and telling. Brothers Maks and Val opened a signature Dance with Me studio in the Houston suburb — and they plan to open another one in The Galleria later this year. (Maks and Peta are married.)

The brothers take their mentoring seriously, with their commitment to teaching dance starting back in their teenage years.

It’s been their vision since 1997, when they opened their first dance studio, teaching ballroom dance to children. Within three years, it became the biggest ballroom dance studio in America. As its popularity grew, the brothers made designs to cater more to adults, opening the very first Dance with Me studio in 2005.

“The reality was that America fell in love with ballroom dancing, and we had a new studio that catered to that love affair,” Val tells PaperCity.

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Now, there are 11 Dance with Me studios, with four in Texas alone. Besides The Woodlands, Austin, Fort Worth and Southlake all have studios. And a  fifth Texas studio will open in The Galleria late this year.

“It means a lot to me personally that we can open a business in the heart of America, in Texas, USA and be embraced and brought into the community,” Val says.

The Chmerkovskiys partnered with another Dancing with the Stars pro Tony Dovolani on the studios. “Dance with Me is a microcosm of what you see me doing on Dancing with the Stars,” Val says. The priority is to create an environment that betters you as a person, gives you confidence, gives you physical improvement and makes you feel better, he adds.

“Most importantly, dancing is the cherry on top of feeling like you’re part of a community and a little family. In today’s world, everyone is connected through the phone but so disconnected with physical touch and real interaction. This gives you those things,” Val says.

The studios deliver all of that through a variety of dances: ballroom and Latin of all types, contemporary, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, wedding dance instruction and more.

Group dance classes, private dance lessons and social practice parties are all available. Showcases, competitions and corporate and team building services complete the packed dance menu. No wonder why a group of their Woodlands customers felt compelled to take a bus from the Waterway studio to Sugar Land to see the Thursday night show.

Inside the Dancing with the Stars Lifestyle

In the Maks, Val and Petra Confidential tour, you see these sex symbol dancers stripped down more than ever before — but we’re not talking close ups of their six pack abs.

Instead, the tour lays their personal lives bare. You get the same type of show-stopping production seen on Dancing with the Stars, but the narrative is told through stunning dances co-choreographed by the brothers and shot through with storytelling. Both Val and Maks definitely open up.

“It’s the story of our life,” Val says. “My brother goes deep into what it likes to enter into fatherhood, what it’s like to have a son, what it’s like to be a husband. How empowering that is. How humbling that is.”

Maks’ marriage and becoming a dad has created some distance between the two brothers. “As much as we love and support each other, we’re staring to live separate lives,” Val says. “Lives that don’t prioritize each other anymore.

“With me, it’s a lot of conversation based on real emotion, pursuing your craft, trying to master your passions.”

Maks and Val toured together a year and a half ago. “This (new) show adds Petra’s perspective, her feminine touch,” Val notes. “It’s female representation. That’s so important right now.”

The tour reveals facets of them that are rarely seen on Dancing with the Stars. “On the show, I get the incredible opportunity to mentor, guide and teach someone else — help an awesome celebrity contestant go on their journey,” Val says. “I don’t necessarily get to show me as a performer on stage. This narrative is about us.”

And that doesn’t mean their lives as TV stars. Val admits that for awhile, the vanity of Dancing with the Stars overshadowed what really mattered to him.

“I had to embrace it but also understand that look, my priority here is not to be a sex symbol,” he says. “It’s to be an awesome partner, teammate and mentor.”

The technical aspects of dance even come second to the feeling it brings new dancers, Val adds.

“I don’t care about the Cha-Cha, no offense. I don’t care about salsa or batanga unless they serve a purpose in making another person feel great, feel better.”

It’s not just all about the dance. It’s much more.

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