Sara VonGillern is taking a load off her fancy footworking feet for the next two weeks. Then it's back to work, when she and the other top-10 finalists in So You Think You Can Dance start rehearsals for the 50-city tour that launches Sept. 21 in Albany, NY.

VonGillern, a 23-year-old CSU grad, made it into the top eight before being voted off the Fox series dance floor on Aug. 2.

"The whole experience was just awesome," she said about the show. "It was cool to be pushed into trying a new dance. I had never danced with a partner before, so I transformed a lot and progressed a lot over the weeks."

VonGillern's specialty is break dancing, or "bgirling" in street dance lingo. Her mom enrolled her in dance lessons at age 4, and VonGillern says she's been busting a move ever since.

"I love dancing. I love the freedom. The movement is whatever you want it to be."

With a bachelor's degree in public relations, VonGillern says she'd like to combine dancing with PR in an entertainment/ public relations career.

"I just want to keep traveling and see the world through my art form."

And even though she's been eliminated, VonGillern will be watching the show at 7 tonight on Fox 31. "I'm excited to be on the other side. I'm going to watch it this week, and I might vote a little bit, too."

Of the six remaining finalists, VonGillern is rooting for Lacey-Mae Schwimmer, the sister of Benji Schwimmer, last season's winner.

"It might be weird if she won, since she's Benji's sister, but I really think that she should," VonGillern said.

DOUSED: Writer Hunter S. Thompson has a distinguished history with fire extinguishers: He was once fined $100 plus court costs for spraying one inside Boulder's Fox Theatre, and he let loose with one in the swank New York office of Rolling Stone Publisher Jann Wenner. So it was only fitting that his widow, Anita Thompson, presented the first ever Owl Farm Fire Extinguisher Award last week during her Denver Press Club talk.

The red cannister went to uber-attorney Hal Haddon, a longtime Thompson pal who has also represented Kobe Bryant and the Ramsey family, for helping put out the legal fires that threatened to take down Thompson's longtime Woody Creek property, dubbed Owl Farm.

Haddon accepted the award, noting that it was important to be both honest and creative when dealing with the Internal Revenue Service.

DOVE LOVE: Ray Abruzzo, Little Carmine Lupertazzi from The Sopranos, paid a visit to The Soiled Dove Underground in Lowry Saturday to see Colin Hay of Men at Work. Abruzzo told Dove staff that he missed the Hay show in New York, so he flew to Denver to catch it here.

Also, The Tavern Downtown rooftop is slated to be in an upcoming issue of Playboy magazine and on Playboy.com as one of the top 10 rooftop bars in the country.

EAVESDROPPING on a woman at Lincoln's Road House: "I never knew you drank until I saw you sober."

Penny Parker's column appears Tuesday through Saturday. Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail parkerp@RockyMountainNews.com.