Sexy Legs: Chelsie Kay Hightower

If you missed last night's SYTYCD5 show, you missed a lot. Yes, Ade and Melissa were eliminated, but for this author, the real pleasure was in seeing Chelsie in both of her Emmy-nominated dance sequences, "Bleeding Love" with Mark and "A Los Amigos" with Joshua.

THIS IS BREAKING NEWS. MORE DETAILS LATER...

SYTYCD was nominated for an all-time high 5 Emmy Awards today.

Most significantly, TWO of those were for dance sequences including Chelsie:

"Bleeding Love" - A Hip Hop Routine
Choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo
Danced By: Mark Kanemura and Chelsie Hightower

It's time to pop a bottle of bubbly for So You Think You Can Dance. This morning the best dance show on television got some great news courtesy of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, in the form of five Emmy nominations. The majority of the nominations, of course, came in the category of Best Choreography, where SYTYCD dominated that other dance show. Out of six nominations, four came from So You Think You Can Dance. While the show has had pieces nominated for Emmy's before, this is the most nominations the show has ever received in the category. The show's fifth nomination came in the form of recognition for Outstanding Makeup for a Multi-Camera Series or Special (non-prosthetic). And no, I am not making up that category.

The four nominated routines come from Season Four of So You Think You Can Dance, from four different choreographers. Three of the nominations should come as no surprise to those of you who watched last season, as they were three of the most memorable dances: Bleeding Love, Mercy/The Door, and the Adam & Eve piece. Rounding out the nomination is the pleasant surprise of "Los Amigos," a steamy sharp tango choreographed by So You Think You Can Dance alum Dmitry Chaplin. While we were shocked that "No Air" didn't make the cut, we couldn't be more thrilled with the nominations and the deserved attention that So You Think You Can Dance and it's talented choreographers are receiving. The nominations lend extra credence to Debbie Allen's astute comment from last night that, "This isn't a competition, it's a conversation. This show is truly evangelizing dance like nothing else has, nothing. Nothing. Nothing."


Here's a refresher on the amazing, deserving dances that were honored with an Emmy nomination this morning.

"Bleeding Love" - A Hip Hop Routine
Choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo
Danced By: Mark Kanemura and Chelsie Hightower




"Mercy" (The Door) - A Contemporary Routine
Choreographed by Mia Michaels
Danced By: Twitch and Katee Shean



"Adam and Eve" - A Contemporary Routine
Choreographed by Tyce Diorio
Danced By: Jessica King and Will Wingfield



"Los Amigos" a Tango
Choreographed by Dmitryi Chaplain
Danced By: Joshua Allen and Chelsie Hightower

Bleeding Love, Tacoma

In case you missed it, Chelsie talks about her experiences on SYTYCD4 here. It summarizes her feelings about exhaustion, the costumes and more.

Well, it's over. The fourth -- and probably best -- season of "So You Think You Can Dance" is now history. Not for the lucky few who will get to watch the tour when it gets to their town and not for the many who will buy the DVDs if they come out (or for the many who will go to thepiratebay.org and search on So.You.Think.You.Can.Dance, although I wouldn't know anything about that).

The finale was very good, although Chelsie only got to do one number out of maybe 8-10. Twitch was the yeoman there, doing about half of them, and leading me to believe he would be the ultimate winner. As I expected, the girls were eliminated first, with Katee getting a $50,000 consolation prize for "best female dancer." And ultimately, strong man Joshua won.

I am sure it was from his Final 6 routines with Chelsie that made him look good.

Now we can concentrate on where CKH goes from here.

This site is only a few hours old... Please post suggestions in the responses!

On July 31, 2008, despite my own 427 votes on her behalf, Chelsie Kay Hightower was eliminated from the near-finals of the 4th season of Fox TV's "So You Think You Can Dance". Even though she was clearly the most talented and versatile of the dancers, and received over one million votes, better-organized fan groups for other dancers gathered more votes.

I won't argue the validity of using a popularity contest to determine the winners of a reality TV show instead of qualified judges. But now that I don't have a good reason to watch Fox on Wednesday and Thursday nights, I will find and share what I can of Chelsie here.

The blog name is not meant as a pandering reference to Chesie's looks, even though they have led to more than one open marriage proposal on the web. During her audition in Salt Lake, Mary Murphy said she had the sexiest legs ever, not just because of their shape, but what she can do with them.

I'll miss seeing her there, but I will make sure I can see her here. The first "now playing" below reflects how a lot of us felt last Thursday. The inclusion of "Nara" was because I would have loved seeing her dance to such a complex piece and know it would be as spectacular as every other performance she has given us so far.

P.S. You can now get to the Start page at http://start.sexylegschelsie.com where I will continue to add blog links, photos and videos.

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Now playing: Enigma - Sadness
via FoxyTunes
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Now playing: E.S. Posthumus - Nara
via FoxyTunes
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Now playing: Jim Sturgess - Girl
via FoxyTunes

By Christopher Rocchio, 08/04/2008

Chelsie Hightower said So You Think You Can Dance finalists are all prepared to be booted during any results show, which helped ease her own ouster last Thursday night.

"Our producer always tells us that you never know what the American public is going to decide, so we're all kind of prepared," she told reporters during a Friday conference call. "I had this peaceful strong feeling that I would be going home and I was okay with it."

The 18-year-old Latin dancer from Las Vegas, NV who currently resides in Orem, UT was eliminated from So You Think You Can Dance's fourth season based on the "more that 11 million" home viewer votes that were cast immediately following Wednesday night's performance episode.

Despite being booted on the cusp of this week's finale, Hightower said she has "no regrets at all."

"I was always myself on the camera and that always mattered to me the most is just being who I am and staying true to who I am," she told reporters.

"I'm feeling great right now. I'm very grateful and so blessed to be even a part of this show and to make it this far was awesome. The biggest thing is I feel like I put everything into each of my performances and I feel like I really did the best that I could, so at that point, it's out of your control what else happens. I can't control the public. So I'm very happy with myself and that's the most I could ask for, so I'm feeling fine right now. I'm feeling great."

A main reason Hightower was in good spirits is because she was able to share her passion with America.

"I'm just so glad that I got to share what I love to do with everyone and that everyone got to see my talent, because that's what I'm here for," she told reporters. "That's what I believe I've been blessed with so I can share that, so I'm just grateful for all of them for watching and appreciating it."

Hightower said one of the things she learned from the competition was it's just as much "mental strength" as it is physical ability.

"Just doing your best at all times -- no matter what kind of shape you're in physically -- and that was the big thing for us because we were always so tired and so worn out," she told reporters. "But it really helped us to really do our best every time in every performance."

Hightower will have a short amount of time to rest before participating in So You Think You Can Dance's annual fall tour with her fellow Top 10 finalists.

"I'm so, so, so excited. The tour is going to be awesome," she said. "We're all really excited for that."

As for what else is next, Hightower said she's ready to take whatever comes her way.

"I really just want to perform, so whatever that takes me to, whatever show. I just want to be on the stage and doing what I love to be doing and taking that road," she said. "I just want to be dancing on the stage. I honestly don't know yet, so we'll just wait and see."