Murtz On The Scene: Exclusive Tour Interview With So You Think You Can Dance 11‘s Zack Everhart & Jessica Richens

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I had the chance to interview So You Think You Can Dance 11 finalists Zack Everhart & Jessica Richens on October 26, 2014 just before their Live! Tour Stop at Hamilton Place Theatre in Hamilton, Ontario.

In our interview, we discussed a variety of topics including what the tour has been like so far. I told the pair that I always called them ‘The Underdogs’ when the show was on because they seemed to always find themselves in danger during the first few live shows and battled all the way to the finale. I asked Jessica if she ever thought she would be in the finale with Ricky after first dancing with him in the Meet The Top 20 episode. I told Zack that I am thinking about creating a ‘Rise Of Tappers’ t-shirt line based on how the genre has really come into its own on So You Think You Can Dance given the success he shared with Valerie Rockey this season and Aaron Turner making it into the finale last year. I asked him what he attributed this to. I read Jessica Richens a roll call of all the different partners she danced with prior to making it into the finale and asked her and I asked her if this gave her an edge heading into the Top 10 as she could partner with any All-Star and it would just be more of what she was used to (dancing with somebody new) whereas the other dancers had to break away from the comfort of dancing with their usual partner. Zack then discussed what it was like to get used to dancing with Jacque only to have to adjust to the new All-Stars he was paired week when he made it into the Top 10. I told Zack that he had fooled me because after reading his resume, I learned that he was well-versed in many styles and wasn’t just the tap dancer that he was portrayed as. I asked them what their favourite city on the tour has been and they also shared their best moment since they began their extended road trip. The pair also updated me on their post-tour plans.

After Zack and Jessica previously attempted to teach me a dance move on The Murtz Show, I asked them if I could get another in-person lesson. I also told them that I couldn’t pick up the ballet move that Jacque and Bridget tried to teach me but was hoping I would have an easier time with theirs. To find out how it went, check out the video above!

The So You Think You Can Dance 2014 Live! Tour runs until February 12. For a full list of participating cities and ticket information, please visit fox.com/dance

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.