"Heaven, I'm in heaven ..." -- Fred Astaire, dancing "Cheek to Cheek" with Ginger Rogers in "Swing Time" (1936). Evan's in heaven, too, just like that American idol of his quoted above.

Over the summer, the devout Astaire acolyte -- born Evan Kasprzak 22 years ago -- won third place on Fox's hit series, "So You Think You Can Dance."

The Illinois Wesleyan University music-theater major did it by emulating the graceful dance moves of his hoofing heroes of yore -- Messrs. Astaire, Kelly (Gene) and O'Connor (Donald).

It gets better in heaven, folks.

Throughout the fall, Evan is touring with the "So You Think You Can Dance Tour," which sports all 10 of the Season 5's finalists, including grand champ Jeanine Mason (see accompanying story for the complete roster).

The tour makes its only downstate stop at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Champaign's U of I Assembly Hall, and will be serving as a magnet for Evan's fervent IWU fan base.

On top of all this, the lucky guy's getting course credit for the tour: It's serving as an internship, he says -- and if that isn't a kind of scholastic version of heaven, we don't know what is.

Come January, Evan will be back on the IWU campus to complete his senior year, albeit on more conventional collegiate terms.

"It's all too crazy," he admits with unchecked enthusiasm between rehearsals and workouts for the tour, the demands of which are forever threatening to terminate the interview at hand (for the record, a previous Pantagraph attempt during the series' final stages never made it past the "Hello, this is Evan ..." stage before he was snatched away, never to return).

He continues: "The thought that I'm getting to tour the country doing what I absolutely most love doing ... and getting to share it with people ... that's just pretty amazing."

Pretty indeed.

Almost makes a guy feel like singin'/dancin' in the rain.

Speaking of which, it was big brother Ryan (seven years Evan's senior) and Ryan's love of Hollywood movie musicals that set his kid sib's feet in motion during his childhood in Bloomfield, Mich.

"I must have been 9 or 10 when I first saw 'Singin' in the Rain'" he says, referencing the 1952 MGM classic. Whether it was Gene Kelly's pas de deux with an umbrella or Danville native Donald O'Connor's making 'em laugh, Evan was smitten hard.

"It was love at first sight," he says of the way they moved. "Watching those guys moving so gracefully and beautifully, but with a strong masculinity -- they were men, dancing like men, so smooth and easy."

He began searching them out in earnest: "I bought (Kelly's) 'An American in Paris' and (Astaire's) 'Funny Face,' and started learning their history."

Dance classes in jazz, tap and ballet ensued. "After I got a little older, my brother started working with me and teaching me stuff."

At 15, he busted the 16-year-old age rule and enrolled in the Broadway Theatre Project, a dance school founded by Broadway star and Bob Fosse protege Ann Reinking in Tampa, Fla.

"I was the baby there," he says, "and they've watched me grow up." Over the seven years since, he's graduated from 15-year-old novice to faculty member.

The decision to base his higher education at IWU came about as a result of a friend's recommendation: "That's the school for you, Evan -- you should check it out. It's a great school."

He followed the advice, and has had no regrets: "I absolutely fell in love with it after getting a tour of the campus. I knew in an instant that this was the school for me. And I've received an amazing education there -- the faculty both in the School of Theatre and outside it has been phenomenal."

For the record, his favorite musical theater moment on an IWU stage occurred last fall via his role in a revival of George S. Kaufman's "Of Thee I Sing."

Pantagraph theater critic Marcia Weiss clearly sensed the talent at hand, noting, "The entire cast earns kudos for making the inspired choreography of Sheri Marley really pop, most notably Evan Kasprzak, who repeatedly stopped the show as the tap-dancing French Ambassador."

The leap to show-stopping national fame via "So You Think You Can Dance" was something of a fluke, Evan admits.

"It was totally on a whim," he says. "One of my good friends mentioned there were auditions for the show in Milwaukee, where I was on spring break at the time."

The occasion was the show's fourth season. And his whim nearly landed him on the air: he just missed the Top 20 cut, which is the point at which dancers start competing on camera.

"Yeah, I was little downtrodden for a while -- but I figured if I did it on just a whim the first time, I might do better the second time with some planning and strategy."

To say the least, as millions watched Evan progress through the summer, usually opposite dancing partner Randi Evans, from Top 20 to Top 10, to, finally, third place the night of Aug. 6.

Ironically, his big brother mentor Ryan also auditioned for the fifth season and wound up being eliminated at around the same point Evan did in the fourth season. (For the record, Ryan is giving it another try for the impending sixth season.)

Evan says there's no sibling rivalry, however; just sibling support.

"I've picked up all my moves from him -- I like to say, he's basically taught me everything I know. But he says 'no, just most of what you know.'"

What: "So You Think You Can Dance! Tour" featuring IWU's Evan Kasprzak

When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: University of Illinois Assembly Hall, Champaign

Tickets: $38.50 to $56

Box office number: (217) 333-5000

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Even with Evan

Sharing equal billing with IWU student and third-place winner Evan Kazprzak in the "So You Think You Can Dance Tour" are his fellow Top 10 finalists from the Fox series' fifth season. They are, alphabetically:

• Ade Obayomi, Orange County, Calif.: partnered with Melissa Sandvig; eliminated during semi-final week;

• Brandon Bryant, Miami, Fla.: partnered with Janette Manrara; second-place winner

• Janette Manrara, Miami, Fla.: partnered with Brandon Bryant; eliminated during semi-final week

• Jason Glover, Fresno, Calif.: partnered with Jeanine Mason; eliminated during semi-final week

• Jeanine Mason, Pinecrest, Fla.; originally partnered with Phillip Chbeeb (not on tour); first-place winner

• Kayla Radomski, Aurora, Colo.; partnered with Kupono Aweau; fourth-place winner

• Kupono Aweau, Kailua, Hawaii; partnered with Kayla Radomski; eliminated during semi-final week

• Melissa Sandvig, Los Alamitos, Calif.: partnered with Ade Obayomi; eliminated during semi-final week

• Randi Evans, Orem, Utah: partnered with Evan Kazprzak; eliminated during semi-final week