The technique, the hard work, and the passion all started at four years old for a tap dancing Chris Jarosz. Seventeen years later, now a senior dance major at SMU, Jarosz put his skills to the test and was vindicated as one of the top 20 young dancers in the nation on the Fox network’s summer reality show “So You Think You Can Dance”.

Jarosz played sports growing up as most children do, but was in a constant struggle, as he could not deny his love for dancing. When in high school Jarosz began to branch into different dancing styles and by his senior year, he knew that he had a deep passion for being footloose. After three years of dance training at SMU, the Fox reality show “So You Think You Can Dance,” which has a similar premise to the more widely known Fox reality show “American Idol,” held Dallas auditions at SMU, and Jarosz decided to offer up his dance moves. Going into the contest Jarosz was simply hoping to make it past the first “improv” auditions. “Going in, I was just hoping to make it to the second day so I could show my stuff in front of the actual judges. I was definitely shocked making it to the second say,” Jarosz said. Showing up at 6 a.m. the next day for his day two audition, Jarosz did not go on stage until 7:45 p.m. With a personal dance show he was participating in looming, Jarosz was almost forced to drop out. “I had a show at 8:00 p.m. that night. After the second auditions you were either cut, sent to the choreography round later that night or given a ticket straight to Vegas [the next round],” Jarosz said. “Had I had to go to the choreography round I would have had to drop out so I was just playing it by ear, but when I got sent straight through to Vegas that was simply amazing.” After making it to the finals, Jarosz said that all his free time disappeared, he was constantly dancing, and a day off was out of the picture. “It was really constant with no breaks, no days off, we just kept going,” Jarosz said. “After the results show [the finalists] would all go out to dinner but then it was right back into practices and dress rehearsals then the show, group dance and then the results show, and then repeated the cycle all over again.” While performing on the show, Jarosz tried to block out the fact that millions of people were watching him dance live on TV. “There was a studio audience at every show, and when we were live I just focused on that and my dancing and didn’t really let the idea of the millions of TV watchers creep into my mind,” Jarosz said. “If I had my nerves would have probably taken over and I don’t know what would have happened there.” Jarosz said that it was an amazing experience dancing with 19 of the other best young dancers in the nation, saying that he learned a lot, but one of the biggest challenges was to try and match styles with the other unique dancers. The show’s format involved every dancer having a partner and performing a different, randomly selected dance style every week, and with his partner Jarosz had to adapt to his style to fit the routine. “The Jive, I would say, was the hardest genre to adapt to. Traditionally I am not a ballroom dancer, so that was a little tough to pick up the technique,” Jarosz said. Jarosz also found it a little difficult to create chemistry with his partner out of thin air and in very little time. “You have to have that chemistry with your partner,” Jarosz said. “It was so hard for us to build that chemistry because me and my partner had that friendship chemistry but up on stage it looked almost a little forced. It was definitely a learning experience for me though.” After a run of dancing as one of the top dancers in the nation and representing himself, his city, and SMU, Jarosz was eliminated in the third elimination round, but had no qualms about it. “It was a great experience for me and I am so glad I did it,” Jarosz said. “Of course I didn’t want to go, but I am happy for all my friends on the show and am a better dancer for all that I learned from the other dancers and the show.” Jarosz viewed his time on the show as a learning experience and thought it would really help him in the pursuit of his career goals. The next step for Jarosz upon graduation to try out for dance companies in New York or Chicago and hopefully landing rolls in a dance movie or touring with an artist, whatever the future may hold. Jarosz’s memorable run on “Think You Can Dance” is over as finalists are not allowed to try out a second time. Jarosz said that the experience was without a doubt worth the effort, and was only possible because of the huge amount of support from his friends and family in Dallas.