Caitlin & Phillip with Cat

Caitlin & Phillip with Cat

Caitlin Kinney and Phillip Chbeeb were eliminated in a bittersweet episode on Thursday. Both were hoping to make the Top 10, but after being eliminated at the Top 12 mark, Executive Producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe announced that Caitlin and Phillip will be joining the Top 10 as alternate dancers during the fall Season 5 So You Think You Can Dance tour. The day after the tough elimination, Caitlin and Phillip opened up about their time on the show.

Phillip Chbeeb won over the hearts of America last season when he auditioned for Season 4. After suffering from pneumonia during Vegas week, Phillip had to withdraw from the competition. Fortunately, Phillip was asked to perform during the Season 4 finale. After taking a year to train and become a well-rounded dancer, a healthy Phillip auditioned for Season 5 and made it onto the show. Although Phillip was the dancer with the least amount of formal training, his personality and mind-blowing pop locking moves made him one of America’s favorite dancers.

As an Engineering Physics major at Loyola Marymount University, Phillip stated, “The major itself is so stressful that I really needed an outlet of some sort and I feel like dance has provided that easily whenever engineering gets too stressful.” He explained that his style of dance is very calculated and mathematical, so the two go hand-in-hand. Just as Phillip was encountering some difficulties finding a way to pay for college, he found out he’d be touring with Dance. Now, Phillip can take the semester off of school and save up money while he’s touring, before heading back for the following semester. Phillip said, “It’s amazing how things work out. It’s a blessing.” As for the future, Phillip is going to start choreographing because that’s his main passion. He hopes to be able to choreograph for So You Think You Can Dance in the future. Meanwhile, he will continue to follow his physics ambitions.

A standout routine this season for Phillip was when he performed hip hop to “Love Lockdown” with Jeanine. In this dance, Phillip and Jeanine were chained together at the ankles, and they encountered every obstacle imaginable while trying to rehearse the dance. “Just getting through that piece and making Napoleon and Tabitha proud, because I know that was probably one of the most difficult pieces they’ve had to put on anybody, was a great thing,” Phillip admitted. He said his entire time on the show was an uphill battle due to his lack of training.

Phillip was feeling mixed emotions on Thursday night after finding out he was cut, but that he made it to the tour. Ultimately, Phillip decided, “If it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go, and the fact that I’m on tour makes it all worth it.” He thinks the Top 10 dancers are all amazing. In regards to the tour, Phillip is most looking forward to more bonding time with his fellow dancers. Lastly, Phillip would like to say thanks to all of his fans for the continuous support.

Caitlin Kinney started off as a gymnast before taking up classical ballet. As a dancer, she learned to fuse her acrobatics with ballet, thanks to some great teachers along the way. Since Caitlin took up dance later in life, she said, “My passion for it has never wavered or dwindled and I’m still going strong.”

Right after finding out she wasn’t advancing to the Top 10, Nigel announced on the live show that Caitlin and Jason would join their fellow Top 10 dancers on the road this summer. Caitlin reflected on the moment when she heard the news and said, “I think that was really touching for us to have them have that kind of faith in us and know right away that we add something to the group and that they really want us on tour. That meant the world to us.”

Caitlin and Jason started off the show with the tricky Bollywood routine that they mastered. During this routine, they showed instant versatility, strength, and chemistry. Caitlin said it wasn’t as easy as it looked, and she and Jason stayed up all night trying to master the finger positions. And the handstand that kicked off the routine wasn’t originally in the choreography, until Jason mentioned to the choreographers that Caitlin is a talented gymnast. Caitlin practiced her inverted dance moves in the corner of the rehearsal room, and the choreographers thought it was great and added it to the number. Recently, the judges commented that they didn’t see chemistry between Caitlin and Jason. Caitlin was shocked to hear this because she said that out of all the couples, she thinks she and Jason were the closest and they always hung out together. Ultimately, she thinks that the judges felt this way because they showed incredible chemistry in their Bollywood performance that ended with a kiss, so there was no way to grow their chemistry from there. Caitlin has no regrets though: “Jason and I are great friends. I just had a wonderful time working with him. We got along so well. I wouldn’t have had any other partner.”

Caitlin was in the bottom three couples three times this season. Although that can be very frustrating, Caitlin said she became the “mom” of the bottom three and would always cheer on her fellow dancers and ease their worries. Always an optimist, Caitlin said that being in the bottom three often provided her more opportunities to dance on the stage. This experience has also taught her some valuable advice to “always question yourself, but never doubt yourself.” If Caitlin had the opportunity to stay on the show, she would have liked to have performed a contemporary routine and a waltz.

In a message to her fans, Caitlin said, “Thank you to everyone who supported me on the show and for the outpouring of love and support I got from people who I’ve never met before, and who I don’t know and don’t know me, but were touched by my dancing. That means the world. So thank you to all those people who did, and I’ll see them on tour.”