Kourtni Lind said she got so caught up in appearing on So You Think You Can Dance she forgot why she initially auditioned for the show.

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"The fact that you're doing a national television show... I kind of got sucked into it the first couple weeks I was there, and then -- in the middle of things -- I was like, 'What am I doing?  I'm dancing every single day of my life and this is all that I want to do, and I'm missing that in my head right now and in my heart.' So it really changed the way that I went on stage, and I ended up just dancing purely because I enjoy the fact that I can speak with my body and it's the only thing that I'm so passionate about in my life," she told reporters during a Tuesday conference call.

"It made me feel so much centered and so much better every time I was dancing.  I think that's what [So You Think You Can Dance judge Nigel Lythgoe] was maybe talking about when he would say that I'm missing the sparkle in my eye, and I think I got it back after I listened to him.  So that was probably one of the most helpful comments to me was just to kind of put me in check and be like, 'I need to be doing this because I love this and I'm sharing this with the world.'"

The 18-year-old jazz/contemporary dancer from Forest Lake, MN who currently resides in Sherman Oaks, CA and her Matt Dorame found themselves among the bottom three couples based on home viewer votes cast immediately following last Wednesday night's performance episode and were subsequently ousted from So You Think You Can Dance's fourth season by the show's three judges.

Despite the difficulty of finding herself among the bottom three vote getters three out of her four weeks in the competition, Lind said it at least gave her some tough skin.

"I learned a lot about myself and the way I work with people and just working with a partner so closely and just to not let anything get to me, as far as comments and critique and all that," she explained. 

"I learned very well to absorb it and to learn from it, but to not let it bring me down and to not let it get me discouraged -- which is a big thing too that I've struggled with living here in L.A. for the past year -- and so I feel like I have a very good head on my shoulders coming out of the whole experience."

Lind and Dorame were criticized during last Wednesday night's performance episode for lacking the necessary chemistry, a comment she found a bit surprising.

"We have so much chemistry off stage, just as people.  I love him to death.  He was amazing to work with.  I was so happy to have him as my partner," she said. 

"On stage, I don't really know what happened.  It could have been, I guess, a brotherly/sisterly kind of thing because I was so comfortable around him.  It really was a very comfortable friendship that we had, and so I don't know.  That might have played into it, I guess, but I felt like we did good working together and we both had a lot of trust in each other onstage, and I really value that in a partner, so it was great."

As for what's next, Lind said she plans on using her So You Think You Can Dance journey as a "springboard" for her career.

"I'm just kind of taking it all as it comes," she said.  "I'm already back in class and training and continuing that, and so hopefully, from here, I'll get some work and meet some people and just take off."
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio

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