Jhanna Volynets

Sasha Chmerkovskiy

Max Chmerkovskiy

Jhanna Volynets
Jhanna came to the United States from the Ukraine in 1977. DanceSport is a "labot of love" for her, as she's loved dance since she was a child. "Expressing yourself in movement is exciting and fulfilling," and seeing the young dancers come to life is an indescribable feeling that drives Jhana to make sure Dance Team USA becomes a reality. It is important to Jhanna to nurture DanceSport not only as recognized sport, but also a community; where young adults have a place to learn and grow - and most importantly, develop. She stresses that communities all over the country can benefit seriously from embracing DanceSport. Jhanna is dedicated to today's youth in her personal life as well; she has and is a surrogate mother to kids whose own families are not able to support them emotionally or financially. To her, being able to help a child grow and develop into a confident young adult is priceless.

Sasha Chmerkovskiy
Sasha has been in America for nine years, and loves it very much. Building DanceSport into a recognized American Institution like Baseball or Football has become a real passion for Sasha, who says it's an "addiction". It is part of Sasha's quest to make sure DanceSport reaches all corners of America, because it is a fulfilling way to develop ones self into a person, athlete, and most importantly - an artist. Sasha takes pride in seeing young kids develop themselves into true champion's of the sport, and artist of the medium. His vision is for DanceSport to be in every community across the country; as a place to offer oppurtunity and focus to the youth of America.

Max Chmerkovskiy
Maksim Chmerkovskiy was born on January 17th, 1980 in Odessa, Ukraine. He was born to Aleksandr and Larissa Chmerkovskiy. Maks began his dance career at an early age of 4, and ever since then has devoted his life to DanceSport. There came a time in Maksim’s life, where he lost encouragement to continue to ballroom dance. He felt it would be better to pursue other sports such as swimming and tennis, due to his intense training in those fields. However, this stage passed away quickly and the next chapter of his life began in 1994. 

On May 29th, 1994 the Chmerkovskiy family immigrated to the United States. Three days after the airplane landed at John F Kennedy airport, Maks went to the closest dance school and began his career as an American Ballroom dancer. During the next 9 years Maks changed 5 dance partners. Some of his greatest accomplishments include U.S Open Under 21 Latin Champion, International Rising Star Professional Latin Champion, Semi-Finalist in all major Professional Grand Slam Events in the world, and finishing his competitive career being ranked #7 in the world Professional Latin field in 2004.

His life was changed completely, when the second season of the ABC’s hit “Dancing with the Stars” began in October, 2005.  Maks went from being a high profile Latin dancer, who was known only to our very small dance community to being a very known face to the media and public worldwide and becoming America’s 4th hottest bachelor in People Magazine’s poll. During the course of his 4 seasons on Dancing With The Stars, Maks partnered Actress Tia Carerre, pop singer Willa Ford, boxing sensation Laila Ali, and most recently Spice Girl Melanie Brown. During his first season on DWTS, Maks was recognized by a couple of the world’s biggest moguls Steve & Elaine Wynn, owners of Wynn Las Vegas. With Wynns’ ability to evaluate talent and as a result of their friendship/partnership, Maks choreographed and implemented ballroom dances into one of the most popular shows in Las Vegas, Le Reve at Wynn hotel, therefore bringing Ballroom dancing to a new level of recognition and exposure.

Maksim’s multifunctional personality and vision of bringing ballroom dancing to a new status in America allowed him, with the help of his family, to start new ventures within the United States. Some of these include: A new chain of social studios called “Dance with Me” that quickly became two of the leading social dance studios in the New York Metropolitan area.

DanceTeamUSA, a non-profit organization that promotes DanceSport for the youth of America. Maksim Chmerkovskiy Productions, Inc., a one of a kind youth production company that performs worldwide.