List of So You Think You Can Dance finalists (U.S. season 4)
Season four of the United States version of So You Think You Can Dance ran from May 22, 2008, to August 7, 2008.
Joshua Allen
Joshua Allen was the overall winner of the Season 4 competition. He was partnered with Katee Shean for the first five weeks of the competition.
Rayven Armijo
Rayven Armijo is a ballet dancer who was eliminated in week 1 along with Jamie Bayard.
Jamie Bayard
Jamie Ray Bayard is a Latin ballroom and Swing dancer. He was partnered with Rayven Armijo who was also eliminated in the first week.
He was a childhood dance partner of Season 3's Lacey Schwimmer.
Stephen "tWitch" Boss
tWitch first auditioned in Season 2 and again in Season 3 before he was selected to compete in the Top Twenty in Season 4. He came second in the competition to fellow Hip-hop dancer, Joshua Allen.
In season 5, tWitch returned to So You Think You Can Dance with fellow season 4 contestant Katee Shean to perform their Emmy-nominated piece "Mercy", choreographed by Mia Michaels. He was one of the 11 "All Stars" for season 7.
tWitch served as a frequent All Star in Seasons 7, 8 and Season 9 of So You Think You Can Dance performing many memorable routines, including the hip hop number "Outta Your Mind" with ballet dancer Alex Wong, which was then reprised by comedian Ellen DeGeneres in Season 7's finale.
Marquis Cunningham
Marquis Antoine Cunningham (born July 19, 1989) was paired with Susie Garcia and was eliminated in the second week.
He is currently performing in Cirque du Soleil's Viva Elvis in Las Vegas.
Matt Dorame
Matthew Patrick Dorame (born April 11, 1986) is a contemporary dancer from Glendale, Arizona. He was eliminated by the judges during Top 14 week along with his partner, Kourtni Lind. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, he has been dancing since he was 7 years old. Dorame trained at The Dance Connection dance studio for seven years. Dorame attended Arizona School for the Arts, where he studied ballet for four years, and summer ballet intensives at the American Ballet Theater, Boston Ballet, and The Rock School. He has also been training for the past two years at the prestigious Odyssey Dance Theater along with fellow finalist Thayne Jasperson in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also was featured in the film The American Mall as a dancer/employee.
Comfort Fedoke
Comfort Ogheneruro Fedoke was born May 20, 1988, in Fort Worth, Texas and was raised in Lagos, Nigeria until she returned to the United States at age 8. She lived in Plymouth, Minnesota for three years before settling in Carrollton, Texas.
Fedoke, a former track and field athlete, began dancing after an injury forced her out of the competitive sports scene. She learned hip hop dancing from watching videos and then began to session with her brothers to further hone her craft. Her father enrolled her in Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts midway into her sophomore year, where she received training in tap, ballet, and jazz. She only had two and a half years of training before making it on to the show. She auditioned with two of her brothers and eventual winner Joshua Allen.
Fedoke was eliminated in the fifth week, but brought back the following week when Jessica King was cut from the show, having been sidelined due to an injury she suffered which, according to her doctor, required four to six weeks of rest.[1] Comfort survived another week before being eliminated in the seventh week, making her the only competitor to be eliminated twice from the competition in any season. She also has the most appearances and most consecutive appearances in the bottom 3 or 4 in the show's history, beating Lauren Gottlieb with a total of 6 times.
Comfort was later seen in T-Pain's video "Freeze" and in Ludacris's "What Them Girls Like". She was also featured in Lee Jung Hyun's music video for "Crazy", which was released in Korea in May 2009 and was choreographed by Brian Friedman. Comfort was a dancer in The King of Pop Michael Jackson Tribute Tour in Germany, 2009.[2]
In 2009 she performed uncredited as a reform school girl in the "Bootylicious" number in the "Hairography" episode of the television show Glee.[3] Comfort was also part of the chorus of musical number in "Suits", the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother in 2009.[4]
Comfort was cast in Season 7 as an All-Star.[5] She has also returned as an All-Star in Season 8.
