What I did on My Christmas Vacation – The Men, Part I

Thought I’d switch it up and do the men today – pardon the expression. 🙂 We’ll come back to the rest of the women later. Thanks again to the fans that helped me out with finding the information! If I leave anything significant out, let me know and I’ll update.

First up?
Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Status: Confirmed for Season 10 – not in so many words. 🙂

Thanks to Diana for all the Maks info. You can visit Maks’ Forum and Diana’s YouTube for more information on Maks. If anyone has any video or pics to add to this, let me know.

From the end of November to January, Maks did Burn the Floor on Broadway with Kym Johnson. Once he left BTF, he went to Vegas and did some choreography work for Le Reve at the Wynn. According to Dianna he went to Buenos Aires to learn the Argentine Tango. He had fun too, going to see Louis Vito qualify for the Olympics in Colorado and then back to NYC to celebrate his mom’s birthday. I saw him tweeting about shopping with his mom and it was quite cute. Yes, I know none of that qualifies as work, but it sounds like fun. Somewhere in all that he went to the Viennese Opera Ball in NYC. Very dashing!

Maks’ 3rd Studio “Dance With Me Soho” just opened in NYC – he was tweeting quite a bit about that and it sounds like he put a lot of work into it. He apparently gives lessons at his studios when not on DWTS.

Maks also works in association with DanceTeamUSA, Ballroom Dance Channel and Grand Dancesport.

Derek Hough

Status: Confirmed for Season 10 – in a manner of speaking. 🙂

Derek was a world traveler between the end of last season and now and was pretty tight lipped about it all. Since, as everyone here probably knows, I run PureDerekHough, I find this trait of being quiet highly annoying. 🙂 In the extreme. Anyway…

Derek started his time off by dancing with Cheryl Burke in the Dizzy Feet Foundation benefit and also performing their new single “Move” with Mark Ballas. I was also surprised, when I went back and looked at my site, by how many magazines he got called out in: People’s 16 Sexy Chests, TV Guide’s Hottest Costumes on DWTS, and in Sexiest DWTS Couples by Comcast. There were a few others, but I’m lazy and he didn’t have to do anything to get those – except maybe finally get a publicist. 🙂

Derek then jetted off to London under a cloud of mystery. It turns out that he had a high profile choreography gig with Cheryl Cole (pop star, X-Factor judge) for her television show. He choreographed and danced with her for her new single Parachute.

Derek then went back to LA (mystery), then on to NYC for Christmas with Shannon – thought it was vacation only at the time, but it turns out that he did take Maks’ place in Burn the Floor for the last few days of the run after New Years, so there was probably a business reason there too. Somewhere in there he was in Utah for a week. After BTF it was back to LA and then on to London again, this time to choreograph and star in the music video for Cheryl Cole’s Parachute which premiered on MTV UK in February. After they shot the video, Derek and Cheryl flew to Munich, Germany to perform at a tech conference which apparently featured Lady GaGa last year.

In late January, Derek went to Provo, Utah to perform in “Move” with Mark Ballas and Chelsie Hightower. While there, he directed a music video for Mark’s solo project. Since then, he’s been hanging out with Julianne (on the set of Burlesque) and Mark, going to a movie premiere and getting his face splashed all over UK tabloids. 🙂 He also promoted his friends’ band, DeVIence and, when interviewed at a premiere, said that he has “new adventures” coming up this year. Highly annoying that I don’t know what he’s talking about, but it sounds like there is stuff going on behind the scenes. Also in the video where he said this, he sure made it sound like Julianne would be back on DWTS eventually – which is why I included the link. Watch it and judge for yourself what he says. Sounds to me like she’s still under contract. Hmmmm…..

Mark Ballas

Status: Confirmed for Season 10 and already rehearsing with his partner!

If I had volunteers to help me with Mark, I don’t remember them and can’t find any communication from them. So, I’m sure to have left stuff out.

Mark has, as far as I can tell, been working almost exclusively on his solo EP project that he just recently released. The EP contains 6 songs and appears to be self-produced – Waiting for Patience. He’s worked on a couple videos for these songs, one of which Derek directed. I don’t know where these videos will show up – possibly on his new MySpace page?

When not working on that, Mark danced at Dizzy Feet with Kristi Yamaguchi, then with Chelsie at “Move” in Provo, Utah. He and Derek also sang Move at Dizzy Feet. Mark also performed in Toronto with Chelsie and Dmitry. He’s been doing a few small club dates playing his own music – I believe mainly in LA. When in Utah, he also played on Good Morning Utah.

If their fans are reading this, I need help with Dmitry, Louis, Tony and I don’t have much on Jonathan. Email me at Heidi@purederekhough.com!