Pasha Kovalev

Pavel "Pasha" Kovalev (Russian: Павел Ковалев) (born 19 January 1980 in Komsomolsk-na-Amure[1] in Siberia) is a Russian professional Latin and ballroom dancer. Kovalev started dancing at age eight. In 2001 he moved to the United States with his professional dance partner Anya Garnis.

Competitive Career
Born in early 1980, Kovalev was raised by his mother and grew up with his brother. Until 2000 Kovalev (listed under his full name Pavel Kovalev) competed together with Anya Garnis (listed as Anna Garnis) in the Amateur Latin category in Russia. After the move to the US Kovalev and Garnis turned professional and from 2002 started competing in the US, the United Kingdom and Canada. Their palmares includes being finalists in the US Open from 2002 to 2006 .

So You Think You Can Dance
In 2007, Kovalev auditioned for season 3 of the US reality show So You Think You Can Dance, and has since participated in all following seasons as either a choreographer or an All Star.

Strictly Come Dancing
In September 2011, Kovalev joined the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing as the new professional dancer of its ninth series,[5] replacing Jared Murillo who had left after only one series with the BBC programme. He reached the finals in that series, as well as the following one, finishing as the runner-up both times.

Series 9
In the ninth series, his first, Kovalev was partnered with Waterloo Road actress, Chelsee Healey.[6] The two made it all the way to the finals, finishing as the runners-up to Harry Judd and his partner Aliona Vilani.

Series 10
For the 2012 series, it was revealed that he will be dancing with Girls Aloud singer, Kimberley Walsh. The two made it all the way to the finals, finishing as the runners-up to Olympic gymnast Louis Smith and his partner Flavia Cacace. By coming second, Pasha became the first male professional dancer to reach two consecutive Strictly finals, and the third professional dancer to do so overall after Lilia Kopylova and Aliona Vilani.

Series 11
For the eleventh series, Kovalev was partnered by Countdown & The Gadget Show co-presenter, Rachel Riley. However, the couple were eliminated during the fifth week of competition.

Series 12
For the twelfth series of the show in 2014, it was announced that Kovalev would partner former The Xtra Factor presenter, Caroline Flack. They became the first couple in the history of the show to score a maximum 120 points in their three final dances, and including the semi-final they scored a perfect 40 for each of their final four dances. On December 20, 2014 they won the competition.

Other Appearances
Kovalev and Garnis appeared on the sixth season| of Dancing with the Stars in a results show performance, dancing to "Come On Over" by Jessica Simpson.

In early 2009 he again performed with Garnis on the international dance show Superstars of Dance, representing Russia in the duet category, but they were then replaced by another couple in the January 19th episode.