Sabra Johnson

American dancer

Sabra Johnson

Born|

Sabra Elise Johnson

(1987-07-29) July 29, 1987 (age 36)[1]

Netherlands

Occupation(s)| Dancer, choreographer, actress
Notable credit(s)| So You Think You Can Dance
High School Musical

Sabra Elise Johnson (born July 29, 1987) is a Dutch dancer, choreographer, and actress from Roy, Utah and the season 3 champion of the Fox reality television show So You Think You Can Dance.

She was born in the Netherlands, lived nine years in Germany, and after that, nine years in Utah. She continued to Las Vegas and, deciding to pursue a career in dance, moved to New York City. From there passion has carried her across the world and she now lives in Vietnam dancing, choreographing, and directing.

## Early career[edit]

Johnson started formal dance training at the age of 16 at Dance Impressions in Bountiful, Utah, under the direction of mother-daughter team Kandee Allen and Vivian Colobella. She then moved down to Las Vegas, NV and trained at the Dance Zone, under the direction of other Colobella daughter Kaydee Francis and partner Jami Artiga. Before training in dance, Johnson had a previous background in gymnastics. Her dance training consists of jazz, ballet, contemporary, and gymnastics, with some experience in hip hop, modern, tap, and theater. Johnson's favorite style of dancing is jazz.[2] Before auditioning for So You Think You Can Dance, Johnson was going on to her fourth year of being a dancer. Johnson had a backup role on the hit film High School Musical as one of the skater dancers in the "Stick to the Status Quo" scene.[3][4]

## Contestant on So You Think You Can Dance[edit]

On the first episode of the show, Johnson was paired up with b-boy Dominic Sandoval, and they remained partners for five weeks. Each week, Johnson and her partners were required to reach into the hat with paper slips containing a variety of dance styles. The pair performed a disco routine during week one, a contemporary routine during week two, a rumba during week three, a hip hop during week four, and a jive during week five. The couple landed themselves in the bottom three couples only once which was during the first week. After week five, there were only ten dancers remaining in the competition.

After Johnson made it into the top ten, she was separated from Sandoval because of the rules for the top 10 competition. In week 6, Johnson was randomly paired with contemporary/hip hop dancer Kameron Bink for the next dance where they performed a contemporary routine. Bink was eliminated on the following results show. In week 7, Johnson was randomly paired with ballroom dancer, Pasha Kovalev, for the next performance where they performed a Broadway routine and a quickstep. In week 8, Johnson was randomly paired with contemporary dancer Neil Haskell for the next dances where they performed a jazz routine and a paso doble routine. During the following results show, Johnson was announced as a top 4 finalist of the season. Throughout the season Johnson was praised for her passion, enthusiasm, prodigious talent, personality, strong dancing and versatility in the different routines. In the end, Johnson garnered more votes than her fellow finalists and was subsequently crowned America's favorite dancer, beating out Danny Tidwell, Neil Haskell, and Lacey Schwimmer.

### Performances[edit]

Week  | Partner  | Dance  | Song  | Result

|
|
|
|

1  | Dominic Sandoval | Disco | "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)"—
Donna Summer & Barbra Streisand | Bottom 3
2  | Contemporary | "I'll Stand by You"—The Pretenders | Safe
3  | Rumba | "Stickwitu"—The Pussycat Dolls | Safe
4  | Hip-hop | "Make It Work"—Ne-Yo | Safe
5  | Jive | "I Do the Jerk"—Ryan Shaw | Safe
6  | Kameron Bink  | Contemporary | "Amazing Grace"—Crystal Lewis | Safe
7  | Pasha Kovalev | Broadway | "A Wild Wild Party"— from The Wild Party | Safe
Quickstep | "Mr. Pinstripe Suit"—Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
8  | Neil Haskell | Jazz | "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"—Eurythmics | Safe
Paso Doble | "España cañí"—Juan & Gennaro
9  | Neil Haskell | Hip-hop | "Whine Up"—Kat DeLuna & Elephant Man | Winner
Lacey Schwimmer | Jazz | "Koyal (Songbird)"—Nitin Sawhney
Danny Tidwell | Cha cha | "Gotta Get Down (La Negra Tiene Tumbao) [Spanglish Remix]"—Celia Cruz

Note: Results highlighted in red indicate that contestants placed in the bottom dancers or couples, but may not have necessarily been eliminated.

