insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 02 - April 2015 | Page 20

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
Pasha Kovalev cont.
With an ardent desire to succeed and the
credentials to do so, the ultra-talented dancer
has his sights set even higher for 2015, kicking
it off with his brand new tour, Life Through Dance.
And since he will be cha-cha-cha-ing his way to
our county this spring, it seemed only right to
catch up with the man behind the sequins to find
out more.

was anybody's prize, but I'm glad it ended up
with Caroline and me.
What do you think makes for a winning formula
on the show?
You have to have fun and friendship with your
partner, so that they can open up and perform
to the best of their abilities. Y also have to make
ou
good choices when it comes to the music and
choreography in order to showcase your celebrity
in the best possible way.
It must be rewarding to watch your celebrity
partner progress throughout the series?
Absolutely. Every single celebrity in the final –
even the quarterfinal and before that – improves
so drastically, and because we're in the middle
of this intense process, we can see it happen.
Day after day, their performance becomes better
and they improve. With Caroline, for example,
we danced cha-cha in the first week of the
competition and the judges picked in again for
our last week. When we started practicing for the
final, I could see so much improvement in
Caroline's dancing. It was so rewarding to see
all of our hard work in action.

Pasha and Caroline on Strictly Come Dancing

You have been dancing since you were just
eight years old. What inspired you to start?
I was growing up in Serbia, Russia, and one day
my mum took me to a dance competition. Once
I saw what was going on – the beautiful show,
stage and all of the girls – I was done and done.
You were a finalist on So You Think You Can
Dance? in the US, starred in Burn the Floor
on Broadway and in the West End, and you're
now a household name on Strictly Come
Dancing. Did you dream of such success?
I didn't plan to do anything on TV; I got into it by
accident and having become a little bit more
recognisable in the US, I was soon asked to join
Strictly. At the time I couldn't say yes as I was
on Broadway, but I was asked at a later date and
sealed my fate. Strictly is the perfect jump for me
as I'm a trained ballroom and Latin dancer; I've
been doing it for 27 years now, and there's no
place better to showcase it than the show. I do
what I love, and create some interesting stuff that
hopefully has a positive effect on people and how
they see things. It's just amazing.
Since your first stint on Strictly in 2011, you've
reached the final three out of four times, and
most recently won with Caroline Flack (2014).
Congrats – did it take a while to sink in?
At first, I was checking that it was us who'd won,
and then, when it sank in, it was an amazing,
amazing feeling! It had been a long physical series;
when you make it to the final, you're exhausted
as it means you've been dancing for about five
months non-stop, with no days off. The
competition was so tough this year that it really

Where's the famed glitterball trophy now?
Nobody gets to keep the big one. The BBC puts
the winner’s name on it and it's displayed in an
eternal hall of fame. Caroline and I each have little
replicas, which are smaller but still sparkling and
heavy!
Will you be returning for Strictly Come
Dancing 2015?
I don't know. Production starts talking to
professionals somewhere in the late springtime.
If they ask me again, I will definitely say yes.

and the younger and older generations. It offers
a mixture of little things, which create the perfect
recipe for a good show.
You are performing nearly 80 tour dates across
the UK – how do you cope with such an
intense schedule and very little downtime?
We don't get much time off but when you know
a tour is coming up, and on tour itself, you try to
get as much rest as possible, eat as well as you
possibly can, and minimise stress. You get tire