Will anyone from Beehive State emerge as finalist on 'Dance'?
But Utah definitely has had more than its share of dancers on TV shows in the past couple of years, which is a big part of the reason "So You Think You Can Dance" brought its auditions to Salt Lake City back in February.
After all, not only was last year's winner, Sabra Johnson, a Utahn, but Utahns Allison Holker and Jaymz Tuaileva were both finalists two seasons ago. Not only did Utahn Marie Osmond finish third on "Dancing With the Stars" last fall, but sometime Utahn Apolo Anton Ohno won it a year ago. And don't forget that his partner, Julianne Hough, is from Utah. She's won it twice (with Ohno and with Helio Castroneves).
Other Utahns who've danced with "Stars" include Hough's brother, Derek, Ashley Del Grosso, Louis van Amstel and Andrea Hale.
Utahn Zack Wilson was a member of the winning team on "Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann"; Utahn Mariel Sarangay was a member of the losing team.
"I guess because of the weather and all those kinds of things, you do kind of practice dancing, I guess," said Cat Deeley, host of "So You Think You Can Dance." "To be honest, I have no idea what it is."
But isn't that sort of odd that a state that has only about .85 percent of the total U.S. population has so many TV dancers?
"It doesn't strike me odd when you see people starting at such a young age here," said "So You Think" judge Mary Murphy. "They're getting very good training starting out young. Ten years ago in this country, you didn't see that so much."
"I think it also has something to do with the Mormon society," said Nigel Lythgoe, who's both a judge and the executive producer of "Dance" (as well as "American Idol") "That you have got a community and you've got families where dancing together is not (frowned) upon."
He said that in "a lot of other areas," people don't grow up dancing together. But in Utah, "They can actually take each other into each other's arms and it's not classed as being bad. And that's something that I would like to see coming back far more, because it does help with communication in this world. Great thing to do."
"I know it's a great dance community and a varied dance community across the board," said supervising producer Jeff Thacker. "It's nice to see an area where it is supported."
The producers of "So You Think You Can Dance" have been so impressed with the talent they've seen from Utah that they came here specifically because they wanted to make it easier for locals to audition.
"We're hoping that by bringing the auditions back here, that maybe we'd catch a few people as well who wouldn't necessarily travel and go to a different place," said Deely. "It seems as though we've got some really gorgeous people here, too."
Recent comments
YAY! I love SYTYCD! I'm so excited to see the Utah auditions...
Stenar | May 16, 2008 at 5:24 a.m.
