“I could see the shocked looks on the faces of the other dancers.”
“So maybe this isn’t normal behavior.”
- Hope Solo, realizing Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s behavior was not a normal part of learning dance. From “Solo: Life with Hope”
This is just the footage that made it to air. It isn’t even the worst of what Hope describes Maks did to her. This “flinging and pushing” was a routine part of the “manhandling” that Maks inflicted on her “from the start.”
It is surreal to go on “Dancing with the Stars” and be disrespected and mistreated like this. The mind reels, and you can’t believe that a professional dance instructor would have the gall to act this way. On camera and on one of the most popular TV shows in the world. That’s why a lot of us don’t even know how to react to it. It’s uncomfortable to see this ugliness and have your happy, glittery vision of the show disturbed. And it’s painful to realize that people in power will fail to protect those that are hurt and, instead, tolerate and enable an offender like Maks.
What Maks did is not “normal.” It is violent. “Dancing with the Stars” needs to own this and cut this disease from the show. By keeping Maks Chmerkovskiy in the cast, DWTS is giving harbor to the misconception that what he did is anywhere near the realm of okay.
okay this pisses me off. Maks, what the heck man!!!
