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Courtney Galiano says she’s living a dancer’s dream by taking part in the 2008 “So You Think You Can Dance” tour that makes a stop Oct. 4 at the Reno Events Center. The tour features finalists from the popular Fox television show of the same name.
“I’ve always felt that dance was not recognized as highly as, say, singing and acting,” Galiano said by phone as she relaxed by the hotel pool in San Jose, Calif., on a rare off day. “I love that dance is now getting a chance to shine. And for me to be able to contribute to that is just amazing.”
Galiano, 20, finished fourth in the show’s recently completed fourth season. Although she was one of the most popular dancers on the show, Galiano wasn’t prepared for the reception she and her dance mates have been receiving on tour.
“There have been literally thousands of people holding signs for us, screaming for us,” she said. “It’s an unbelievable experience. I wish I could explain it in words.”
It’s not that Galiano is unnerved by large crowds. She spent the last two seasons as a New York Knicks dancer at Madison Square Garden. The difference is, on this tour the dancers are the star attraction.
“We were in Utah the other night — it is the home (state) for a couple of the dancers — and the crowd went berserk,” she said. “It was so overwhelming that I cried.”
She isn’t the only one. Joshua Allen was voted champion of the show’s fourth season by TV viewers. But despite overcoming the pressure of competing on television, Allen wasn’t prepared emotionally for the tour experience.
“It’s overwhelming sometimes,” he said, not knowing Galiano used the same word to describe it. “It’s hard to believe everyone is there to see you. Normally at a concert, you dance backup. Nobody really notices you. But here, we are the show. There are people screaming and crying — I’m not kidding — and they wait for us after the show. It’s just so cool.”
The tour shows also are different than dancing in front of judges on television.
“Oh my God, the pressure is so much different than the show,” Galiano said. “The pressure we have now is we just want to make it perfect for the audience. But we were fighting for our lives to stay there on the show. The stress level is different. But, physically, this tour is much harder on the body than the show was.”
The dancers practiced for 10 straight weeks without one day off, Galiano said. The final three weeks before the tour began Sept. 20 had the dancers rehearsing from 9 a.m. to about midnight daily, she said.
On the show, they were competitors. Now they are teammates.
“We push each other to stay on our ‘A’ game,” Allen said. “We’re really like a big family. I know it sounds cliché. But it’s true.”
The tour goes to 42 cities in two months. Each show is about two and a half hours, Galiano said. It features fan-favorite routines from the television show, as well as original numbers created for the tour. Dance styles include contemporary, hip-hop, ballroom, salsa, rumba, quickstep, jive and street styles such as krumping and popping.
Despite the large crowds, the show has an intimate feel, Galiano said. That’s because audiences got a chance to know the performers as human beings — not just dancers — on television.
“I think that’s a big part of the show’s popularity,” she said. “It’s real. It gives America a chance to look into your life and see how hard you work. It gives people a chance to know you. And what I’ve noticed is that the way people are on the show is the way they are in real life, too.”
With the National Basketball Association season starting in October, Galiano had to give up her position as Knicks dancer to go on tour.
“That’s pretty much a year-round job,” she said. “This is just so much fun and such a great opportunity. I live in New York, so I want to take acting lessons and singing lessons so I’m well-rounded. I believe that if I strive to do my best, good things will come.”
Allen also looks forward to what his future holds.
“My main thing is I want to be a recording artist,” he said. “I’d also love to do movies, get into acting. A long-term goal is to be a producer with my own label and own studio. I want to do a lot.”
As reigning champion, Allen says he takes some good-natured ribbing from his fellow dancers. He laughs it off, but he does take his title seriously.
“I definitely have to watch what I say now,” he said, laughing. “I feel I have a responsibility. I can’t say the same things I would have said before.”
But self-censorship is a small price to pay for the thrills of performing.
“Every time we go out there, I don’t know who gets more excited, the fans or us,” he said. “I get chills. I think we win.”
