Exclusive: 'So You Think You Can Dance' eliminee Malene Ostergaard: One thing upset me the most

So You Think You Can Dance eliminated Malene Ostergaard, a 25-year-old Ballroom dancer from Aarhus, Denmark, during Wednesday night's live show of the reality dancing competition's eleventh season on Fox.


In addition to Malene, Nick Garcia, an 18-year-old Latin Ballroom dancer from Miami, FL, also got sent home.
So You Think You Can Dance judges Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy as well as guest judge Misty Copeland ousted the two performers after they found themselves in the week's bottom-six dancers based on home viewer votes cast immediately following last week's show. With Malene and Nick now out of the running, 18 contestants remain.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Malene talked about her So You Think You Can Dance experience. Below is the first half. Check back with us soon for the concluding portion.

Reality TV World: Were you surprised to be eliminated and what was going through your mind when the results were revealed? When I just talked to Nick, he admitted he was pissed off but you looked pretty content with the news. (Laughs)

Malene Ostergaard: I mean, I kind of had a feeling that, if I were in the bottom three, I was going out. Because I didn't feel like our routine was as strong as it could've been. But at the same time, I'm also, of course, upset that I didn't get a chance to stay on the show for longer and prove what else I could really do.


Reality TV World: Do you find it a coincidence that you and Nick are both ballroom dancers and you were the first two finalists eliminated from the show? Do you think America was missing something? Because I noticed Brooklyn Fullmer and Serge Onik were also in the bottom six and are ballroom dancers as well.

Malene Ostergaard: Yeah, we were four ballroom dancers in the bottom six, which was a lot. But at the same time, they also took on six ballroom dancers this year. So, I mean, it's not -- we're not the strongest dancers if you look at all the styles that we're supposed to do on the show.

Like, when you're only trained in that [one thing] from when you grow up and many of the other dancers -- if they are contemporary, they also learn jazz and they learn hip hop and they're supposed to train themselves -- they are, of course, stronger than us.

So, I think a lot of the fans from the show are looking forward to those contemporary routines and things like that, so it's hard to compete with that as a ballroom dancer.

Reality TV World: The judges clearly weren't big fans of the whole telephone prop idea. They liked it in the beginning of the dance but not the end. Also, your choreographer added kicks and such into the routine only for the judges to pick up on the fact you weren't very flexible. Did you kind of feel like your elimination was out of your hands because it was more the choreography the judges didn't like?


Malene Ostergaard: Mhmm. Well, yeah. I mean, they said that they didn't like it, and that's, of course, very upsetting for me, because who knew what could've happened if I had a different routine. [But] within the same time, it's my job to dance and try to do the routine the best possible way, and I did everything I could. I was happy that [my choreographer Spencer Liff] gave me kicks so that I could challenge myself.

I wasn't, you know, I'm not the type of dancer that just wants to go in there and then [say], "Oh, don't give me anything that I can't do!" Because that will not get me anywhere. So I'm happy about [the fact] I fought for it and that I got the routine to work, and I think we did the best we could've done.

And then the judges [not] liking it, of course that's very sad, but it's not something that I would change now. There's nothing I can do about it. It was Broadway and that's what we were supposed to do, so.

Reality TV World: The judges noted there wasn't chemistry or much of a connection between you and Stanley Glover -- like you were almost dancing two different pieces. Did you feel the same way or no? Was that something you two worked hard on or kind of overlooked?

Malene Ostergaard: Yeah, I mean, we actually worked on that the entire week because we knew that we didn't have -- we didn't have one single step actually touching each other. So we knew that the only thing that would make us look like a couple was connecting, and we worked a lot on that.


But at the same time, it was also hard because we didn't have physical contact. So, our connection was, you know, more of an eye-contact and a feeling, and I definitely felt like we had that onstage. And, you know, it just didn't come across. It was probably the thing that upset me the most, because I felt like we had it, so that was a shame that they couldn't see it or feel it.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Malene talked about her So You Think You Can Dance experience. Above is the first half. Check back with us soon for the concluding portion.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski