Joshua Allen was waiting for Twitch Boss to be named "America's Favorite Dancer" until it was his own name that escaped Cat Deeley's lips as So You Think You Can Dance's fourth-season champ.

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"I was just really shocked.  I was waiting for her to say Twitch's name because I knew a lot of people love Twitch," Allen told Reality TV World during a Friday conference call.  "It was really just overwhelming and I was really just overjoyed.  I was so happy."

While winning was always in the back of Allen's mind, he said it wasn't something he expected.

"We always hoped that we would [win], but you never really know if you would," he explained to Reality TV World.  "I would always hope, but it was so crazy.  In a way, kind of I didn't [expect to], but I would always hope for the best."

The best happened when the 19-year-old hip hop/popping dancer from Fort Worth, TX took home So You Think You Can Dance's fourth-season title based on home viewer votes cast after Wednesday night's final performance episode.

One of the main reasons Allen's win could be considered a surprise is because he was a late bloomer when it came to dance.

"I was really a sports fan.  I would always run track and I was the varsity running back in high school," he told reporters during the conference call.  "I would play sports mostly, dance wasn't that big for me.  I was really a sports person."

Around the age of 10 Allen said he started to take dance classes, however it was only a summer endeavor and he was never technically trained.

"I took modern class, I took ballet classes and I took some jazz classes.  But I wasn't technically trained like [fellow finalists William Wingfield, Mark Kanemura and Matt Dorame].  I just took class and I knew what everything was," he told reporters. 

"I didn't want to go into the competition dumbfounded and act like I didn't know what nothing was.  I felt like if you want to be a well-rounded dancer, than you should know a lot of different styles of dance.  So I took classes, but I wasn't a technically trained dancer."

Allen made So You Think You Can Dance's Top 20 and was paired with Katee Shean for the first five weeks of the competition.  The duo were the only two finalists who never found themselves among the bottom vote getters and both subsequently made the Top 4.

"We're just really cool friends.  When we get onstage, we're really not ourselves.  We tap into that person that we're supposed to be portraying.  I think that's why we were such a good couple -- we would literally go and be that person we were supposed to be," explained Allen.  "It was really just committing a lot, so I think that helped us a lot."

Still, Allen said it wasn't always easy.

"We've been through a lot together.  We struggled through a lot of stuff," he said.  "We don't get the dances perfect every time.  Just going through being frustrated about not getting the dance the way we wanted, even the little things.  We've been through a lot, just the competition."

While Allen took home the title instead of Shean, she still received a $50,000 prize for being the fourth-season's top female finalist.

"I was so, so, so happy for her.  I was so happy for her," said Allen of Shean's prize.  "I didn't want her to walk away empty handed.  She wasn't going to walk away empty handed period, but I just really wanted her to have something and walk away with something."

In addition to standing onstage together when the final results were revealed, Allen and Boss shared another similarity -- as both were hospitalized and treated for dehydration over the weekend.

"We do dance a lot of hours and it wasn't that big of a deal," Allen told Reality TV World. 

"We really thought we were okay and we're fine now.  We just really forgot to drink and replenish our bodies because we were so concentrated on having such a good show and doing such a good job.  But everything is fine though."

In fact, Allen said he and Boss' hospitalization made their Russian Trepak performance during Wednesday night's pre-taped episode all the more sweeter.

"We were really happy with the performance given the fact that we were in the hospital the night before," said Allen before explaining the two were also hoping for hip-hop, not the Trepak. 

"We were expecting to do a hip-hop number, and when we got there we were like, 'Oh my God!  How can we pull this off? Is it going to be as good as people want it to be?'  We really wanted hip-hop.  But when we got this we were like, 'We have to make due with it.'  It came off really good.  We did really good, I felt.  We had fun."

Needless to say, the whole experience of being hospitalized and still being able to tackle something as difficult as the Trepak taught Allen a lesson about the drive to succeed.

"Whenever you feel like you're exhausted and you can't give anymore, you have a lot more to give," he told reporters.  "The show pushes you that hard.  We didn't know our limits and this show pushes you to your limit and it doesn't except anything less than your best.  I'm such more of a better dancer now than I was before I started the competition it's ridiculous."

Allen also underwent a physical change on the cusp of reaching the finale when he had his braces removed.

"I was so happy.  One of the producers came to me and said, 'My friend said he thinks he can get your braces off.'  I was like, 'What!?  Really?!  Let's go now!  Let's do that now!'" said Allen.  "So the next day I went at like 6AM, got them off and got my retainers.  I was so happy.  I was licking my teeth the whole time.  It was cool, and it made me feel a lot more confident in my smile because sometime I would be nervous to smile."

For winning So You Think You Can Dance, Allen received a $250,000 cash prize

"I'm going to invest it and save it and try to make it grow so I can be comfortable in the near future," he said.

In addition, Allen also received a "featured dancing role" in Hairspray director Adam Shankman's new Step Up 3D film.

"I know it's a really good impact dance movie.  I'm really excited," Allen told reporters.  "Not in a million years [did I think] I was going to be on [Step Up 3D].  I always hoped, but I never thought I'd be doing it.  So this is such a blessing for me."

Allen's immediate plans mostly center around him embarking on So You Think You Can Dance's 40-city North American tour, which will kick-off September 20 in Tacoma, WA.

"I'm really excited.  I've never been on a tour experience.  I've only been, of course, to Texas where I live and L.A.," he said.  "I haven't been a lot of different other places.  So this is going to be so cool to go to all these different other cities."

While a future in dancing is almost a given, Allen said he wouldn't mind branching out and showing his vocal skills.

"I really want to pursue that a lot.  I really want to be a recording artist a lot," he said.  "Hopefully a record company likes me and I'll jump on it.  Hopefully something comes out of it and everybody loves what they hear."

Overall, Allen said he's going to live by something his mom told him.

"My mom told me the sky's the limit, and it is," he told reporters.  "Just accomplishing more goals in life, just doing everything that I always dreamed to do.  Keeping my name out there and just having so much fun.  Everything that I want to do I hope it comes true for me.  I worked so hard
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio

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