'So You Think You Can Dance' finalist Carlos Garland: I did my best despite how Nigel Lythgoe felt

So You Think You Can Dance eliminated Carlos Garland along with Brittany Cherry during last Tuesday night's live show on Fox.


Carlos, a 24-year-old contemporary dancer from Jacksonville, FL, and Brittany, a 19-year-old Latin ballroom dancer from Toluca Lake, CA, and were ousted by So You Think You Can Dance judges Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy and guest judge Christina Applegate after they found themselves in last Tuesday night's bottom-six dancers based on home viewer votes cast immediately following the previous week's show, which had featured the season's Top 20 finalists performing.

Carlos and Brittany's elimination, which occurred after they were both forced to dance for their lives, determined the tenth season's Top 18 contestants going into tonight's show.
 
During a recent conference call with reporters, Carlos talked to Reality TV World about his So You Think You Can Dance experience. Below is what he had to say.

Reality TV World:  Were you surprised to be voted into the bottom-six dancers, and then also, were you surprised the judges eliminated you?

Carlos Garland:  I was surprised to be in the bottom.  Oh, actually, I wasn't, because I did the jive and I think that's a hard dance for people to vote on.  But when we were in the bottom, I was surprised that the judges did eliminated us -- as anyone would be surprised, because you never know their reasoning for who they chose or what they chose, but you know it's for some reason.


Reality TV World:  Nigel was not impressed with your dance for your life performance -- not just for you, but for Brittany, Mariah Spears and Jade Zuberi as well.  How do you feel about your own performance?  Do you feel like you gave that dance your all or would you agree with Nigel that maybe you didn't showcase your best and maybe you weren't truly dancing for your life?

Carlos Garland:  You can always do better than what you've done before, but at the same time, you do give your best.  And I think that's what we did given the circumstances.

Reality TV World:  As a contemporary dancer, you had to perform the jive with Mariah last week and the judges main criticism was kind of that the moves seemed a little too fast for you guys to keep up with.  I'm just wondering whether you kind of think the choreography lead to your demise rather than the skills that you showcased during that performance. 

Carlos Garland:  Yeah, the dance was difficult, but that has nothing to do with our job as dancers and the ways to execute them.  Once we're given the choreography, it's our responsibility to perform as well as we can, and I feel I did my best and so did Mariah. 

The jive is a whole new language for a hip-hop dancer, and [the job of a] dancer is to try to get the technique perfectly down.  So we focused on performing it well, and I thought we did.


Reality TV World:  How many times did you actually audition for the show and what made you want to try out for So You Think You Can Dance originally?

Carlos Garland:  This was my third time auditioning.  I auditioned in Season 4 and 5.  I sucked back then, so I didn't even make it to Vegas.  But this time, I had more confidence in myself and I had more training, and I thought I showed that to the judges.  They did remember me from previous seasons.

Below are some additional details from Carlos' call.

What is the one thing that you'll take away from this overall experience of being a part of the audition process and the show?

Carlos Garland:  Definitely meeting new friends and family.  We've grown so close to each other and we all went through this process together, so that was definitely going to be the most -- take away, because we all worked together doing the same thing.  


We woke up together.  We ate together.  We went into the same process and learned choreography and worked hard and pushed our bodies and minds to the limit, so that's [the same] with everyone.

Do you have any plans in the short-term or the long-term now that you've been eliminated from the show?

Carlos Garland:  Yeah, the plan is always the same even before the show, just to keep dancing and working as much as you can.  Eventually I would like to start my own company and start branching into choreography as well as performing at the same time, so hopefully some new doors will be opening for me.

Which choreographer do you feel pulled the most out of you?

Carlos Garland:  For me, it definitely was [Stacey Tookey]... It was definitely more of an emotional side that I don't display that much and she definitely helped me soften up my qualities and helped me to achieve something new.


Click here to read our interview with Brittany.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski