Pasha Kovalev: ‘I made £25,000 for two dances at a private party’

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Pasha Kovalev started dancing when he was eight and by 14, in 1980, he had left his home in Komsomolsk in the far east of the Soviet Union for the bright lights of Moscow and a ballroom dancing career. By 2000 he and his dance partner had moved to America and in 2007 they were on the reality show So You Think You Can Dance, with Kovalev also working on it as a choreographer. He appeared on Strictly Come Dancing from 2011 to 2019, winning it with the late Caroline Flack in 2014. His other partners included the pop star Kimberley Walsh from Girls Aloud and the Countdown presenter Rachel Riley, whom he married in 2019. The couple live in London with their daughters, Maven, four, and Noa, two.
I don’t really carry much, usually 20 or 30 quid just in case I need cash, but a lot of the time I leave the house without a wallet altogether as everything is on my phone. If you need to get on a Tube or pay for groceries or buy a car, you can do it with your phone.
I do have them, and they are a great asset in life, but when I arrived in the US, with no background in financial affairs of any sort, I had to suddenly learn a whole new financial system and I did accumulate some credit card debt. Luckily I was making enough money to cover it all within a short period of time, so I didn’t wreck my credit rating and I didn’t have to file for bankruptcy or anything dramatic. I definitely got a little burnt, though, and I quickly learnt how much more you pay in interest if you just keep the debt sitting there. Now all my credit cards are connected to direct debit, and I only spend what I know I can afford to pay back that month or the following month.
A bit of both, but it depends on what the goal is. If you have to save for a house deposit, for example, you keep putting money away until you’re ready to make the purchase, but I do love buying presents for my girls — my little girls, Maven and Noa, and my big girl, Rachel. I love treating people with new and special things.
Rather than look at what I earned last year or over the years, because of my background starting out in the Soviet Union before the end of communism, I like to look at the shift in the amount of tax I pay against the change in prices and inflation. I was little when that system disintegrated, and before that the banking system there was non-existent.
My parents and their parents had no financial education. I first started working as a teenager in dance studios and because the system had no structure I paid very little tax. I then moved to America, and in my first year there I barely made the tax threshold, so still paid very little tax, and for the first few years I actually got a rebate. Since then my tax liability has gradually increased to the point where now I’m paying five figures. It’s not a lot, but I realise that some people only earn the same amount that I now pay in tax, so it makes me appreciate how my income has gradually increased.
Rather than Strictly being the moment that really propelled my income, it was actually moving to America. It’s a money-orientated society and that taught me many money lessons. Strictly itself is not a job that makes you an instant millionaire, but it gives you a platform, so since then I’ve run my own tours, choreographed West End shows and movies and that’s where you can accumulate more income. If you wanted to hire me to perform or choreograph an event, you’d have to talk to my agent. They would shake the most amount of money out of you! I have done some amazingly lucrative corporate events — I got paid £25,000 for doing two dances at a private party.
When I was growing up in Russia I had absolutely nothing. I had just moved to Moscow and was trying to establish myself as a dancer. Moscow is one of those tough cities that will swallow you easily if you let it and I literally didn’t have any money, even to buy any food, and I was frantically thinking, “Who do I talk to just to get money for today?” I knew I needed to find a more solid, permanent way of income, rather than one-time job opportunities, but I never for one second considered abandoning dance. I always knew that I wanted to dance and thought, “I have to take a chance and believe that it is going to get better. I will get through this and find the right connections with the right people to create the right opportunities for myself.” Thankfully that is what happened.
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I own our current property together with Rachel, and I always knew that property is the way to go. When I was able to afford it living in America, I invested in property over there. We’re looking to get a better family house here — maybe even a house big enough for me and Rachel to do a paso doble in. You don’t need too much space — it’s all about passion, the way you hold your partner. We actually did have enough room in this house, but now, with all the toys, not so much. Toys are everywhere. It’s an avalanche of toys. There is a lot of plastic, a lot of dresses. Lots of girls’ things everywhere.
Definitely. A hundred times better off. My father was a truck driver and my mum worked in the same factory for 25 or 30 years. Because of the poverty at that time I actually helped them when I was growing up, not the other way round. I stopped living with my parents when I was 14 and moved to another town with a dance studio, and from that age had to support myself. I was still going to school and was doing a little bit of teaching to pay for food and dance competitions, and at that point my mother, because she wanted me to feel that she was supporting me, used to send me 100 roubles every now and then, which was probably enough to buy a single bottle of beer. When I started making proper money my mum wanted to stay in the same house, so I paid for it to be completely renovated with brand-new everything. That was my way of saying thank you for supporting me.
No. I need to educate myself more about shares before considering that. I always rely on my instincts and with shares my instinct is saying, “It’s not the right thing to do at this time.”
I’m more inclined to invest into property and have that as my pension. Either by eventually renting it out or maybe even selling when the price is right. That will be my, maybe not golden parachute, but a little bronze parachute.
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There are two types of success. One is financial stability, which is very important — you cannot be a family man without some sort of stability — and the other part is your own development. It’s your inner world — every time I learn something new, every time I take a new course, or read a new book, and invest my time in that, it always pays back.
I used to be obsessed with buying the latest iPhone. Whenever a new model came out I needed to have it. I look back and wonder what I was thinking. Now I buy refurbished phones, which still have the same photographic and storage capabilities, so I don’t need to break the bank to support my phone addiction.
I love travel, so on a few occasions I’ve spent a lot on Christmas skiing holidays to Aspen or Whistler or somewhere in France or Switzerland. The most I’ve spent on a single trip I went full out and rented a huge house for everyone — the final bill came to about £20,000. The house, drinks, food, everything. I did that for a number of years, but my friends felt a little uncomfortable, so they started to chip in.
Because of my background I made a conscious decision to be happy to spoil myself on food, so I always buy organic. I’m not talking splashing out on a bucket of caviar and expensive vodka, but I never hold back on food.
We’re working on getting a different family house and making sure it’s a beautiful place to raise a family, and also continuing the education fund we’ve set up for our daughters.
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I would be generous with donations to my favourite charities, but I’d invest further in properties. Whatever was left over, I’d set up some property-related investments that would provide me with a steady income.
I support Guide Dogs for the Blind and a charity called ASA Foundation, helping children with autoimmune conditions.
That it comes and goes, but if you’re too careless it tends to go sooner rather than later. You need to have a good balance where you love money enough for it to keep coming to your life, but you’re not obsessed by it.Pasha Kovalev is the choreographer for Barista the Musical at Capitol Theatre, Horsham, until September 21