I have seen many shocking dismissals in reality television. LaToya London on American Idol comes to mind. James on Survivor China is another. I certainly didn’t think that Carly Rae Jepsen should have left Canadian Idol without the crown. But I can tell you in all certainty that the exits of Arassay Reyes and Vincent Noiseux from So You Think You Can Dance Canada left me completely and totally stunned. The second the results were announced, my Blackberry started going crazy with messages and e-mails asking what had happened. I didn’t really have an explanation. I couldn’t understand what Canada was thinking and it was the first time in a long time that I think voters got it completely wrong. Arassay and Vincent should not have left the show. Leaving objectivity at the door, their performances were flawless last Wednesday and certainly better than those of Natalli (who missed steps in the krump) and Izaak (who looked completely unmotivated, despite dancing with the beautiful Reyes). It just didn’t make sense. And it forced me to get to the bottom of the issue. What better way to do it than by asking the eliminated contestants themselves what had happened. Along the way, I also asked them about what it was like competing on a show where the winner has seemed cast in stone since the competition began (Nico) and what they think the tour will be like. They can dance, but I can interview. The result is magic and one of my favorite chats of 2008.
Murtz Jaffer: What happened? I have never seen a reality show ending more shocking than the one I just saw.
Vincent Noiseux: That’s a good question. My explanation would be that people voted more for other people. I don’t think that people didn’t like our choreographies or our performances or us. I think they maybe just voted more for the other guys. Or maybe they thought (because this happens a lot) that we would be safe for sure so they just didn’t vote for us. They gave their vote to someone who might need it more than us. I don’t know but at that point in the competition, it’s like what everybody says. It’s so tight and everybody is so good that I think that every week is going to be surprising. I think yesterday (Thursday) was even more because I don’t think me and Arassay did anything wrong this week. We performed really well.
Arassay Reyes: I think we both did really good. Even with different partners and different styles every week, our connection with the partner was there and I think we tried to do the best routine for the show. Even with the different style that we had to learn in a short time. I really think that it’s not our fault. We did the best. We really did the best. Canada has to vote everytime. Not just vote for your friends or vote for a cute face. Vote for the people that you really want to stay.
MJ: I think both of you had interesting partners in your last week on the show. Arassay, you were partnered with Izaak who the judges have been after since he got into the Top 10. Why do you think he stayed and you left? It didn’t make a lot of sense to me because the judges kept saying to you that you were a ‘beast’ and that Izaak had to pull up his socks. Why is he still there and you’re not?
AR: I think that is the point. The people think that I was safe. Even the judges give me very very good comments.
VN: And you have never been in the bottom three.
AR: Exactly, so that’s why I think the people thought I would be safe and I didn’t get enough votes to stay. At the same time, Izaak worked hard. He really worked hard. The people like Izaak. I don’t know… he really is a nice nice person but at the same time he have to push more. And the people want to help him. So I think that is the point of why he is going to stay (for) a long time.
MJ: Vincent, you were partnered with Natalli who made some mistakes in the krump routine. Why do you think she stayed despite these mistakes while you were eliminated?
VN: Yeah, that’s it. She kind of forgot a bit of the choreography in the krump. I think she redeemed herself with the contemporary because she did really well and I was really excited about that performance because we both knew that for her it was a chance to show another side because people weren’t really categorizing her as the sexy, sassy Latin dancer so for her it was a chance to show people that she was so much more than that. I think that might have helped her stay too. People might have voted for her because of the mistakes she made in the krump, ‘let’s give her a few more votes so she can stay and she showed something even more with the contemporary.’ I think she redeemed herself that way. I think sometimes people say that… I don’t want to say ‘too good’ because it sounds a bit cocky and that’s not what I want to say but when you perform well and you don’t make mistakes, sometimes for people it gets boring. I don’t know if you follow me…
MJ: I do.
VN: So I think that’s what happened with Arassay… they take the results for granted. They think for sure they’re going to be safe and I think that’s why everybody is shocked. I think for people, it was not a matter of ‘we don’t like them’ or ‘we don’t like their performance.’ It was just, ‘let’s help someone who maybe needs it more.’ Thinking that we would still be there too. I think that’s why people were surprised and I think that’s why me and Arassay are not taking it too personal. We know it’s not bad and we both know that people enjoyed our performances. We got so many great comments even since yesterday (Thursday). Our Facebooks and e-mails, we have to check them like every 20 minutes! We got a lot of great comments.