## Post SYTYCD[edit]

Since winning SYTYCD, Johnson has concentrated on teaching rather than dancing, but has expressed a desire to pursue a professional dancing career, possibly even on Broadway.[5] Johnson has made appearances as a performer and teacher at numerous events and workshops, appearing at charity events.[6] As part of those activities, she has travelled abroad to locations such as Iceland (with SYTYCD choreographers Dan Karaty and Shane Sparks and Season 3 runner-up Danny Tidwell), Australia[7] (alongside fellow Season 3 contestant Kameron Bink) and South Africa.[5][8]

In 2008, Johnson was a pro dancer at the Dance Times Square Showcase benefit held on October 25.[9] She was partnered with SYTYCD finalist Neil Haskell.

In 2009, Johnson began the year as the Special Guest Artist at the Merrimack Hall Second Annual Evening of Dance in Huntsville, Alabama. (SYTYCD Season 4 winner Joshua Allen taught a master hip-hop class there a few days later.)[10] She later appeared at the St. Louis Auto Show and was a member of the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet[11] company in New York City for a time.

Johnson taught dance master classes for the East Coast Movement on August 25, 2010, along with Kameron Bink.[12]

In addition Johnson has taught Jazz dance internationally, and as of 2017 was working closely with the Dancenter in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.[13] Through the Dancenter she formed a working partnership with the Urban Dance Group (UDG) where she is choreographing and directing her first full-length interactive dance show, 'Between Us'.[14][15]

## See also[edit]

* List of dancers

## References[edit]

1. ^ Salt Lake Tribune - Utahn bounds into top 10 on 'So You Think You Can Dance'
2. ^ Bio on Official So You Think You Can Dance Website
3. ^ Filmography at IMDb
4. ^ High School Musical Skater Dude Dancers
5. ^ a b WKSE Radio Interview
6. ^ Burst the Bubble Benefit
7. ^ TWop Forums Sabra Johnson: Season 3 Winner
8. ^ iAfrica.com: You think you can dance?
9. ^ Dance Times Square Showcase to Star SYTYCD’s Sabra and Neil and Honor Breast Cancer Survivors
10. ^ Evening of Dance
11. ^ Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Company biographies
12. ^ East Coast Movement homepage
13. ^ Dancenter Faculty
14. ^ 'Between Us' Interview with Sabra Johnson
15. ^ 'Between Us' Trailer

## External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Sabra Johnson.

* Profile at So You Think You Can Dance
* "Sabra Dance" at The Standard-Examiner (Utah)

Preceded by

Benji Schwimmer

|  Winner of So You Think You Can Dance
2007  | Succeeded by

Joshua Allen

|
|

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So You Think You Can Dance (United States)

Seasons|

* 1
* 2
* 3
* 4
* 5
* 6
* 7
* 8
* 9
* 10
* 11
* 12
* 13: The Next Generation
* 14
* 15
* 16
* 17
* 18

Winners|

* Nick Lazzarini
* Benji Schwimmer
* Sabra Johnson
* Joshua Allen
* Jeanine Mason
* Russell Ferguson
* Lauren Froderman
* Melanie Moore
* Alexis Warr

Other finalists|

* Lindsay Arnold
* Alan Bersten
* Stephen Boss
* Witney Carson
* Dmitry Chaplin
* Artem Chigvintsev
* Sandra Colton
* Ashlé Dawson
* Lauren Gottlieb
* Nico Greetham
* Heidi Groskreutz
* Neil Haskell
* Chelsie Hightower
* Allison Holker
* Jenna Johnson
* Mark Kanemura
* Jessica King
* Hokuto Konishi
* Pasha Kovalev
* Janette Manrara
* Kathryn McCormick
* Jamile McGee
* Blake McGrath
* Tate McRae
* Heather Morris
* Robert Muraine
* Kherington Payne
* Dominic Sandoval
* Lacey Schwimmer
* Melinda Sullivan
* Danny Tidwell
* Snejana Urbin
* Travis Wall

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