Latin ballroom dancer Chelsie Hightower basically did as well as anybody could expect to on So You Think You Can Dance – except for the fact that she didn’t win. However, she never landed in the bottom groups and she never had to dance for her life. She formed a strong fan base early on, who voted for her and took her all the way to Top 6. On last night’s live elimination episode, she was sent packing, along with her original partner, Mark Kanemura. They didn’t head home, though. The two got right to work, rehearsing for next week’s finale and soon, she’ll start rehearsing for the tour. Today, she spoke to BuddyTV in an exclusive interview.
Below, you will find the complete transcript and mp3 of the interview.
Hey everybody, this is Gina from BuddyTV, and today I’m talking to Chelsie from So You Think You Can Dance. So it must have been pretty crazy last night to get eliminated, because you never really had to dance for your life. Were you surprised how well you did this season?
Oh yeah, definitely. You go into this competition expecting to have numerous bad nights and numerous times you have to dance for your life, so I was really very, very blessed and excited that I didn’t have to, because I think I’d freak out.
What was the hardest style of dance for you to learn as a ballroom dancer?
I think it was hip-hop, just because it was so different than ballroom. I felt actually more grounded and more stable in my ballroom stuff than I did trying to do hip-hop. It was kind of [blank] and it was opposite, but just the way it felt totally different and the opposite of what ballroom is. I think that was the hardest for me.
When you and Twitch danced the mambo, they talked a lot about the counting during the number. Was that very difficult for him to pick up?
Yeah, it was difficult for both of us. We were probably sitting in the rehearsal room for half an hour just trying to figure out the counts for that dance. I’m a ballroom dancer, and I couldn’t pick up those counts. It was really difficult. Twitch did a really, really good job in finding that.
Do you have a favorite routine that you got to perform this season?
I think my favorite dance was the jazz, because it was really no stress, and it was really just being ourselves and just having fun. I think that was our favorite to perform, and then I really liked “Bleeding Love” also.
Mark also said that the jazz routine was his favorite. How was he to work with as a partner? You two seemed to get along really well.
Mark was great. He kind of put up with me. Sometimes I can get kind of [blank], and he put up with me really well. We really bonded, we really clicked really well, and yeah, we had fun together.
Did any of the judges have a chance to talk to you after you were eliminated last night?
No, we didn’t get to talk to any of them.
Has it been difficult to be separated from your friends and your family for this long?
The first couple weeks it’s a little bit difficult, but once you get into the groove of things and you’re so focused on what you’re doing, you really don’t have a lot of time to think about how much you miss other people and whatnot. It got a lot easier after a while.
Are you excited to get out on tour and travel the country?
I am for sure, yeah.
I know you have a lot of fans. Is there anything that you want to say to them?
Thanks for all the support, and always being there to vote and whatnot.
Is there anything that you’re going to miss the most about being on So You Think You Can Dance?
I’ll miss all the people, definitely. I’ll miss seeing all the people, and I’ll miss performing on the stage, and just learning new things, learning new dances, and just pretty much the whole [blank] for sure.
Do you have any ideas about what you want to do once the tour is over and you can do your own thing?
I kind of want to perform, so wherever that takes me. I want to perform on stage.
Thanks a lot, Chelsie. I really appreciate it.
No problem.
– Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of FOX)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
