FROM Strictly Come Dancing to the stage, professional dancer Pasha Kovalev's sleek moves have been keeping millions of people entertained for a number of years.

Having won the hit BBC talent show in 2014 with Caroline Flack, and meeting his current partner Countdown mathematician Rachel Riley on the show, Pasha is a huge hit with fans and is set to delight the crowds when he brings his latest show "Let's Dance the Night Away at two Somerset venues on his next tour.

Fresh from starring in this year's show with BBC news presenter Naga Munchetty, he will be taking a brief break touring around the country from March next year.

And, as he fine-tunes his performance, he is promising a spectacle for the whole family, with a host of children's choirs and dance troupes joining him on stage.

He said: "This is not my first show, but every time I try to create something new and exciting for the audience. People who come can expect a completely new brilliant performance, brilliant costumes and brilliant music.

"We always try to keep it family friendly, because we want the whole family to have a fun time and for parents not to worry that there will be bad language.

"We will be bringing children on to the stage to sing and dance as well."

Pasha has a real passion, pardon the pun, for helping to teach people and in particular children how to dance, and believes children should be given a stage on which to flourish.

Recalling his earlier years, he said: "I started dancing when I was a young boy and I remember loving every performance, and it would be giving me more experience on my dancing journey.

"I developed a lot of skills, both in terms of dancing and socially, but there is no better way to perform than actually learning. It's a bit like learning to swim.

"My show is a great way for children to get better because it gives them a goal, it gives them a taste of what it is like to perform on stage and hopefully it will help motivate them.

"Different kids like different things. Some like sport, some like to sing some like maths, some like science and some like dancing and I am really passionate about providing kids with a platform to experience all these things, and the opportunities to do that.

"When I was a kid, I would do lots of things, swimming, dancing, arts and drawing, dancing and being involved in all those things helped me to decide that I wanted to dance professionally.

"For me, dancing is perfect because it allows you to go out and express yourself. It offers you two things, self improvement in terms of your dancing ability and it helps you become stronger and more flexible, and the second thing is the opportunity to perform in front of audiences.

"When you can dance, all you want to do is dance.

"It's like being able to tell a joke. If you are funny, you want to tell everyone and make people laugh, and dancing is the same, you want to perform in front of everyone and entertain everyone."

Despite leaving Strictly on the fourth week, Pasha said he was still pleased with how the show had gone and will be appearing on the Strictly Christmas special in December.

He said: "This year was great.

"Maybe we didn't stay in the competition for as long as we wanted, but we had a great time together.

"You don't have a choice on Strictly who you are dancing with, so all you can do is try and make the person a better dancer, and to keep them in the competition for as long as possible.

"It's a lot of pressure, but it is a brilliant experience and Naga was great, I really enjoyed working with her."

Pasha will be bringing his Let's Dance the Night Away tour to Weston-super-Mare and Yeovil in May and March next year.

For more information visit pashakovalev.co.uk/tour-dates/