With a second dancer leaving Fox’s hit show So You Think You Can Dance tonight, the final 11’s first eliminated contestant Alexie Agdeppa gave us the inside scoop on her run on the show.
Agdeppa competed with All-Star partner Stephen “Twitch” Boss in a hip-hop number. On the results show last Thursday, Agdeppa was revealed to be in the bottom three alongside Melinda Sullivan and Cristina Santana. After the bottom three danced their individual solos for the judges, the judges decided to send Agdeppa home.
“If I had made it another week, I would maybe put a little more tricks into my dance for my life solo,” Agdeppa said. “I have no idea. It’s hard to say because I did give me and I did give everything I had in my dance for my life solo.”
Agdeppa has previously tried to get on the show but never made it to the top 20, now top 11. She said once she made it on the show, it was a completely different experience than what she originally expected.
“You’re worrying about your performance,” Agdeppa said. “You’re worrying about remembering the steps. You’re worrying about all the people that you hope will vote for you, and it’s a really intense situation. It’s a lot more intense than I had could have imagined, but even more rewarding than I could have imagined too.”
Even though she was eliminated first, Agdeppa said dance is one of the most important parts of her life.
“It is something that is always going to be a part of me,” Agdeppa said. “I’ve been doing it since I was young, and luckily I’ve been able to perform. I’ve been able to share it with a lot of people, whether it be through the stage or on camera. And it is who I am. I know it sounds really corny, but I cannot imagine doing anything else. My heart and soul is into this, and when my body breaks down and I’m not going to be able to dance anymore, I’m still going to be related to it in some way, whether it be opening up a school or teaching.”
Before landing a spot in the top 11, Agdeppa had been in a Macy Gray video and taught dance at a studio in Southern California. Now that her stint on So You Think You Can Dance is over, she said she doesn’t want anything to change.
“I still want to be doing the same thing. I definitely want to book more shows. But eventually I do want to open up my own school, my own dance studio, and maybe dabble into a little more acting on the side because I do that on the side too.”
Agdeppa said she hopes this acting experience can land her roles in future dance films.
“Well, before I came into the competition, I did a couple of student films, and when I was younger, I was on a television show kind of like Barney,” Agdeppa said. “It was called the Hug-A-Bug Club and, since then, I had been taking acting lessons and stuff. I didn’t really delve deep into it just because I was so into dance. But definitely now, especially because there are a lot of dance movies coming out, I think it would be an awesome time for me to start to get more into that.”
As her time on the show is now over, Agdeppa said she doesn’t have any regrets and appreciates the entire experience.
“There’s only so much you can really do with the amount of time they give you to learn the routine, and you can only go out there with the confidence that you have in your pocket and do the best you can.”