MJ: How much of the vote depends on who you are partnered with?
VN: Absolutely.
AR: Yes.
VN: Obviously at the beginning, some people like some couples more than others because we’re five weeks with the same person. Obviously if they like one couple, they are going to start following them a bit more and then when you get to Top 10, if they like let’s say this person and now he is paired with this person that maybe had a little bit more hard time, well obviously it’s going to help that person. Also, I think it’s such a good thing that we switch partners at Top 10 because it just shows…
AR: Many people want to see something different and when they see the first time one couple, they see whether it’s the same match or the same energy, the same look. When you switch, it’s totally different. You sometimes get lost. Okay, I like that one… but oh no, look at that one with this one. Sometime people like seeing the different styles with different partners, how they can match together.
VN: I did a contemporary with Lisa and then I did a contemporary with Natalli and some people might be thinking it’s never going to be the same because Lisa’s a contemporary dancer and so am I so I think it creates a surprise effect which I think is really good. Same thing for when me and Arassay did the disco. I don’t think people were sure about what it was going to be like and I think it was a good surprise because it worked so well and we enjoyed our time so much. The choreography was so much fun and obviously it helps a lot.
MJ: Arassay, do you think you were overshadowed by Nico’s immense popularity when you were initially with him? When you’re at the theatre and watching it live, it’s always like HEEEEEEEEEEEERE’S NICO (and whoever he’s dancing with) because the girls in the audience go so crazy for him. Did you ever feel overshadowed?
AR: I tried to do the best on the stage anytime that I was with Nico. Everybody loves Nico. He’s an amazing person, he’s an amazing dancer but I think everybody has something special to show and I have that. Even the fans of the people that I like right now, I give that something special of me to them as well. I don’t think that nobody is going to pull you down. You have to be sure that you show what you really got. Your heart and your passion and who you are. I think I showed that. Of course the ladies love Nico! It’s more like Nico’s my partner and I am beside him but we both have to be together because if I am not a good partner as a dancer, all the choreography is not going to go well.
MJ: But you had to know that he was safe. There’s no way he was going home so to me, as his partner, the pressure wouldn’t be there when you were partnered with him, you weren’t going anywhere. At that time, the voting was for teams so you had to know you were safe when you were with Nico. Did that take the pressure off?
AR: No. Because I have to show who I am and I have to show that I am really here because I love it. It’s not like I don’t have to worry because my partner is the best dancer, the best cute face… I just want to be with him at the same level and he wants to be with me at the same level. If that don’t happen, we might be in the bottom already.
MJ: Vincent, Canadian Idol is notorious for the province of Quebec not voting as much as the other provinces. Do you think this was a problem for dance this season? You left this week and Danny left last week. Why do the people in Quebec not vote as much?
VN: There’s this whole language thing which we have to face. Obviously the French people are going to watch more French TV. It totally makes sense. The reason why I don’t think it might not have happened that much with us is because there’s no real dance show in Quebec. We have our French version but it is also a singing contest so I think maybe that’s why people are paying more attention to this show than Canadian Idol because we have a version, but for dancing, it’s the first-ever show based on dance in Canada which makes it really attractive I think and I just think the fact that we were so many people from Quebec in the Top 20. I mean we were five of the 10 guys. We were half of the guys. Usually on Canadian Idol there’s maybe one or two people from Quebec but we were half the guys which is such an achievement.
MJ: And I guess looking at it from that perspective, Quebec did vote…
VN: Exactly. We were so proud. We were three out of five that made it to Top 10 and I got cut this week, but Nico is still there so I mean like we couldn’t ask for more. We’re really happy with the support. Maybe it could be a bit more but we have to know that obviously this language thing is always going to be there. Some people don’t care. They’re going to watch the show whatever, and we have our friends and the dance schools in Montreal where we teach and learn so we have people behind us. It’s two different worlds between the dancing and singing and I think maybe that’s why.
MJ: Arassay, I think it is fair to say that this is the sexiest Canadian show in a long time. How do you feel about the lack of clothing the girls wear almost every week or do you just become used to it? Is it ever weird, because you know your parents are watching it?
AR: (Laughs). Especially the last time! I was almost naked! You know what? I like it. I really like it because on TV it looked fine. Sometimes it looks different than you even really imagined. Sometimes when you wear it, you like ‘oh my god, I am totally naked… I can’t dance like that’ but when you watch it on TV, it’s totally different.
