In an interview about his work coordinating humanitarian aid for the people of Ukraine amid the Russian invasion of the country, “Dancing With the Stars” professional dancer Val Chmerkovskiy was asked if he plans on returning to the show for season 31 when it moves to Disney Plus.
Here is what Val told “Extra” correspondent Rachel Lindsay when asked about his possible return:
Val Makes It Sound Like He is Not Retiring Just Yet
When asked, “Are you guys going to be a part of it”, Val makes it sound like he is awaiting word on if the show is going to ask him to return, which implies that he has not decided that he is going to retire.
“We don’t know the details of [the show] yet. I don’t know if I’m back or not, but I’m excited about the show,” said Val.
The reason fans have been wondering about his possible retirement is that he mentioned it several times during the end of season 30 in the fall of 2021. After Val was eliminated alongside his partner, social media influencer Olivia Jade, he went on Olivia’s podcast “Conversations with Olivia Jade” and talked openly about feeling like it might be time to hang up his ballroom dancing shoes.
Val told Olivia that he is “definitely going to keep dancing” for sure, but he’s not sure if he’s going to keep dancing on “Dancing With the Stars.”
“‘Dancing With the Stars’ is TBD,” said Val, adding that his journey on season 30 with Olivia was so special that he’s not sure he can top that. For Val, Olviia was such a surprise and she so “exceeded [his] expectations” that it would be a good season to go out on.
Val told Olivia:
I’ll tell you this, you definitely are the biggest surprise for me. You definitely exceeded my expectations for sure, out of everybody [I’ve partnered with]. There’s people that came in and turned out to be such a wonderful season, a winning season, but — I’m not saying they were ringers, but they had potential coming in. Like, it was mine to ruin. Zendaya was mine to ruin, Normani was mine to ruin, they were amazing already and I just made some good choices for them and then just got out of their way.
But with you, it’s not that easy and this season is very competitive, so it just means more. The harder the journey, the more it means to you and this one means a lot to me, so how many of these meaningful journeys can I emotionally go through?
Fans may be wondering if Val’s wife, fellow “Dancing With the Stars” pro Jenna Johnson, will also be hanging up her dancing shoes and the answer to that is no. She said in the fall of 2021 that even if Val retires, she is not going anywhere yet.
“I have no plans to not be on this show. I hope I have many more seasons because it really is a dream come true to be able to create every week, to dance, to meet new people. So I hope that as long as my body will allow me, I can continue to dance on the show,” Jenna told CinemaBlend in an interview.
But as for where Val would keep dancing if he retired from the show, he and his brother, former “Dancing With the Stars” pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy, have a dance studio company called Dance With Me, which boasts over a dozen locations across the country.
“We have 14 Dance With Me locations. It’s a company that has been a family business and has expanded into a bigger community,” Val told “Extra.”
Val first joined “Dancing With the Stars” as a pro partner in season 13 and has appeared on every season since except 26. He also judged the “Dancing With the Stars: Juniors” spinoff.
Val & Maks Are Also Busy With Their Ukraine Aid Organization
When war broke out in their home country of Ukraine, Maks and Val and their father Alexsandr founded to send aid to the people of Ukraine. During their segment on “Extra,” Val showed off their headquarters in New Jersey and Maks said that they are of course pleased with the effort, but it’s “unfortunate” that they have to organize aid in the first place.
“This is an unfortunate, I guess, success that we’ve never even planned. This war broke out. I feel like it was bestowed on us. We’re just doing our best and doing our part,” said Maks.
If you’d like to contribute to the Chmerkovskiys’ efforts, you can donate at the Baranova27 GoFundMe page. The organization is named after the Chmerkovskiys’ street address when they lived in Ukraine before moving to the United States when Maks was 14 and Val was 8.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/baranova27
“Dancing With the Stars” returns for its 31st season in fall 2022 on Disney Plus.
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