Comfort Fedoke claims her first time being booted from So You Think You Can Dance was much harder to handle than the second time it happened.

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"It was harder the first time because honestly I really wanted to make Top 10, more than anything, my goal, I really wanted to make the Top 10 so the fist time was definitely hard to take.  I was absolutely shocked; I was just devastated," Fedoke told reporters during a Friday conference call.

"The feeling of being eliminated the first time was totally different because the fact that the hunger of wanting to be in the Top 10 is on everybody's mind.  Everybody wants to be Top 10. Everybody wants that because that promise to be on tour and everything else, you're just hopefully going to probably be on it so that's the one I was astonished.  I was devastated because I wanted it so extremely bad so in me I was heartbroken."

Fedoke was initially eliminated from So You Think You Can Dance's fourth season on the cusp of making the Top 10 only to be reinstated a few days later after Jessica King had to withdraw due to injury. 

"We had a meeting beforehand.  We had a talk," said Fedoke about King.  "It was plain clear, she was actually just happy and rooting for me at the same time even though she was sad that she, of course, had to step out of the competition.  We're still all like family so we're all still kind of like rooting for each other either or either way."

The 20-year-old hip-hop dancer from Lagos, Nigeria who currently resides in Dallas, TX said she "was doing it for Jess," an approach that she thinks made her own performances stronger.

"I know Jess really, really was so happy to make it and I was proud of her at the same time," she told reporters.  "And I was doing it for myself at the same time, too, because who gets those kind of chances at all?  So I definitely came out there with a whole different attitude, a whole different perception on what the judges had to say."

In addition, Fedoke said "everybody was very excited" when she was reintroduced to the competition.

"I got real close with the cast and the crew and stuff like that.  There was a mourning of course for Jessica and everything, but they were also so excited to see me come back and still go for what I love to do and just come out here with a different spirit," she explained.  "I have a totally different spirit than everybody else does so I think I just make me a little homier."

Fedoke subsequently survived one elimination when Kherington Payne was instead given the boot, however she couldn't do the same again last Thursday night when she was ousted by home viewer votes cast after Wednesday night's performance episode.

"I always kind of make sure that I'm just not sitting in comfortably," Fedoke told reporters about weekly result shows. 

"So I was ready the day that me and Kherington [were in the bottom two], I was ready to get sent home then if I had to.  I'm just more grateful about this whole experience.  I'm not about to just bash myself and get mad or yell or go frantic and stuff.  I'm just ready every time.  I just have a different kind of personality and I have a different approach and everything.  It's not that I'm not disappointed; I'm just having fun and grateful that I'm just even up this far."

While Fedoke's Wednesday night foxtrot with partner Mark Kanemura was panned -- and rightfully so -- their hip-hop routine was praised. 

However it wasn't without a backhanded comment by So You Think You Can Dance judge and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, who commented he was "surprised" Fedoke could "dance so much better" when she's choreographed than when she does her solo, adding "there were no steps in your solo." 

"I actually did find that to be unnecessary because he said something about me not being a choreographer and what's funny, I am.  I am a choreographer," she told reporters. 

"His thing is when you're on stage like that, I'm a freestyler at the same time and I rely on the beat.  It's hard sometimes to hear the beat when you have so many people screaming and stuff like that so freestyling is what I do so that day I'm saying I can go out there and just want to hype the crowd.  I'm a totally different kind of personality.  To me it's not always about moves.  It's about wowing everybody with tricks and stuff like that all the time; I did that a lot, showed the different sides.  So for him to base my solo upon me not being a choreographer or whatever; I'm not a contemporary dancer.  I don't plan a piece and have it set on stage.  I don't do that."

Overall, Fedoke said her second chance on So You Think You Can Dance was worth it because it drove her to try "harder than ever."

"Even though they kind of bashed me on some things, I still tried," she said.  "I never came out here to just do my work.   I came out here to do my best and that was as much as I could possibly offer.  So I'm blessed that I made the Top 8 instead of just getting pushed off again in five minutes."

Not only did Fedoke make the Top 8, she'll get to participate in the tour too.

"I appreciate the experience; I appreciate everybody's support and love and like I said the last time I got eliminated, this is not the end of me," she told reporters.  "You're going to see me soon somewhere in the lights."
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio

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