Dancing with The Stars couple Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff broke off their engagement and split up earlier this month after dating for about a year. Both Maksim, 29, and Karina, 31, are professional dancers originally from the Ukraine. Before Maksim and Karina split up they committed to performing together at this year’s Emmys. They were consummate professionals and went through with the performance, a sexy fast-moving number with a team of backup dancers. It went off without a hitch and you couldn’t tell that there were any problems between them. This is especially impressive in light of the fact that they were said to be loudly screaming at each other backstage:

Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff may have looked fab onstage, but things weren’t quite in step behind the scenes.

An insider reports the ex-couple exchanged some heated words before and after their performance.

“They were going at it, screaming at each other,” an eyewitness tells me. “He said she was taking too long in hair and makeup. It got kind of loud.”

Backstage at the Lipton Green Vitali Tea gift lounge, questions about the breakup were off-limits, but Karina said she couldn’t be happier with their dance routine…

“It was nerve-racking, especially when we heard the announcer say, ‘From Dancing With the Stars…,’ ” Karina just told me. “My heart jumped out a couple of times, but then I was like, ‘Enjoy this because how often do you get to perform at the Emmys.’

“And then it just felt like it went very fast,” she continued. “I wanted to do it a couple of more times to really get into it.”

What she did really get into was the swag. Karina checked out products from Nespresso, Palm Pixi, FlipMinoHD, AMC and the very expensive Santoni shoe line..

[From E! Online]

The ninth season of Dancing With the Stars premieres tonight. Maksim is paired with actress Debi Mazar and Karina’s partner is singer Aaron Carter. Both Maksim and Karina have won second place with their celebrity partners on the show; Karina was a runner up on the third season with Mario López and Maksim placed second in season five with Melanie B. I doubt either of them are going to win with their new partners, but you can never guess who will bring it on DWTS until you see the performances, and that’s why people love it.

It’s got to suck to have to deal with your ex at work although these two don’t really have to see each other during the week apart for the performances from what I understand. Now that their Emmys performance is over they’ll be able to avoid each other for a while. That’s all going to change once Dancing With The Stars goes on tour. That’s why they have all those sayings about not dating people from work. My favorite is “don’t sh*t where you eat.”