Theatre
Stuck In A Lift
Nikita Kuzmin thinks more people need to know about Kinder Buenos
Chatting pub quizzes and trips to IKEA with the Strictly dancer amidst his debut solo tour
It’s hard to imagine Nikita Kuzmin ever feeling tired – two minutes of conversation with him would probably provide anyone with enough positive energy to last the rest of the day. Still, his first solo tour has been an adjustment.
“The touring itself is quite intense,” the Strictly dancer admits, “but the beautiful thing about it is to see those happy faces at the end of the show, just to see everybody dancing and singing together and interacting with each other… I just feel like there is a lot of love in the room, and that makes me really, really happy. When I come out at the end of the show, to see everybody just bouncing around and smiling… it’s the best feeling in the world. My tiredness goes away. I guess it’s like a rush of adrenaline. I can’t sleep for five hours afterwards. But that’s okay,” he adds. “That’s my issue.”
The Ukrainian native has had a passion for dance for as long as he can remember. His Midnight Dancer show, an evening of music and movement that sees Kuzmin join forces with a cast of other talented dancers and vocalists, also lets him embrace another one of his passions: chatting.
“We have some bants,” he says of his interactions with the audience. “A lot of it’s improv. I have a certain script, but then I get bored of the script after a couple of shows, and because it’s my show, I can do whatever I want. So I just start just improv-ing left, right and center. Sometimes it’s too much, and I come off the stage and I’m thinking, yeah, that was probably a little bit too much! It’s just those simple moments when you actually interact and see the audience smile, see the audience dance and be joyous and happy, and that’s just the best.”
The nerves are still there – he meditates to manage them – but Kuzmin tells us that he never wants to lose those nerves completely. “Somebody said to me a very long time ago: the moment you stop being nervous or having that feeling in your stomach, you should just stop doing it, because then it’s just another thing that you’re just doing. 90% of the random things that I do in my life that I just get scared of, I just throw myself into them, because I love that adrenaline of not knowing exactly what’s going to happen.”
Speaking of not knowing exactly what’s going to happen, we got stuck in a lift with Kuzmin to chat about Kinder Buenos, the wonders of IKEA, and the times he’s actually been stuck in a lift. (Yes, apparently there was more than one.)
Who would you most want to be stuck in a lift with?
I would firstly pick, obviously, my close ones. But out of people who you may know, I would pick, actually, some of the Strictly guys, like my besties, Vito [Coppola], Carlos [Gu] and Jowita [Przystał], because we could just be chill, and nobody needs to speak to me if we are stuck in the lift for a long time. I thought for a second somebody funny as well… Ricky Gervais could be really hilarious to be stuck in the lift with, because he would just have this dark sense of humor about everything. But then again, I don’t know the guy well enough.
Who would you least want to be stuck in a lift with?
…I can’t say it. No, no, no, that’s way too mean. Basically, I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a lift with somebody who yaps too much, or who panics too much. Just chill, you know? Like we’re going to get out of the lift. It’s okay. It’s nothing. I’ve been stuck in a lift before, actually, a couple of times.
Really?!
What, do you think lifts in Ukraine work all the time?! My lift where I grew up was from the 1940s, and I’ve been stuck in that lift a couple of times. We have a special intercom and they come to save you, because they get stuck so often, and trust me, those lifts are nothing like you see in Europe or especially in the UK. Those lifts are dark and they are old, and they’ve been… I’m not going to say things here, because I’m trying to be very PG-friendly, but they’ve seen every single thing possibly available. They look terrible. They’re like horror movie lifts, I’m not going to lie. You get stuck in it as a kid and you just go, “Oh, okay, sure.”
How long would it take you to get out?
Usually it’s quite quick, like, 45 minutes, maybe an hour.
Yeah, just an hour in the horror movie lift.
I’m just usually very calm about stuff. Like, okay, cool, whatever’s gonna happen will happen, and if it doesn’t need to happen, it’s not gonna happen.
What’s the last live show you saw?
I think my last live concert was a month ago. It was Mumford & Sons. They did a returning gig. It was their first concert for 10 or 15 years, and it was absolutely sick. In terms of shows, I’ve been to a few of my colleagues’ tours…. Oh, it could have been Cabaret, or Hadestown as well. I think Hadestown was the last one. I love Hadestown. I love it.