In 2011, she was featured in the music video for Jason Derulo's hit single "Don't Wanna Go Home" in 2011. Comfort is also set to appear in Honey 2 and the remake of Footloose, both of which are due to be released in 2011.
Susie Garcia
Susana "Susie" Garcia (born 1983) is a high school teacher and salsa dancer from Miami, Florida. Prior to auditioning for Season 4, Suzie used to be a dancer for the Miami Heat. She auditioned in Milwaukee.
Garcia was eliminated in week 2 of the competition with her partner Marquis Cunningham.
Courtney Galiano
Courtney Ann Galiano (born June 12, 1988) is a contemporary dancer from Commack, New York. When Courtney was younger, she danced at North East Dance Academy. A Knicks City Dancer, she started dancing as Little Bo Peep at the age of 3. She has trained in lyrical dance, tap, jazz, ballet and hip hop. Galiano attended Manhattan College before transferring to St. Joseph's College and now studies childhood education. She appeared in the music video for Kat Deluna's single Whine Up. She appeared in a Clearasil/America's Best Dance Crew Sweepstakes commercial. Galiano, along with fellow Season 4 contestants Chelsie Hightower and Katee Shean, modeled for Cliche Cosmetics, an online make-up Web site for dancers.
On the Disney Channel, Courtney performed a dance video for the Hannah Montana movie called "Hoedown Throwdown" with Katee Shean, and danced in the movie Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. She is also in a Jonas Brothers' YouTube video entitled "Bounce".
Galiano also appeared in the SYTYCD: Get Fit fitness DVD. She is also featured in the video "Prende" by Daddy Yankee. She also did the choreography along with Jason Glover in the season 7 auditions.
She was cast in Season 7 as an All-Star.
She was also one of the dancers for Vocal Adrenaline in the Glee finale, as well as in the "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" number in "Funk". she also appeared as one of the dancers in Glee: The 3D Concert Movie.
On September 20, 2011, she appeared in the Season 3 premier of Glee as a member of the "Skanks".
On December 6, 2011, she began appearing on Glee as a member of the all-girl group "The Troubletones" performing in both Sectionals and Regionals.
Courtney co-starred as Lisa alongside Al Pacino in the movie Stand Up Guys, released February 1, 2013.
Courtney is featured in the VH1 television drama series Hit The Floor as a member of the Devil Girls.
After suffering numbness in extremities during and following the season 7 SYTYCD tour, Galiano was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, briefly losing vision in one eye; she went public with her diagnosis in early 2012,[6] and has since devoted significant time and energy to MS research fundraising. Nigel Lythgoe publicized Courtney's diagnosis when Galiano was selected as one of six SYTYCD All-Stars to choreograph routines for their respective contestants on the show's 20 August 2013 episode.
Chelsie Hightower
Chris Jarosz
Christopher Daniel Jarosz was born July 3, 1986, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He danced with Comfort Fedoke and was eliminated on June 25, 2008. Jarosz graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
He is currently performing in Cirque du Soleil's Viva Elvis in Las Vegas. He was featured in the cast when they performed on Dancing with the Stars, May 4, 2010.
Thayne Jasperson
Thayne Jasperson was born in Provo, UT July 27. He grew up in parts of Wyoming and Utah. He started dance late in life but has been quickly successful in his art. He danced professionally for 6 years with Odyssey Dance Theatre of Utah. He was a Brainiac in High School Musical. He was a featured dancer in High School Musical 2 (What Time is it?) and a Dayplayer/ Featured Dancer in MTV's American Mall.
Thayne has also done various musicals as he is not only able to dance but sing and act as well. He recently played Ren McCormick in an equity production of Footloose. He has played MungoJerrie (Cats), Courier (1776), Andy Lee (42nd Street) and was the Seasons of Love Soloist in a concert version of (Selections of Rent).
