From Deseret News archives:
Bit of fame fun, weird for 4 Utah dancers
Fame.
Matt Dorame, Chelsie Hightower, Thayne Jasperson and Gev Manoukian aren't about to get stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but their twice-weekly appearances on the hit Fox series are getting them recognized.
"Last night, I went to a restaurant and one of the waitresses came up and said, 'I'm sorry. I don't want to bother you. But aren't you Thayne from 'So You Think You Can Dance'?" said Jasperson, 27, from Springville. "It was cute."
"It's funny because it's always little girls, and they get so excited," laughed Dorame, 22, an Arizona native who's danced with Odyssey Dance Theatre for the past two years. "It's so funny that you make someone so excited. It's a little weird and it takes some getting used to that people want to take a picture with you, but it's really nice."
Hightower, an 18-year-old ballroom dancer from Orem, hasn't quite adjusted to being recognized.
"It's just weird because I feel so normal. I feel like I'm just the same as them," Hightower said. "I mean, it's fun. But it's weird."
"I wasn't really expecting it, but it's definitely fun. It's something I'd love to get used to," laughed Manoukian, 21, a native of Kazakhstan who lives in Centerville and attends the University of Utah. "It means that they're watching and they like what you're doing. It's really cool.
"But the more you stay on the show, the more people recognize you."
Staying on the show is the hard part. The dancers perform on Wednesdays (7 p.m., Ch. 13), viewers cast their votes; on Thursdays (8 p.m., Ch. 13), the six members of the three couples with the fewest votes perform solos and the judges send one boy and one girl home.
In the three weeks since the top 20 were selected, Hightower and Manoukian have never been in the dreaded "bottom three." Dorame and Jasperson, on the other hand, have each been in the bottom three twice. Jasperson has been there two weeks in a row.
All four agree that waiting to be told how the voting went is the worst part of "So You Think You Can Dance."
Recent comments
Dave:
Look in the mirror. If you look like those dancers, change...
Look in the mirror | July 2, 2008 at 4:50 p.m.
The word "goofy" is too nice, the clothes are worse than goofy.
Being PC | July 2, 2008 at 4:48 p.m.
I'm very proud of these dancers. I never watched "Dance" until my...
James H. | July 2, 2008 at 4:03 p.m.
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