Staten Island's got a couple homegrowns who are set to take on "Dancing with the Stars " Tuesday night. It's the finale to a summer long dance battle with hundreds of other talented young dancers under 13 from around the country. Kirill Skipalskiy, 11, and his 10-year-old partner, Hanna Sverdlov danced the samba last month to impress the judges, who said they "had more sparkle than a Christmas tree".
As middle school is notoriously a tough place to go against the flow, Kirill told the Post that their classmates at first "weren't the most understanding of his desire for a dance career", but now, jealous of his moment in the spotlight, they're "seriously impressed." Take that, middle school bullies! Kirill's also a hockey player, but feels more comfortable as a dancer anyway.
The word is they've got two other "tween" pairs to take out during tomorrow's show, which is live, and the winner will be determined by a live-audience vote. Their reward - "a miniature version of the coveted Mirror Ball Trophy, a smaller replica of the prize the adult dancers get". Fantastic! Bring it on home to Staten kids. And its worth nothing that this could be just the beginning of a period of New York domination of the network dancing shows. Just last week Brownstoner caught a long line of dancing teens outside BAM, which commenters later explained was tryouts for So You Think You Can Dance.
Dancing with the Stars is on ABC, Tuesday night at 8 pm.
