Murtz On The Scene: Exclusive Tour Interview With So You Think You Can Dance 11‘s Ricky Ubeda & Valerie Rockey

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I had the chance to interview So You Think You Can Dance 11 winner Ricky Ubeda & runner-up Valerie Rockey 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. They revealed that this was their first time in Canada and also talked about why they thought fans connected with their partnership to the extent that they did. I asked them if they thought it had something to do with their styles being so different (with Ricky specializing in contemporary and Valerie’s genre being tap). Valerie revealed that they shared a special brotherly/sisterly bond. I offered Ricky my theory about his ‘Midas Touch.’ To clarify, he danced with Jessica in the Meet The Top 20 and she made it all the way to the finale. He partnered with Valerie for most of the competition and she made it all the way to the finale. As a result, I attempted to recruit Ricky as my partner for So You Think You Can Dance 12 as I figured he could also be my ticket to the finale! The finalists also chatted about relating to the audience and how important that is on a show like So You Think You Can Dance. As Ricky was so heavily favoured from the start of the competition, I asked him if he heard the buzz that he was who everyone was picking to win and if that added an extra degree of pressure to his performances. I also asked Valerie if she felt any pressure at being paired with the ‘golden goose.’ I talked to Ricky about how Season 11 differed from past installments of the series in the sense that it wasn’t about a hip hop dancer learning different techniques (which was the the case for the past couple of seasons) and primarily focused on dancers who were already trained. The pair also shared their favourite routines of the seasons.

After Jacque and Bridget tried to teach me a dance move and Zack and Jessica tried as well, I wanted to get a final lesson from the So You Think You Can Dance winner and runner-up. And yes, the irony of Ricky and Valerie teaching me a Bollywood move wasn’t lost on me but it just added to the hilarity of the situation. To see my final dance lesson, 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.