Hi FS,
I’ve been following this too and am pretty pleased, if it’s true, that Artem will be in the troupe with Sasha (who seems to be popular).
I’m sure that he would have preferred to be a full pro but this will give his dancing and choreography skills a weekly platform in the US – which he really needs, as he has a much higher profile in the UK.
It seems perfectly possible for a pro to do the Spring season of DWTS and the Autumn season of SCD each year + the SCD Tour. (I would have loved for Artem to be the first pro to do this as a teaching pro).
To be quite honest, I thought this was going to happen last Spring when there seemed to be concern about both Maks and Derek not taking part. I thought the producers may put in Artem as an experienced pro and past winner of SCD to try to fill the gap that those two big characters would leave. Derek did take part in the end. I wonder if this scenario has happened this year?
I know the past relationship with CarrieAnn has been discussed as being a block to Artem being a pro on DWTS but, personally, I think there is a big enough time gap for that not to be considered an issue now.
Good luck to him in this venture and
I don’t think this means that he will not return to SCD.