Kent Boyd has nothing bad to say about Wapakoneta, Ohio.

And don’t you dare try to chalk that up to media savvy.

The way Boyd talks about Wapakoneta, you can tell he doesn’t even have anything bad he secretly wants to say about it.

That’s just the way Boyd is.

As I type this, Wapakoneta resident Boyd is in Week 4 of competition on the Fox TV show “So You Think You Can Dance.”

By the time you read this, he may have been voted off or he may have made it to Week 5.

Whatever happens, don’t worry about Boyd.

His is a Horatio Alger tale that hasn’t even begun to be told.

Boyd, 18, started dancing in west-central Ohio when he was 8.

By phone, Boyd said he was encouraged by his mother to become crazy about dancing mainly because she was discouraged by his craziness around the house.

“When I was younger, I had a lot of energy,” he said. “She thought I needed a better way to use that energy. She knew a friend of a friend who was involved in dance.”

Boyd is humble enough to admit he was “horrible” at first.

“But I had so much fun that everyone could see I was having a good time,” Boyd said.

Dancing was a hard sell with his peers, initially.

“Yeah, in elementary school when I first started dancing a lot of kids didn’t understand it,” he said. “They said, ‘Why aren’t you playing sports?’ even though I was playing sports. I played soccer.

“In a small town, you are sheltered from diversity,” Boyd said. “There aren’t a lot of options. It took them awhile to understand, but they did understand. The harsh comments went away.”

Boyd said his performances at talent shows and regional competitions came to be a source of pride rather than consternation among his friends and acquaintances.

Still, he was willing to consider alternative career paths.

A vocational aptitude test subsequently narrowed his options considerably, he recalled.

“I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to do, so I thought maybe I should do this,” he said.

This, meaning dance.

Applying for university fine arts programs turned out to be a deeply frustrating experience for Boyd.

“It really didn’t go the way I’d hoped,” he said. “It wasn’t a good experience.”

Boyd said the schools he was most interested in weren’t interested in him, and the ones that were interested in him, couldn’t offer much in the way of financial incentives.

“I really wanted to go to Julliard,” he said. “But I got cut right away. I am a kid from a small town who trained at a small studio. My training was great, but it didn’t give me everything I needed … everything they wanted…

“They don’t care about work ethic,” Boyd said, with a sigh. “All they care about is technique. I really didn’t have technique at the barre. I feel like I got slammed.”

And yet Boyd wasn’t so demoralized that he prevented himself from auditioning for “So You Think You Can Dance” in Chicago in March.

Boyd’s present success probably won’t shame anyone at Julliard, but who cares what Julliard thinks at this point?

Julliard may have no use for Boyd, but no one involved with “So You Think You Can Dance” can seem to get enough of him.

Part of that is his dancing, but another part is his demeanor. Boyd is a genuinely nice guy.

What keeps him moving forward, he said, is the improbability of how far he’s come.

“I am from nowhere and the fact I am here…,” he said, “that’s crazy enough as it is. The fact that I’m here proves anything is possible.

“I am standing here living a dream – I know that’s so cliché,” Boyd said. “It keeps me from worrying about it too much. It helps me enjoy it.”

Boyd’s a hero back in Wapakoneta, which makes him think about the day when he’ll have enough time to thank everybody back there.

Whatever happens from this point on, don’t expect Boyd to go all Hollywood.

“There are things about myself that I plan to keep,” he said. “I always want to be down-to-earth. I always want to be genuine. I want to always be approachable.

“I never want to get a big head,” Boyd said. “I am just a person who appreciates life and being alive.

“I always want to be looked at as a good guy who loves simple things, who appreciates whatever work he is able to get, and who doesn’t take anything for granted.

“Life is so good,” he said.