Correction appended
The most recent episodes of America's Got Talent have featured the performances of Benja Wurzel '10, who is appearing on the show with the dance group SQ Entertainment. The group, also known as Status Quo, appeared on Season 1 of MTV's competition, America's Best Dance Crew, in 2008.
"I actually joined Status Quo when they came to Dartmouth this past fall," Wurzel said. "After their show, they came and partied at [Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity], where I'm a brother."
Wurzel also dances on campus as a member of SHEBA dance troupe.
SQ Entertainment had previously seen Wurzel perform in Boston, and the party at Tri-Kap led them to ask Wurzel to audition for the group's manager.
"A week later, they asked me to join the crew," he said.
In March, Wurzel auditioned for America's Got Talent with the group. The group was already well known in the television community, Wurzel said, and had performed on the previous season of America's Got Talent. The group then entered the tryout process.
"The producers send through both the best and the worst acts, or whatever acts they feel would be most entertaining," Wurzel said.
Wurzel described the whole process as "surreal."
Although SQ Entertainment's initial audition never made it on the air, a performance from a later round was briefly shown on the most recent episode of America's Got Talent on July 22.
Wurzel recalled his experience on stage and meeting such celebrities as Nick Cannon and David Hasselhoff.
"You walk out onto the stage and it's like the biggest stage in the world; the audience is enormous," Wurzel said. "Most of the other members of the group had already been on TV and were used to it, but the whole situation for me was very, very surreal," he later added.
Commenting on his competition, Wurzel said he believes that his group has a very good shot at making it to the later rounds of the contest. Wurzel said he admires the other dance groups on the show, but that he still thinks SQ Entertainment will be the most successful. Some of the other dance crews such as Live In Color, BreakSk8 and Iconic have competed against SQ Entertainment previously on America's Best Dance Crew, when SQ Entertainment took second place.