VN: It’s for show purpose.
MJ: Because everybody is dressed like that.
AR: Exactly.
MJ: I want to ask you this though. Do they come up to you and say ‘listen, you gotta wear this’ or can you say ‘no, I don’t want to wear that… it’s not cool.’
AR: They come and say ‘do you want to wear this?’ ‘Your choreographer wants you to wear this’ and they are like ‘let’s try’ and they fix it.
MJ: But if you really don’t like it…
VN: They’re open, they’re open.
AR: Like if you don’t like it, they try to do the best. If you don’t like it, then they tell you to give them your choice. ‘Give me an option.’ Then they say ‘okay, well we can put it…’ They are really open.
MJ: And when do they give the outfits to you? How far in advance before the show do you know what you’re going to wear?
VN: Not much actually. We have fittings usually one or two days before the show and we basically have one dress rehearsal so we get to do the numbers with our costumes once before the show which is kind of crazy, even moreso for the girls. We get the shoes usually because if the girls have to dance in heels… For the guys? I am used to dancing barefoot and when I did the samba, I had to wear the Latin shoes which have a little heel so it is really really different. The shoes we have them for rehearsal the whole time.
MJ: Vincent, you made a very interesting decision this week with your solo as you danced a hip hop routine (even though this isn’t the style most know you for). How did you make the decision? Was it because you had a sense that you might go and you wanted to try something and go out with a bang?
VN: Actually, I am both. I did more contemporary on the show but I was trained in hip hop as much as in contemporary. So that’s why. I tried every week to go with something different. Like if my duet was a contemporary then I would maybe do something jazz-funk or a bit more uptempo than something more emotional. If my duet was a hip hop, then I would go with something more contemporary. I tried to just switch it a bit. My last hip hop was awhile ago and this week, I just didn’t know what was going to happen and people hadn’t seen me really do my hip hop yet so I said you know what? If it’s my last week, I am just going to do something different and have fun on stage and that’s exactly what happened. I am not just one style. I like to fuse everything. There were also a lot of hip hop dancers in the competition so sometimes I just liked to go with more technique.
MJ: Can you both tell me more about the selection process. In the top 10, you pick new partners and new dances. Do the girls always pick and is it completely random?
AR: The girls pick… sometimes.
VN: They switch it up sometimes.
AR: Mostly the girls. We pick the partners and the guys pick the dance.
MJ: So the krump dance that Little C has choreographed. It doesn’t matter who picks it, it will be the same dance for all right?
VN: I think it depends on the choreographer.
AR: They need to see you. They need to see how you can do it. What is the best. Even if you’re not a hip hop dancer, they want to see you. If they have the choreography ready, they can switch it.
MJ: Depending on who it is.
AR: Depending on who it is.
MJ: Last night (Thursday), Leah compared your exits to Will leaving from the U.S. version of the show. I am very interested to know how you felt about this because I saw it and I was like, is she minimizing them by comparing them to the U.S. show? Did it bother you that she was making a comparison to the U.S. show?
VN: Oh, absolutely not. I think it was not done in a bad way. I think what Leah was trying to do was… I think Leah was really sad. She’s always really sad and she’s always having a really hard time because she’s a very emotional and sensitive person. She’s close to tears almost every week and I think this week was even more intense for her because I think even she wasn’t prepared to see both of us leave at the same time but you know what? I think the comparison was actually right. I am very humble and I don’t take anything for granted but I know what I am worth and I know that I had the capacity (same with Arassay) to stay there longer so I just think that’s what she was trying to say to people. It’s actually funny because it’s really the same thing that happened. Will got cut at Top 8, in the exact same moment in the competition and I think that’s why the comparison was even stronger and even more effective. It really didn’t bother me at all. I absolutely got where she was going with it.
AR: I think that Will was the best technical dancer on the show…
MJ: Yeah, but they had Joshua, Twitch and Will who were all the same type of dancer…
AR: It’s not about how good or how great you are as a dancer.
VN: It’s Canada’s favorite dancer. That’s why they keep repeating it so people can make up their minds. Obviously sometimes people forget. It’s a dance show so people get caught up and believe that it should be about the dancing.
AR: It should be!