Thayne has done various choreographic work for company Odyssey Dance Theatre as well as Odyssey 2. For his work in Odyssey's "Can Can Club" formerly known as "Moulin Rouge", Thayne received rave reviews from the New York Times. He continues to teach and choreograph. He has sung the National Anthem at a Utah Jazz vs Chicago Bulls game and for the Roadrunners baseball team.
In March, 2012, Thayne joined the Broadway cast of Disney's Newsies: The Musical. Alongside him are fellow SYTYCD alumni; Alex Wong, Evan Kasprzak, and Jess LeProtto.[7]
In April 2013, Thayne was part of the original Broadway cast of the RSC's Matilda The Musical.
Thayne was in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton at the Public Theater and has been part of the Original Broadway Cast since previews in July 2015.
Mark Kanemura
Mark Kanemura (born September 17, 1983) is a contemporary and jazz dancer from Kaneohe, Hawaii, whose sister taught him his first dance moves.
He was paired with Chelsie Hightower until top 10 week. He was eliminated on July 31, 2008 along with Hightower, his original partner. He has since made an appearance in Lil Mama's music video "Truly in Love".
On July 30, 2009, Kanemura returned to So You Think You Can Dance with his former partner Hightower to perform their Emmy-nominated piece, "Bleeding Love".
On September 13, 2009, Kanemura appeared on the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards in the Lady Gaga performance of the song "Paparazzi." Mark is also a dancer on Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Tour.[8] Mark can also be seen as a dancer in Gaga's "Telephone", "Alejandro", "Born This Way", "Judas", and "Marry the Night" music videos, as well as Janet Jackson's "Make Me" music video.
On September 20, 2009, Mark appeared on the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards performing to a choreographed number by Napoleon and Tabitha D'umo.
On December 7, 2009, he was a dancer in Carrie Underwood's: An All-Star Holiday Special.
He was cast in Season 7 as an All-Star.
On September 28, 2010, Mark appeared on the Britney Spears-themed episode of the Fox musical comedy-drama series, Glee, as a dancer in both the "I'm a Slave 4 U" and "Me Against the Music" numbers.
On October 26, 2010, Mark appeared as a back-up dancer for Kylie Minogue on Dancing with the Stars.
Mark has also appeared as a background dancer in several episodes of Nickelodeon's The Fresh Beat Band.
He has appeared as a dancer for Katy Perry at the 2010 American Music Awards performing to her song "Firework" .
Mark has then gone on tour dancing with Lady Gaga on the Monster Ball Tour and is considered as one of Lady Gaga's favorite dancers. Mark also appeared with Lady Gaga on the 2011 season finale episode of Saturday Night Live and also on a string of promotional dates in the UK prior to the release of Lady Gaga's album "Born This Way", Mark also performed with Lady Gaga on the American Idol results show which aired on 25 May 2011, during "The Edge Of Glory" where Mark and Gaga feature as the two most prominent people on the elaborate stage.
In 2012, Mark continued to tour worldwide with Lady Gaga on her Born This Way Ball tour, and was also prominently featured in both commercial and print ads for Gaga's Fame perfume.
In 2013, he appeared in Season 10 as an All-Star choreographing a Jazz routine which he performed with ballroom dancer Jenna Johnson.
Jessica King
For the Wisconsin Senator, see Jessica King (Wisconsin politician)
Jessica Careen King is a dancer from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. An injury during week 6 of the competition forced her to leave the competition early.
King previously auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance in the third season, but did not make the top 20. She re-auditioned and ultimately made the top 20 for Season 4, where she was paired with contemporary dancer William Wingfield. On July 14, 2008, King suffered several broken ribs and was forced to bow out of the competition. Her spot was given to Comfort Fedoke, who had been eliminated the previous week.
King is a Visual Arts Major at Coastal Carolina University and has been taking formal dance lessons within various styles including tap, jazz, ballet, hip hop and contemporary since the age of three. On July 30, 2009, King returned to the show with her former So You Think You Can Dance partner William Wingfield to perform their Emmy-winning routine "Adam and Eve" choreographed by Tyce Diorio.
