Think-you-can-dancers wow fans at E Center

WEST VALLEY CITY — More than a quarter billion votes were cast in season five of Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance?" and, from the sold-out status of Saturday night's 2009 tour performance, many of those votes were thanks to Utah's enthusiastic fan base.

Set up in the same format as the reality show dance competition, the show included commentary from host Cat Deeley, video clips of the season's worst dancers and live performances from the season's best dancers.

Caitlin Kinney and Phillip Chbeeb were special guests of the night, despite being eliminated from the show without reaching the top 10.

The 12 dancers opened the show with a somewhat rough first group number but kept the energy high as they introduced themselves to the audience.

Utah's own Randi Evans became emotional as she waved to a standing ovation and declared her hometown Orem.

"I've been waiting the whole tour to come home," said the 23-year-old Evans, who trained at Orem's Dance Club and was majoring in elementary education at Utah Valley University before making it onto the show.

"It's definitely very hard to be away from him (her husband) on tour — I'm glad to finally feel like I'm married again," Evans said.

Her married status led to playful teasing on the TV show after she and partner Evan Kasprzak performed the butt dance, a slow and sassy contemporary number that focused on Evans' backside.

The number was also an audience favorite of the night on Saturday, when Evans and Kasprzak flawlessly re-created the dance.

Other stand-out performances included the superhero dance, where rubber- and spandex-clad Melissa Sandvig, Kayla Radomski and Jeanine Mason danced to futuristic, robotlike music, and Jeanette Manrara and Ade Obayomi's hip-hop routine.

In the second half of the show, the group performed other favorites, including the tribute to breast cancer, the addiction number, and the duet including a necklace prop.

From the Bollywood-type number from Jason Glover and Caitlin Kinney to the "Twilight"-inspired vampire dance of Kupono Aweau and Kayla Radomski, the bonds the dancers have created since beginning the tour showed with each performance (the group likes to hang out on the bus and watch movies like "Kung Fu Panda" or "Hocus Pocus" at the end of the night).

And despite their rigorous practice schedule, the finalists try to get out to see the tour cities as much as they can: Saturday afternoon, group members entertained themselves shopping at The Gateway, where finalist Kupono Aweau was chased by a flock of screaming fans, said winner Jeanine Mason.

"We don't cause as much of a scene when two or three of us go out together, but when we go out as a group, we definitely cause some stares," Mason said.

Mason said the entire experience of trying out for and winning the show has been "amazing and surreal," and she still hasn't gotten used to some of the elements that go along with the reality show exposure — like people calling out her name on the street.

"It's weird because people know all these details about your lives and feel like they know you, but you don't know anything about them," she said.

As Evans said, the attention is startling, yet flattering.

"When people want my autograph, I still always think, 'Why? I'm just Randi.'  "

e-mail: bbrown@desnews.com