What’s your guiltiest pleasure?
(Kuzmin holds up a half-eaten Kinder Bueno.)
I love them. Oh my gosh, I cannot stop myself. Listen, the good thing about Kinder Buenos… This is kind of weird advertising… Please, Kinder, sponsor me. If you want something with low calories but yummy as hell, Kinder Bueno. Both white chocolate and dark chocolate. Kinder Bueno has low calories, so that’s why it’s great. 111 calories. How great is that? And people don’t know. So I can have maybe two, and it doesn’t really impact me too much. I mean, it’s just the best.
This is a two-part question: who would you want to play you in a biopic, and who would realistically play you in a biopic?
I would love to be played by Leo DiCaprio. Abso-freaking-lutely. Oh, I would give my life away for that man. Realistically, who would play me? Probably nobody, really. Probably I would have to play myself, because nobody would accept the role, and it’s gonna end up being a YouTube short. It will not even make it on TikTok or Instagram. Listen, I love YouTube shorts, so I can’t even say that. I’m obsessed with YouTube shorts.
What did your 12-year-old self, think that you’d be doing at this point in your life?
I think dancing, actually. I was just reflecting about it today. I have never somehow questioned since I was four years old, what is my path or trajectory? I don’t know how that happened. Obviously, when I was a kid, my brain couldn’t comprehend that. But in those teenage years, up to the 20s, when you’re starting to have a thinking brain, I still never questioned it. I had one goal, and it was to win the world championship. Every single day, just that, from four up until I was 23 and I joined Strictly. I just don’t know how that happened. At 12, I would have said I’d still be dancing up until I’m like, 40. Obviously, I would have never said that I’d be doing television and all that jazz. But yeah, it’s just a wild thing. I think my mum installed that kind of belief, and she had the love of dance, and then I had my sister as well, who is a dancer, and both my parents have just been always very supportive. My granddad still wants me to get a real job today, so it’s a never-ending battle, but I’m still very lucky to have a lot of support from my family.
Have you ever had any other jobs other than dance?
I was a sort of dance fitness instructor in a Madonna gym when I was 18, and that was my first real job. But no, I started teaching when I was young, and that became my job straight away. I was teaching kids, teaching teenagers, teaching adults, and that kind of just rolled and spiraled into somehow me doing this today. I’m just rolling with it.
What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?
I think everybody’s so filled with Instagram quotes today that nobody even has bad advice. When people have told me “think about just yourself” it has never, ever resulted in a good thing. My head could get potentially a bit too high, and then I’m just not a good human being in some way. I try to surround myself with people who are very grounded all the time. Real people, local people. But just thinking about yourself is not good advice. My mom wouldn’t be proud of me if I if I took that advice.
Do you have any secret skills that no one knows about?
You see, the hard thing is that everybody knows everything about me by now. I know a lot of random facts. I’m not sure if this counts as a skill, though.
Do you have a specialist area of knowledge?
No, just the random-est things in the world. Like in the pub quiz, I’m pretty good sometimes, but again, random topics. I’m good at geography, but again that’s not a skill really. I know five languages, but people know that already.
Pub quiz is definitely a skill.
No, no, no. Listen, it’s just random things. You’re still going to lose with me! We’re going to lose badly. We’re going to be the last team but we will have guessed that one answer which nobody else did. When I get that one thing about what are the craters in the moon called, I freaking love it. The cleverest man alive. No, I don’t know. I probably have something going on for me, but I’m not sure about it right now.
Do you have any predictions for the rest of 2025?
You see, I’m extremely superstitious about everything. Socks, jewellery, every single thing. It’s superstitions everywhere, so I’m not sure how much I want to jinx it. I will just say it’s going to be a great year. It’s going to be filled with lots of love and fun. You see, I do know what I want. I do. It’s very clear in my head what I want from every single year for the next 10 years. I just try to really structure my mind like that. But I don’t like saying it. I can say it out loud in person, like if you would be sitting right here on the couch with me… I’ll just tell you, by the way, your couch looks very similar to mine.
IKEA?
Yeah, IKEA, yay! IKEA is the best! Hot dogs and meatballs. Love it. Listen, we’ve been going to IKEA since I was a kid. Love it. It’s the best thing in the world. Anyway, what were we chatting about? 2025 is going to be great. And, you know what? I’m going to go to IKEA still five more times this year.
