Thanks. It's been a long journey but it's been definitely worth it.

What was it like to hear Cat Deely say your name?

I think it was a mix of a lot of different things. Three months worth of blood, sweat, and tears, injuries, stress, wondering if I made it, didn't make it. People criticizing me on the Internet. My parent's dance studio burning down. There were so many things building on top of me at that final moment. It didn't even matter which name she announced--it was just such a release. It took me a couple seconds to realize they called my name. I didn't get it. Wasn't expecting it to happen. One of the coolest experiences of my life.

Each week it seemed like the Benji fanclub grew and grew to the point where they were chanting your name--how important was the fan reaction and how did it affect your performance?

What was awesome about the fans that night was there's a big group of people. It got to a point where they respected the top four so much that everybody was cheering for everybody but when they announced my name, I saw family members of every contestant stand up. They all knew what we had been through. And the fans of Benji, the Shwingers, as they called them[selves], were so cool--they supported me from the beginning. Their fingers were bleeding from voting so many times. It was awesome.

You mention family. You've been dancing with your Cousin Heidi for 17 years and were both in the show's top four together--tell us what it was like to have that experience together.

I think that's almost a bigger honor than being titled America's favorite dancer--we were America's favorite dance couple. We didn't even try out together, which was odd, but for 17 years we worked on being in competitions together, and whatever the outcome of the finale, they just said she wasn't the person. It was just really cool that we got there together and were in the finale together.

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