Asian Guys in So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 Top 20

Throughout the audition weeks and especially in Las Vegas, Asian faces (and bodies) go by in a blur. I couldn’t really remember the guys’ names and lamented for split seconds when some guys we barely knew were cut pretty early. As one of the few Asian girls, and because she was briefly profiled with Virgil/Lil’O as the shortest and cutest pair of dancers, Jessica Watanabe stood out but I think she was cut amongst the Las Vegas rounds. Sniff.

But to our pleasure and surprise, two Asian guys made it to the So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 Top 20 and here is all the information I can round up at 2a.m. in the morning.

Tadd Gadduang is a 25-year-old breakdancer (B-Boy) born and raised in Salt Lake City, UT. He is currently in his sophomore year of college studying psychology and I gather his family is from the Phillippines since he trained in the Filipino martial art of Kali when he was younger. He started dancing only when he was 15 and has had no formal training yet has a professional resume going with dance appearances in some Disney TV movie musicals. He’s got a Facebook page and I am such an oldster I find it adorable so see how the SYTYC Dancers are FB friends with each other.

Marko Germar is a 22-year-old contemporary/jazz dancer from Canoga Park, CA, but originally from Guam (a small island U.S. territory in the west Pacific Ocean, west of the Phillippines). In his interview in the audition episode, he told the audience that he was shot in the arm during a robbery in 2009 and the bullet is still lodged in his arm–you can see the scar where it entered in this photo to the right. His dance training started at age 10 and spans 9 non-consecutive years back in Guam covering all the genres: jazz, ballet, tap, hip-hop, ballroom, and gymnastics. Up until SYTYCD, he was working in the Aladdin musical in Disneyland and, reading between the lines, he’s given up a lot (like leaving Guam for the U.S.) in the name of dance. I can see he’s all set up with a Facebook page and (protected) Twitter account.

In the Top 20 Reveal episode, Marko had the unique opportunity to dance with three other contemporary dancers (all girls) in one freaky Sonya Tayeh routine. NPY dubbed him this season’s Alex Wong because, well, at least there is the contemporary style similarity…

Here’s hoping Tadd and Marko make it far!

Alex Wong, whom some speculated whether he would return at the Las Vegas rounds since he was promised a free ticket due to his injury and early exit last season, wisely did not return. As such a fan favourite and touted to win last season, it could only generate bad publicity if he was human, faltered, and got eliminated early; and no doubt he’s reaped a lot of rewards from his short and perfect run in last year’s Top (11) dancers. Executive producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe announced in the Top 20 Reveal show that when only the top 10 dancers remain, in a couple of months, some all-star dancers will return and perhaps one of them will be Alex?