Dancer Kate Harpootlian returns to Columbia with Shaping Sound

Since competing on the Fox reality show “So You Think You Can Dance” season 12, Columbia native Kate Harpootlian hasn’t stopped dancing.

After the show wrapped up in September, Harpootlian jumped back into touring with contemporary dance company Shaping Sound, co-founded by the Emmy-winning choreographer and “So You Think” alum Travis Wall.

Wall is also Harpootlian’s best friend, a fact the two had to downplay on the show because she was a contestant and he was a choreographer, she said.

“It was weird on ‘So You Think,’ because we weren’t supposed to be best friends. It feels more like home now that we’re back on tour together. We don’t have to separate ourselves.”

In the “Shaping Sound: Dance Reimagined” show, which comes to the Koger Center on Wednesday, Feb. 3, Harpootlian and Wall have a duet together that involves “crazy lifts.”

The premise of the show is that a girl falls asleep and meets the love of her life in her dreams.

The choreography for the whole performance is difficult, Harpootlian said. When the company performed in Denver several days ago, the dancers were exerting themselves in the high altitude so much that they needed to breathe with oxygen tanks backstage.

Shaping Sound was created in 2012 by Wall, “So You Think” season 1 winner Nick Lazzarini, “Dancing with the Stars” performer Teddy Forance and choreographer Kyle Robinson.

The four friends and roommates documented their efforts to launch Shaping Sound on the Oxygen reality television series “All The Right Moves.”

The show is full of “So You Think” alums, so anyone who watches the TV show will love Shaping Sound, Harpootlian said.

Another Columbia native, Daniel Gaymon, is also part of the show. He and Harpootlian both trained at Columbia City Jazz growing up.

“These people are my best friends in the world,” Harpootlian said. “There’s no one to get my mail when I go on tour because everyone that would is on tour with me.”

While on tour, the group enjoys playing Catch Phrase on the bus and exploring new cities – even for just a few hours in between performances, she said.

“This is the best job ever.”

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This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 4:34 PM with the headline "Dancer Kate Harpootlian returns to Columbia with Shaping Sound."