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"So You Think You Can Dance" dancers Joshua Allen (L) and Katee Shean onstage at the Dizzy Feet Foundation's Inaugural Celebration of Dance at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on Nov. 29, 2009. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Dizzy Feet Foundation
Professional dancer and “So You Think You Can Dance” alum Joshua Allen died in Fort Worth, Texas, at 36 in the early morning hours of Sept. 30, medical records show.
According to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner, Allen died at 1:29 a.m. in a hospital emergency room. Local media reports said the Fort Worth native was hit by a train.
Officers with the Fort Worth Police Department responded and found Allen upon arrival. He was identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office, with his official cause of death pending. An investigation into the incident remains ongoing.
The Epoch Times reached out to Fort Worth police but did not hear back by the time of publication.
His friend and choreographer Emmanuel Hurd confirmed the news in a social media tribute.
“I can’t wrap my head around this … Josh … my brotha,” Hurd captioned a video montage of photos of Allen.
“There are no words. You were the life of the party. You were Batman. Champion. One of the realest people I ever met.”
Allen won Season 4 of the popular reality dance competition show “So You Think You Can Dance” in 2008, making a lasting impression for having no technical dance training growing up.
“I took a few modern dance classes, ballet classes, because I felt that to be a better dancer I would have to take different classes, and, you know, expand my horizons in the art of dance,” he told Entertainment Weekly following his win at the time.
“I didn’t want to audition for the show not knowing anything. ... I really wasn’t that technically trained.”
Allen’s death comes nearly three years after his friend and runner-up in the competition, Stephen “tWitch” Boss, died by suicide at the age of 40.
Boss was a longtime dancing DJ on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and went on to become executive producer of the show as well as being a judge on “So You Think You Can Dance.”
“To my brother: it’s hard for me to even write this message without breaking down, devastated would be an understatement,” Allen wrote in a heartfelt tribute to Boss on Instagram. “NO WORDS will ever be enough to explain the LOVE I have for you Stephen.”
Meanwhile, in remembrance of them both, Hurd said despite the pain that comes with grieving, he finds comfort knowing that they’ve reunited.
“This one hurts deep,” Hurd wrote. “I know you’re with Stephen now and that brings me comfort. I love you bro.”
Elma Aksalic is a freelance entertainment reporter for The Epoch Times and an experienced TV news anchor and journalist covering original content for Newsmax magazine.
