‘Dancing’s’ Maksim Chmerkovskiy Following His Fall: ‘I Have To Go Find My Ego & Put It Back Together’

When Maksim Chmerkovskiy fell to the floor on “Dancing with the Stars” during his rumba with Kirstie Alley on Tuesday night, he quickly found his feet again and carried on, but he admitted to Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson it left him with a bruise.

“I have to go find my ego and put it back together,” Maks told Shaun, of another appendage that was injured when his thigh cramped up, just a few counts into their number to “Over The Rainbow.”

Maks said backstage after the ABC celebrity competition show that the strain was “just a muscle contusion,” adding, “It’s like a Charlie horse.”

The ballroom professional’s face revealed he was under a lot of strain during the number, and he said that the incident was the first in his professional career.

“Never happened to me and [I hope it] never happens again ‘cause it’s a little bruised, but I’ll be fine,” he said.

The ballroom bad boy said it wasn’t the pain that bothered him, but rather that others saw him stumble on live TV.

“It’s not about pain, forget the pain, I’m not being a hero or anything,” Maks said of getting up and carrying on. “Everybody’s got a profession, my profession is not to do that. You know, if it happens — not to show it. I teach my couples, my kids, my students — it’s not about being perfect, it’s about not showing your imperfections and this just pisses me off because you’ve seen me mess up, you’ve seen me mess up with my partners, you just couldn’t notice.

“But today, there was nothing I could do to camouflage that [and] it pissed me off the most,” he added.

Kirstie said she’s glad Maks is fine and was happy he chose to carry on with their number.

“I wanted to make sure he wasn’t hurt and he wasn’t hurt. He stood up and he said, ‘Let’s just keep dancing.’ And I was like, ‘Cool,’” she said. “You know, it is live TV, stuff happens, that’s why we’re doing live TV.”