There is a particular kind of ambition that does not announce itself loudly; in the case of Vitali Kozmin and Valeria Milova – husband and wife, parents of three, former competitive dancers and now producers of a new Estonian ballroom show – it appears instead as stamina: the refusal to leave behind an art form they had spent their lives learning.

Their story did not begin with a grand business plan. It began with an ending.

Both Kozmin and Milova finished their competitive ballroom careers at 21, stepping away from a world they had inhabited since childhood. “In Estonia, there are essentially two paths in competitive ballroom dance,” Milova says. “Either you compete and represent your country internationally, or you become a coach.”

At the time, neither path felt right. The financial burden of competitive dance had become considerable – both for them and for their families. There was also a deeper exhaustion, familiar to many performers in judged disciplines, born of years spent navigating the subjectivity of ballroom competition. Coaching could wait. What they needed first was a different way forward.

From competition to show business

A first trip to the United States opened up a third possibility: the show-business side of ballroom dance. There were touring productions, television formats such as Dancing with the Stars, theatre stages and cruise ships – a parallel world in which the technique they had spent years mastering could be used not to win marks, but to hold an audience.

“We were deeply inspired by this world and amazed by how much audiences appreciate and admire this art form,” Milova says. “It opened up incredible opportunities for growth.”

“For the first time,” Kozmin adds, “we truly felt free on stage – not judged, but able to express ourselves.”

What followed took them far beyond the competitive ballroom circuit. Kozmin won Dancing with the Stars Turkey in 2012; Milova won Dancing with the Stars Ireland in 2017, with Kozmin reaching the same final.

They performed with Burn the Floor – one of the best-known ballroom stage productions in the world – across several international contracts, including extended seasons aboard Norwegian Cruise Line ships. In 2019, both worked as choreographers and performers on Heartbeat of Home, a large-scale production from the makers of Riverdance, which ran at the Piccadilly Theatre in London’s West End.

Vitali Kozmin and Valeria Milova during a performance. Private collection.

That West End chapter also marked a creative turning point. Five seasons on Dancing with the Stars – three in Dublin, two in Istanbul – had trained them to work at a pace most choreographers never experience: a new routine every week, from idea to performance.

“We lived in a constant creative flow,” Kozmin recalls. “Inspiration comes through action – we trained ourselves to generate ideas consistently by working fast.”

Raising a family on the road

Throughout those years, they were also raising a family. When their first son was born, they made an immediate decision: he would come with them.

“Working without our child was never an option,” Milova says. “We communicated that openly to every employer.”

Their first post-birth contract, with Burn the Floor in Tampa when their son was just six months old, required US performance visas and a family member brought in to help with childcare. Cruise ship seasons followed, where fellow performers – dancers, crew members and cleaning staff – would occasionally help look after the baby between shows.

They remain the only couple in Burn the Floor’s history to have worked while raising a child alongside them. Later, three consecutive seasons on Dancing with the Stars Ireland brought a different rhythm: nannies flown in from Estonia each season, living with the family throughout their contracts in Dublin. During the first season, when both reached the final and Milova won, rehearsal days ran from 8am to 10pm. Their son, watching from home, occasionally wished they would be eliminated from the show – simply so the family could spend more time together.

“Looking back, those were challenging periods,” Milova says. “But we don’t truly see them that way. They were the most productive and rewarding years of our lives – and through our example, we proved it is absolutely possible to build a successful career while raising children.”

Valeria Milova and Vitali Kozmin with their three children. Private collection.

The idea for their own production had been taking shape for years. The weekly pressure of television had turned them into disciplined, prolific choreographers, used to generating material quickly and consistently. “We would wake up with music in our heads and fall asleep imagining choreography,” Kozmin says.

Building Estonia’s own ballroom show

The moment to act came after the birth of their third child, while the family was settled back in Estonia. Music, rather than movement, became the starting point. They would select and restructure the songs first, then allow the choreography to follow.

Through Milova’s younger sister, Alika Milova – who represented Estonia at Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool – they connected with the arranger and pianist Rain Rämmal, who translated their ideas into scores for live musicians. The full soundtrack was recorded with James Werts World Music, with all vocals performed by Alika.

The result is I Wanna Dance with Somebody – the first exclusive ballroom dance show from Estonia, presented by Ballroom Theatre Production and Prime Line Agency.

The production is still compact: 30 minutes, six professional dancers and eight styles – samba, cha-cha-cha, rumba, tango, waltz, paso doble, jive and salsa. It can be performed in several formats, including with live violin, live vocals or a full live band. Every performer is based in Estonia.

The show premiered on 1 February 2025 and has since been performed in a corporate format across the country, with an invitation to the Tallink Gala following shortly after its debut.

Dancers perform I Wanna Dance with Somebody at the Everaus 10-year anniversary corporate gala in 2025. Private collection.

Running alongside the show is Prime Line Agency, the Tallinn-based talent operation Kozmin and Milova founded in 2018. The agency has built a roster of several hundred performers and secured more than 200 successful placements across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean and the Americas, connecting dancers with cruise lines, television productions, international tours and corporate events.

Its point of difference is a practical one: the agents themselves spent more than a decade working in ballroom show business as dancers and choreographers before moving into representation. They know the industry from the inside because they have lived it.

Valeria Milova and the troupe. Private collection.

Their long-term vision for I Wanna Dance with Somebody is precise and carefully sequenced: first, a permanent dinner-show residency in Tallinn; then a full theatrical version, running from 45 to 90 minutes, for theatre and cruise ship stages; and, in time, the West End and Broadway.

From Tallinn to the world stage

For first-time producers, those are ambitious targets. But Kozmin and Milova are not approaching the international stage from the outside. They have already choreographed in the West End, worked within major ballroom productions and learned the peculiar discipline of entertainment built for both immediacy and scale.

“We have big ambitions,” Kozmin says, “but we believe everything is achievable if you keep moving forward – with consistent work, daily discipline and a deep, unconditional love for what you do.”

“Often, the hardest part is taking the first step,” he adds. “For a long time, we struggled to begin because we were comparing ourselves with large-scale productions – big budgets, major investments, large teams. Once we realised the key was simply to start small and move forward step by step, everything shifted.”

The show is one year old. By any measure, it is only just beginning.