‘So You Think You Can Dance’: Jamie Bayard and Rayven Armijo say goodbye

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‘I think we both did really, really well for a ballet dancer and a ballroom dancer doing hip-hop,’ mused recently eliminated ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ contestant Jamie Bayard during a conference call with the media this morning.

Then, predictably, the conversation turned to Jamie’s Janet Jackson moment; during his choreographed routine Wednesday, Jamie’s partner pulled his pants down, revealing his underwear. It was meant to be cute, but Nigel Lythgoe thought the brazen move might have offended viewers. When talking about the incident, Jamie took the Miley Cyrus ‘you can’t say no to Annie’ route. He explained that the choreographers put the move in his dance, and you simply don’t say no to choreographers. Jamie did not, however, suggest he was uncomfortable with the move. ‘I have no shame, obviously,’ he chuckled.

As for Nigel’s assertion Wednesday night that Jamie and Rayven’s chances could have been hurt by performing first, Jamie agreed. Nigel is the creator and judge of the show, Jamie explained. ‘He has a lot of validity.’ Jamie also didn’t think that his lack of airtime helped him much. Still, for the most part, Jamie wasn’t pointing any fingers. ‘Someone had to go, and it just turned out it was us,’ he stated simply.

All in all, Jamie sees himself as a winner, not a loser. ‘If anything, 20 million people saw me dance, and that’s a good thing!’ Sounds like a pretty healthy attitude.

Next, we caught up with Jamie’s partner, recently eliminated contestant Rayven Armijo. And she wasn’t making any apologies. Although Nigel questioned Rayven’s decision to do her final dance on demi-pointe instead of full-pointe, Rayven stood by her choice. ‘I just thought that it was a better decision,’ she said. ‘I wanted to accentuate my jumps … it was just different, but the same thing.’

Not only did Rayven stand by her decision to dance on demi-pointe, she also expressed pride about the dance itself. ‘I thought I executed everything really well,’ she said emphatically. ‘I thought I did an excellent performance.’

So, was being the first couple to perform the kiss of death? Rayven wasn’t sure. ‘Timing is everything, right? It’s possible that the timing just wasn’t there for us.’

All in all, however, she was overjoyed about her performance Wednesday. ‘I think we hit those like a hip-hop dancer would,’ stressed Rayven, who was out of her element in the hip-hop routine.

Rayven seemed proud and unapologetic about every move she made in the competition; a confidence that is probably crucial for survival in the dance world. But even the fiercely confident Rayven admitted she’d had her moments of doubt. ‘It’s that point where you think, ‘Is this it? Should I just stop? Are my dreams crushed?’ ‘ And that’s when Rayven answered her own question: ‘No way.’

-- Stephanie Lysaght