You know I love me some SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE but I’ve been so busy this summer that I haven’t had time to participate in the weekly eliminated dancer calls. However, that doesn’t mean everyone should miss out on what the fallen have to say!

This past week, Karla Garcia and Vitolio Jeune took questions from the press (and bloggers) about their time on the show, being eliminated and what their plans are for the future.

Here are some of the questions and answers for your enjoyment… hey, we have to kill some time before tonight’s SYTYCD Top 12 Perform!

Question for Karla: I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your week with Vitolio. I know you guys didn’t have that much time together as a couple, did you feel like that was a hindrance or how did it go for you?

Karla: Yes, it was really hard because after Jonathan got eliminated I was really emotional just because we got really attached over the past few weeks and then all of a sudden I had to be paired up with a brand new partner. We had to find that connection and that chemistry in very little time, plus the added layer of having the hardest dance style ever on the show that we had to work with. So it was a challenge but I think we’re both professionals and I think we both had that motivation to show America that we can attack this kiss of death, and that’s what we shared together and that’s what brought us together, I think. So that made it easier.

Question for Karla: Could you go on a little bit more about that, about the quick step being the kiss of death. I know it looks really hard when we see it in the audience and everyone refers to it as the kiss of death, but tell us more about why it’s so hard.

Karla: Yes, when we opened up that card and it said “quick step” I think I was already practicing my solo, especially when everyone else around us had a genre in their comfort zone. I felt almost defeated but it was that motivation to attack this hard dance style. The real blessing was having Jean-Marc as a choreographer because they can really make or break your experience and you know, he was very involved and invested in us and he knew that it would be a difficult task and he knew that the quick step was very hard to learn. You have to stay close, in contact. Your hips have to stay together the whole time. Your feet have to move really fast and you have to work very intimately with your partner. That was hard because Vitolio and I had never worked together, so that was another challenge.

There were just so many layers in having this kiss of death. So technically I think Jean-Marc guided us a lot. He’s very fun-loving and with all the analogies, like I said in my package, a lot of the analogies he used to help us with frame and with finding that connection physically and the entertainment quality of it. I think he gave us a great routine choreographically to make it easier to learn the style, because there were other things to focus on like the acting part and the conceptual part of the routine, there was a story and there were things to play off of, so that we weren’t too focused in on doing the quick step perfectly.

Continue reading about Karla & Vitolio’s experience on SYTYCD after the jump… (more…)