Pasha Kovalev

(When asked what inspired him to audition for So You Think You Can Dance)
Pasha: My dance partner saw on the TV that auditions were going to happen and asked me if I wanted to participate. At the time, I was recovering from illness. I had real serious health issues at that point, so I said that I don't know if I will get strong enough. But she said, "Let's just try it," so we went, and now I'm on the show.

(When asked what the hardest part of So You Think You Can Dance was)
Pasha: Preparation, practicing ... interviews. Probably to be able to stay focused, making sure that no matter what happens, to be positive and very open to everything. A lot of times we tend to doubt ourselves. When you start doing something you've never done before, it's easy to have doubts. You just got to stay away from the doubts and do your thing.

(When asked if he was hoping to be a celebrity)
Pasha: A celebrity, no. Maybe more known in the dance world, that would be good. The main purpose is to just improve myself, just to get better in a different variety of dances, not just the ballroom. I really want to develop myself as a dancer.

(Referring to So You Think You Can Dance)
Pasha: This experience taught me a lot of things about myself, about how to overcome difficulties, physical or emotional, and extended my horizon. It helped me realize that I can do more than I thought before, and it's definitely brought my ballroom dancing in a way that I can use now all this experience to put into new ideas for shows and for new dances and stuff like that.

(Explaining his inspiration for his solos on So You Think You Can Dance)
Pasha: It's basically, if you notice I kind of used partners for my solos. If it was a cape it's still my partner, mannequin with a dress it's my partner, even the suspenders I had it's kind of my partner for that solo. It's just for ballroom people it's hard to dance on their own just because we are so used to present our partner, that's the main thing because if your partner looks good, you will look good. So we focus mostly on their part dancing, so that was kind of challenging. I was looking in some ways to fake it or kind of create a feeling that I still have a partner dancing with me.

Pasha: No, I don't think I was focusing or planning on getting anywhere. My main thought was just to take the dance, make it my own, perform the best I can, and hopefully people will like it, and the judges will put you through, and move on from there, just like little step, each week one little tiny step. Of course we all want to win, but it's about dancing to me after all and I think it worked out for me.

(When asked about his experience auditioning for So You Think You Can Dance)
Pasha: No, it wasn't stressful because in the beginning, I wasn't planning on trying for the show anyway. It was more, like, helping Anya because she wanted to do it so badly. I was kind of at this stage in my life where I was coming out of illness so I wasn't sure if I was trying out. So for me, it was a piece of cake because I was just there to support Anya. I didn't even audition. But then, I guess, thrown into it and then it became stressful.

Pasha: Yeah, I'm definitely excited about performing live in front of an audience because, I think, dancing on tv is one thing and when you share the energy with the live audience, it's completely different doing. It's a feeling as a dancer and performer, I'm looking forward to because when you're on tv screen, you kind of feel isolated. They don't really feel your energy or you don't feel their energy. On the tour, live, it's gonna be quite an experience and I can't wait to do that.

Pasha: Well, I'm basically am so grateful that I had this chance to show what I can do and share my dancing with so many people. I'm so fortunate for what I have, I didn't expect that. But it was nice to feel that people like and appreciate what you're doing and can connect to it and bring emotion to them from the dance and they felt moved and touched. Basically, I wanna thank everybody and everyone who watched the show and owe them for that.