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.

Bleeding Love, Tacoma

"So You Think You Can Dance" and its quirky cool cast of characters are preparing for their tour. We already know Joshua won, and that Twitch and Katee were just as deserving. Now, though, many will get to come back and thrill crowds live without all of the pressure.

At the soundstage where they were were doing press for the show, there was a fun, family feel to the group. The PR crew, the tech crew and general stage handlers all seemed involved in the busyness and laid-back attitude. The Fox Morning Show was there as well and the group was pumped to do a little impromptu performing for the television audience. Even when the cameras were off, many practiced moves off to the side or kidded each other with battle- and club-style dance moves.

Most of the participants had the same concerns and expectations about going on tour: Great to travel and see different parts of the country, cool opportunity, excited, exhausted, ready. Here are reactions from the chosen dancers. Forgive the fuzzy frames!

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.

Was it just me, or did the judges, especially Nigel Lythgowe, seem very restrained in their praise last night?

The overall tone of the comments was "you guys are fabulous dancers, but you seem really tired." Of course, in preparing a solo, 3 partner dances and a group dance, who wouldn't be tired?

The finale was a strange one choreographed by Mia Michaels, which could best be characterized as "The Skiing Bravehearts" and had strange outfits, missed lifts (Courtney needed a double jump to get off the ground) and a fairly limp theme.

While Katee was praised for "finishing her dance moves", both girls were reminded to get more dance instruction and to work on their lines. Both Twitch and Joshua got solid praise for their performances over the season, and both managed incredibly high jumps and difficult lifts without too much trouble, although Joshua brought Courtney back to earth on one with an obviously hard landing.

Nigel probably revealed his true feelings about Chelsie not being there when he said: "I really think this time America got it right. Both of these men deserve to be here." The gaping omission implied that America got it wrong in selecting the two girls.

Courtney Galliano, who had been in the bottom three more often than any other of the final four, is cute. But her lack of stature made her legs look thick and stumpy. The weather warning crawls that Fox ran across the bottom of the screen here in Denver squished her even more.

I didn't vote. My girl isn't in the competition. At this point, of these four, I would say Twitch is the most deserving, with Ironman Joshua a close second.

I hope to see Chelsie perform tonight. But after SYTYCD4 wrapped up a terrific season with the Fizzled Final Four, I am not as excited as I would have been.

Here are happier highlights from a week ago, before the bomb dropped:

Chelsie was paired with Twitch Boss for Wednesday night's performances, and the couple's first routine was a mambo choreographed by Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin. Since Chelsie is a Latin dancer, the routine was right in her wheelhouse and judges' comments reflected that.

"Chelsie Hightower, those hips move faster than lightening!" had commented host Cat Deeley after the performance.

"You are on fire," agreed this week's guest judge -- Hairspray director and choreographer Adam Shankman. "You are an animal out there, burning up the floor. Seriously, I have yet to see something that you can't do... All in all I was completely entertained and I thought it was a good performance."

"Chelsie just kept drawing my attention," added judge Mary Murphy. "She's a firecracker. She's in hot tamale red out there and she just brings that dress to life too. You are so fabulous when we get you into the Latin style that nobody can touch you on this show. Tremendous job."

"She's in her element, she's one of the most fantastic dresses I think I've seen up there this season," commented So You Think You Can Dance executive producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe. "We've always said she's got great legs, she uses them really well. Her feet tonight were fantastic. That whole routine made her sparkle."

Chelsie and Twitch's second Wednesday night routine was a hip-hop number choreographed by Napoleon and Tabitha D'umo. Despite it being more geared towards Twitch's genre, Chelsie still received compliments for keeping up with him.

"Chelsie, I'm still just like... Wow. I want you guys to try and find something you can't do now because I want you off the show because I just don't believe that this is possible," said Adam "Thank you so much for making me so happy and entertaining me so much."

"Chelsie, we're not supposed to believe you whatsoever in this style, and you're keeping up with Twitch tonight," added Mary. "It was unbelievable."

And a final thought of the day from the "Husband Thoughts" blog on 7/31/08:

Did you forget the rule?

Never, ever, vote out the hot blonde!

Tonight on Do You think You Can Dance? There was a choice between two brunettes and a blonde and the blonde was sent home. You morons!

Chelsie Hightower was not only blonde she was five foot two with five feet of legs. She could wiggle her hips fast enough to be an alternate energy source. I know nothing about judging dancing but I know women and she should of won it all.

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."