VN: And maybe sometimes it can be frustrating, even for us…
MJ: Is there anyway Nico doesn’t win? I could bet you my house, well, my parents’ house that he’s going to win this and I think that most people feel that way. I wanted to know if you’re not Nico, how does that effect you? When you’re sitting there and Nico comes out, it’s so loud and when anybody else comes out, it’s not as loud. I wonder if that ever plays in your mind.
VN: You have to know yourself. For my part, I obviously know that Nico is very popular because he’s a very good dancer and bonus, he’s friggen good-looking.
AR: (Laughs).
VN: It helps him? Fine, take it boy. You’re lucky. I know what I am worth. I know how I can dance.
AR: You have to be proud of what you do. We know how we dance and we know how do on the show. If he has the loud crowd, if he has 100,000 girls screaming for him, he still has to work hard. We have to work hard. He’s a really good dancer.
VN: I think that’s why we are reacting so well. We’re not getting affected. We don’t take it personal. We don’t put our dancing in question because we both know we can dance. That has nothing to do with it. That’s why we react well. I am not going to cry and be like ‘oh, people don’t like my dancing.’ I know that has nothing to do with it. That’s what this show is about. If I am not the most good-looking or the most popular, I am fine with it. I came to that show and I knew what it was about. So it’s totally fair. We knew in advance. We watched the American version.
AR: If this show is about popularity, it’s going to be Nico for sure. Or maybe Izaak. Izaak has many fans too.
MJ: Oh no. No way. If he wins, I want you to come and find me.
VN: You could be surprised!
MJ: I would be shocked.
VN: So would we!
MJ: Can you tell me your favorite routines from this season?
AR: Well, my favorite routine was the disco with Vincent.
MJ: That’s only because he is sitting here right?
AR: No! (Laughs). I had so much fun working with Vincent and to do the disco which is so different. I liked the theatre one with Nico. The story of it was so special and I think everybody in this world has that kind of a story. Somebody in the world who wants to really help you. Even when you don’t want to live or be in this world, there’s always somebody who comes. The feelings of that story for me was so important.
VN: Yeah, the disco but she already said that. I think that was such a good week for us and I think people were really surprised because we both showed a very different side. It was kind of funny to see the reaction of the people. First I have to say, my first contemporary with Lisa just for the simple reason that Stacey Tookey is my favorite choreographer of the whole season. She did my first duet and she did my last duet with Natalli (which is kind of funny to me). I just enjoyed doing her choreography so much and with Lisa, I mean she was just such a good partner and with the stress of doing the first show ever, the first Top 20 show, doing a contemporary I was so nervous and after the performance I was so happy with how it went so for me it’s always going to be one of the strong numbers. Also the House because it was the first time, I think in North America that we were showcasing House on the show because they didn’t have it on the American version. So for us, it was really cool to showcase that and let people discover the style and Sho-Tyme did a great job. We had so much fun with it. I am hoping we get to do it again, maybe on the tour.
MJ: Have they told you which dances are going to be included on the tour?
AR: Not yet. We have no idea.
VN: We know we’re going to do a lot of numbers from the Top 10 because it’s all the people who are going to be there. We cannot do the numbers with the people that were there before so that’s going to play in it but we have no idea. We’re going to know when we start rehearsal.
MJ: And you guys didn’t know when you made the Top 20 that there was going to be a tour right?
AR: We just found out… a week ago? Or two weeks ago?
MJ: I guess my question is that if you didn’t know about it when you signed up, did they have to come to you and ask what your plans are after the show because you didn’t know what you would be doing after right?
VN: They told us to be prepared because obviously we knew there was a possibility, we just didn’t know that it was for sure going to happen because since this is the first year, they had to watch how popular the show would be and if it would be worth it to do a tour. And so we kind of knew and they kind of told us to try and be available after. That’s why it was kind of easy when they told us, we were jumping.
AR: So excited.
VN: And everybody kind of knew. We were just waiting for a confirmation.
MJ: It’s a big deal! Because for the Canadian Idol tour, the venues aren’t that big. You guys are going to be at the Air Canada Centre!
VN: It’s going to be awesome. Just the fact that we tour. I have had the chance to do some touring (nothing as big as this) but just small tours before with other French-Canadian artists. It’s just so much fun and we’re already so close and doing that tour is just going to make it 10 times better and doing the numbers that we all loved. We’re going to get to spend more time together. It’s just going to be fun. Pure fun.
MJ: That’s awesome, thank you.
VN & AR: Thank you.