She is also backup dancing for Lady Gaga, which can be seen on the 2009 VMAs.
Kourtni Lind
Kourtni Josephine Lind (born November 9, 1989) is from Forest Lake, Minnesota. She started dancing at age 3, focusing on contemporary, jazz, ballet, and tap. She also trained in musical theatre, pointe, and hip-hop. She auditioned at Milwaukee. She was paired with Matt Dorame and was eliminated on July 3, 2008.
In 2009, Kourtni played the role of Dream Amber in Dirty Step Upstage, an indie-film starring and directed by Amber Moelter.
Gev Manoukian
Gevorg Manoukian (born September 15, 1986) is a 22-year-old, Armenian/Russian hip hop and break dancer. Originally from Kazakhstan, Manoukian is now living in Centerville, Utah. He performed in High School Musical 2.[9]
Manoukian first auditioned for season 2 and made it to Vegas, but his lack of versatility kept him out of the top 20. He then auditioned for season 4 and qualified as a finalist, beating out future season 5 runner up Brandon Bryant. He was paired with Courtney Galiano. He was eliminated in the top 10. Manoukian was also in the MTV musical American Mall.
In November 2010, Gev performed at the 2010 American Music Awards with Pink to her hit song "Raise Your Glass".
Kherington Payne
Katee Shean
Katee Taira Shean (born May 14, 1988) is a contemporary dancer from San Jose, California. She has been taking formal dance lessons since she was 4 years old and trained at the Teen Dance Company and Atlas School of Dance with ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, pointe, and modern. She has been teaching at South County Classical Ballet for just over a year now with fellow finalist, Stephen "tWitch" Boss.
Shean was born in San Jose, California and graduated from Pioneer High School in 2006. She currently attends Chapman University, where she is pursuing a double major in leadership and dance and is active in many volunteer organizations. Sometime after the So You Think You Can Dance tour, Katee moved to Los Angeles along with Comfort Fedoke and Courtney Galiano.
Shean also auditioned for Season 3 of So You Think You Can Dance but was cut on the final day of Vegas week.[10]
She and Joshua Allen were the only two contestants in their season to make the final four without an appearance in the Bottom 3 couples, or Bottom 4 contestants.[10]
Shean was the second contestant eliminated on the season finale, but as the highest placing female dancer, was awarded $50,000.
On July 30, 2009, Shean returned to So You Think You Can Dance with fellow Season 4 contestant Stephen "tWitch" Boss to perform their Emmy-nominated piece, "Mercy", choreographed by Mia Michaels.
Shean, along with former Season 4 contestants Courtney Galiano and Chelsie Hightower modeled for Cliche Cosmetics, a make-up Web site marketed for dancers.
Katee's danced for numerous artists like Jennifer Lopez, Kesha and Rihanna in music videos, TV and award shows.
On September 20, 2009, Katee was reunited with Joshua and appeared on the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards performing to a choreographed number by Napoleon and Tabitha D'umo.
In November, Katee, along with Comfort Fedoke and Kherington Payne performed as reform school girls in the "Bootylicious" number in the "Hairography" episode of the television show Glee.[11]
Katee, along with fellow SYTYCD contestants Courtney Galiano, Kherington Payne and Sara Von Gillern will appear as checkout girls in the upcoming indie-movie musical Leading Ladies, starring Melanie LaPatin and Benji Schwimmer.[12]
In July 2010, Shean temporarily replaced all-star Allison Holker, who was unable to perform due to a rib injury. Shean partnered season 7 contestant Billy Bell, in a Broadway routine choreographed by Spencer Liff.
Katee and fellow Season 4 contestant William Wingfield choreographed and taught the "choreography round" in the Season 8 audition episodes.
In 2012, Katee was announced to be a "Fly Girl" for the reboot of In Living Color. But plans changed when it was announced that they would not be going through with the show plans for a reboot and all plans were cancelled.
