‘Dance’ Fever : So You Think You Can Dance Tour at the Taj

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The Top 10 finalists of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’  bring their boundless energy to the Taj Mahal. Interview with season 8 winner Melanie Moore.

By Michael Pritchard

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Sep. 28, 2011

The touring finalists of FOX TV's 'So You Think You Can Dance?'

Fox’s summer hit, So You Think You Can Dance? occupies a spot in the reality TV world somewhere between American Idol and let’s say, America’s Got Talent. 

The show, which recently completed its eighth season, is an American Idol-style show that highlights aspiring young dancers. Like its big brother (the show was created by Idol’s Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe), the show has spun off a national tour of its Top 10 finalists, which lands at the Trump Taj Mahal Friday, Sept. 30. 

The tour features all 10 of the Season 8 finalists, headed by winner Melanie Moore, a 19-year-old contemporary dancer who won the finals with 47 percent of the viewers votes (among the final four dancers).  

Moore spoke to Atlantic City Weekly last week and says she still doesn’t quite believe they called her name as the winner.  

“I was honestly so surprised,” she says. “I’ve said it so many times before, but I really thought it was going to be Sasha [Mallory, the second place finisher] just based on how much she grew through the course of the competition. She just opened up so completely. Everybody thinks though that: ‘Maybe it could be me.’ But I just didn’t want to put that in my head and just worry about dancing.” 

Moore, however, dazzled from her opening audition and was never in danger of elimination throughout the competition. Her “Statue” dance was one of the most memorable of the competition.  

But she says she was still nervous from week to week.  

“There’s always people who are labeled as the favorite, but they tend to not come out in the top spot, maybe because they didn’t grow as much as people want to see,” she says.  

“People like to go for the underdog and I didn’t really ever feel like the underdog, because I was never in trouble. ... But I really was just trying to keep my head above water every week and not put any more pressure on myself. I just tried to get with what I had that week and not think about the other weeks.” 

It was a strategy that paid off as Moore won $250,000, a sponsorship deal and, of course a boatload of opportunities.  

The former Fordham University student says she’s planning to move to Los Angeles and take some dancing jobs.  

“I’ll never turn down work,” she says. “Once you’re in, you’re in, but I do hope to return to school eventually.” 

In the meantime, one of those opportunities is this tour, which hits more than 30 cities in little more than seven weeks. 

“I have never toured nationally like this. It’s my very first one,” says Moore. “But I’m having such a blast. Everyone who has toured like this keeps telling us ‘Just wait, six weeks in your going to want to kill everyone.’ But all the rest of us are like “Oh My God, it’s like a big slumber party … We really do get along well. Everyone has such good energy. There haven’t been any serious problems. And if something does come up, we’ve all hammered everything out ourselves.” 

The show itself contains 50 separate dance numbers that range from solos to group dances. During the run of the TV show, Moore was consistently teamed with Marko Germar, but is now dancing with everybody. 

“Many of the numbers are people’s favorites from the show, so I knew who I would be teamed with in this show,” she says. “And that’s great because it’s always better when you know your partner. But there are also numbers where all 10 of us are out there at once and it’s very exciting. We really have a great time out there.” 

“And it’s so nice not to be in competition with each other anymore,” she says. “Nobody is judging us. We don’t have to worry about what [judges] Nigel or Mary [Murphy] are going to say. You can relax and just have some fun out there.” 

Moore promises fans will like that relaxed feel. With 10 dancers, all at the start of their careers and most barely 20 (the old man of the group is Todd Gaddaung at 25), there will be a lot of energy on the stage. 

“We’re very happy with the response we’ve been getting,” she says. “We’re having a great time out there and people really seem to enjoy it. We’ve gotten more than a few standing ovations. So I think people are really going to have some fun.”

The ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ - Live Tour Dancers: 

Jordan Casanova
Dance Specialty: Jazz
Hometown: Chino Hills, Calif. 
Currently Resides: Chino Hills, Calif. 
Age: 18  
Casanova lives in her hometown of Chino Hills, Calif. She graduated from Ruben S. Ayala High School in 2010, and has been dancing since she was eight years old. 

Tadd Gadduang 
Dance Specialty: Hip-Hop 
Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah 
Currently Resides: Salt Lake City, Utah 
Age: 25  
Gadduang began dancing at age 15 as a hobby, but eventually realized his passion for it after graduating from high school. He is currently in his sophomore year of college studying psychology. 

Marko Germar 
Dance Specialty: Jazz 
Hometown: Dededo, Guam 
Currently Resides: Canoga Park, Calif. 
Age: 22  
Originally from the South Pacific island of Guam, Germar moved to Los Angeles in 2008 to pursue a career in dance. He has had nine years of studio training. 

Ricky Jaime 
Dance Specialty: Contemporary 
Hometown: Miami, Fla. 
Currently Resides: Tampa, Fla. 
Age: 19  
Jaime graduated from Newsome High School in Lithia, FL, in June 2010. He would like to be a member of a professional ballet company in California, New York or Europe. 