Rayven Armijo said she had mixed emotions upon learning she was the first female finalist eliminated from So You Think You Can Dance's fourth season.

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"Definitely at first I was proud of myself.  I thanked myself for actually pushing forward to keep moving and doing this," she told Reality TV World in a Friday conference call. 

"But after that thought went through I was disappointed because I wanted to work with all the choreographers.  I wanted to keep the experience going.  I wanted to show America my potential, and I know they would have fallen in love with me."

The 28-year-old contemporary/ballet dancer from La Puente, CA and her partner Jamie Bayard found themselves among the bottom three couples based on home viewer votes cast immediately following Wednesday night's performance episode and were subsequently ousted by the show's three judges.

Armijo and Bayard performed a fast hip-hop routine choreographed by Napoleon and Tabitha D'Umo during Wednesday night's performance episode.

"I felt completely at home," Armijo told reporters about the routine.  "It's amazing that I felt so comfortable.  I was just completely excited.  I didn't mix the feeling of excitement with the feeling of fear.  I was completely happy and I know that I practiced and I know that I did well.  So the audience was really feeding off of me.  They made me feel good."

However the two were the first pair to perform during Wednesday's two-hour broadcast, a fact that So You Think You Can Dance judge and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe commented might hurt them with home viewers.

Armijo told Reality TV World it was "possible" that performing first had an impact on the outcome of them being in the bottom three.

"I mean, timing is everything, right?  It's possible that the timing just wasn't there for us," she said.  "I definitely know that we did an excellent job.  We obviously were well-rehearsed.  We worked all night to get that to perfection.  I thought we did really well as a ballroom dancer and ballerina -- I think we hit those like hip-hop dancers would."

After learning that she was in the bottom three, Armijo had to perform her solo routine for the judges in the hopes it would be impressive enough to move into the Top 18. 

However she was instead criticized by Lythgoe for dancing demi-point instead of point -- as he called the decision a "little strange" and the performance "not strong enough."

"I just felt it was a better decision," Armijo explained to reporters.  "I wanted to accentuate my jumps and my heights and my strength instead of the gracefulness of point.  It's like ballroom when you do jive or samba.  It was just different, but the same thing."

Despite the negative critique from Lythgoe, Armijo said she was "definitely proud" of her solo routine.

"I thought I executed everything really well," she said.  "I danced with all my heart and I really had a connection with the audience -- I'm sure of it, I felt it.  I thought I did an excellent performance."

As for what's next, Armijo said she's going to continue to pursue dance even though she has already almost given up on it once before.

"I want to be successful in dance, and I was almost going to leave it for a moment and move on to another career.  I just thought I'd try it one more time," she said.  "I think I was completely successful and I want to move forward with it.  So I'm going to keep doing other things and pursue this career for a while."
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio

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