Katee choreographed the upcoming danced-themed film Stepping High, featuring SYTYCD alums Kent Boyd and Ryan Ramirez as dance leads. The film is produced by Harmony Gold, and will be in limited release June 2013.
Chelsea Traille
Chelsea Traille (born March 8, 1985) was eliminated during the Top 16 week. She has been dancing since she was 3 years old and is trained in ballet, jazz, and tap. Traille was a special guest on the So You Think You Can Dance national tour. She also performed on the March 17, 2009 episode of Dancing with the Stars during the Macy's Stars of Dance performance. She co-stars as 'Coco' in the film Burlesque alongside Christina Aguilera and Cher, released fall of 2010. She also took part in music videos for 'All The Right Moves' by OneRepublic, and 'Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)' by Shakira for FIFA 2010. Traille is currently working on pilots for Disney.
William Wingfield
William B. Wingfield (born March 7, 1986) is a dancer from Nashville, Tennessee. He started dancing at the age of 9. He has trained with Debbie Allen.[13] Due to the inclusion of Wingfield in the top 20, Debbie Allen was barred from judging as long as Wingfield remained in the competition. He was voted off of the competition on July 24, 2008, making it to the Top 8. Before competing in So You Think You Can Dance, William was a singer and dancer in Celine Dion's show, A New Day, at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.
On July 30, 2009, Wingfield returned to So You Think You Can Dance with fellow Season 4 contestant and partner Jessica King to perform their (at the time) Emmy-nominated piece "Adam and Eve", choreographed by Tyce Diorio. Diorio proceeded to win the Emmy for his choreography. Adam Shankman has described Will as one of four elite dancers to appear on So You Think You Can Dance, along with Travis Wall, Danny Tidwell and Kayla Radomski. In late 2009, Will joined the cast of In The Heights on Broadway, in which he played the role of Graffiti Pete.[14] Will was also featured on the cover of Dance Magazine's January 2010 issue, in their '25-To-Watch' list.[15]
In August 2010, he performed a dance entitled "Duet" on the Web series Legion of Extraordinary Dancers,[16] which was released on Hulu.[17]
Will and fellow Season 4 finalist Katee Shean choreographed and taught the "choreography round" in season 8 audition episodes.
In September 2012, William returned as an All Star on Season 9 of So You Think You Can Dance, partnering Tiffany Maher in a Sonya Tayeh jazz number. William was also a featured dancer in the 2012 movie musical Rock Of Ages.
William Wingfield, alongside Kathryn McCormick, are the dancers in Muse's new music video "Dead Inside" from their album Drones, which is being released on June 5, 2015. The video was posted on April 28, 2015.
References
- ↑ Mysterious 'Dance' injury gives Comfort new hope
- ↑
- ↑ Comfort Fedoke at the Internet Movie Database
- ↑
- ↑ Comfort Fedoke added to So You Think You Can Dance All-Stars Rickey.org April 8, 2010
- ↑ Galiano, Courtney (6 September 2012). "A Difficult Diagnosis". Dance Spirit Magazine. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
- ↑ http://ibdb.com/production.php?id=491210
- ↑ http://au.launch.yahoo.com/galleries/gallery/-/lady-gaga-concert/6953421/#gallery
- ↑ Gev Manoukian
- 1 2 Hyper Stars: So Joshua Can Dance
- ↑ SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE Meets GLEE: Katee Shean, Kherington Payne, and Comfort Fedoke Guest Star
- ↑ Leading Ladies (official site)
- ↑ CTV.ca - William Wingfield-SYTYCD Season Four Bio- CTV News, Shows and Sports - Canadian Television
- ↑ William B. Wingfield, currently playing Graffiti Pete in In the Heights - Time Out New York
- ↑ DANCE MAGAZINE's 25-To-Watch List (2010)
- ↑ "The LXD". Facebook. Retrieved 2010-08-06.
- ↑ "The LXD: Duet". LXD Ventures, LLC. Archived from the original on August 5, 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-06.
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