'So You Think' dancer Channing Cooke: My personality didn't show

Channing Cooke says she isn't too surprised her technique was praised on So You Think You Can Dance while her lack of personality was criticized.


"I have been working on my technique for about 15 years, so the technique part will always be there.  It's just the personality didn't come through on the show as much as I had hoped it would have," Cooke told reporters during a Thursday afternoon conference call. 

"But they're both very strong points that I have, just one came through more to them than the other."

The 18-year-old contemporary dancer from Haverhill, MA was eliminated from So You Think You Can Dance's sixth season during Wednesday night's live results show, and she expressed some regrets when speaking to reporters.

"I guess I would have gotten my face in the camera a little more and shown people more of myself, but they only give you so little time to do that," she explained.  "I guess I just wish that I had jumped in front of the camera more."


Cooke understands her personality may have been a problem, however she said what viewers saw of her on So You Think You Can Dance isn't a complete representation of who she is.

"Everyone has their opinion, but it's just like what the show puts across and what they air and what they show.  What they showed of me isn't all of me, so just because of what America got to see of me, they might not have connected with it as much as other people," she said.

"[Partner Victor Smalley] and I had a great partnership and I wish it showed through a little more, but it is what it is, reality in situation.

Cooke and Smalley performed a jazz routine to a Bobby McFerrin song during Tuesday night's performance episode, and while she acknowledged it was possible that there might have been a "disconnect" with the audience she had no problem with choreographer Tyce Diorio's decision.

"Tyce was trying to do something different and he decided to go with a different choice of music and see how the American public liked it," she told reporters.


"I thought it was a cool dance, and I thought that the choreography went well with the music.  Everyone has their opinions, and I thought the song was cool and different.  I think the show needed something like that."

Despite being booted before making the Top 10, Cooke said she learned a lot about herself during her So You Think You Can Dance journey.

"I feel that now I can push myself through boundaries that I had set before, that I can keep on going and going and going to places that I never thought were possible," she told reporters.  "I'm never going to set limits on myself ever again because I know that I can break them."






About The Author: Christopher Rocchio