BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Having proven that he can dance, there is only one week of competition left for Illinois Wesleyan University senior Evan Kasprzak, of West Bloomfield, Mich., before he finds out whether he is “America’s Favorite Dancer.”
Kasprzak, a music theatre major at IWU, has spent the summer competing with other dancers from around the nation on Fox TV’s “So You Think You Can Dance?,” an American Idol-style show where contenders dance on live TV for phone-in votes from the audience. Kasprzak and his brother, Ryan, both auditioned for the show in the spring, but Ryan was cut right before the top 20 dancers were established. Since then, Evan Kasprzak has performed every week for a live audience in Los Angeles, and viewers from around the U.S. have phoned in their votes on Wednesday evenings.
It was on July 30 that Kasprzak survived the final round of cuts to become one of the top four contestants on the show. Next week, he will dance for his position among the remaining two guys and two girls, hoping to win the first-place prize of $250,000 and the title of “America’s Favorite Dancer.” Notably, Kasprzak is the only competitor out of the top 20 who has not had to “dance for his life” on the Thursday night shows, because there have been sufficient votes for him to advance without impediment each week.
Whether he wins first place or not, Kasprzak will not be attending classes at Illinois Wesleyan during the fall semester, because he and the other top 12 dancers from the show will be part of a 40-city national tour. However, he has stated that he will return to campus in the spring to complete his bachelor of fine arts degree. This tour will perform in Champaign, Ill. on Sunday, Oct. 4 and in Chicago on Tuesday, Oct. 6. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.