TVGuide.ca: What was it like to dance with Tara-Jean (Popowich)?
Hani Abaza: Tara-Jean was amazing to dance with. She is such a professional. We learned the whole piece in about 15 minutes, so the fact that we could come together and connect that quickly was amazing. She’s honestly one of the sweetest people ever and she’s extremely talented, so it was a pleasure. It was a dream come true, the fact that I got to dance with her and do choreography by Nico (Archambault).
TVG: Do you feel that dancing with her affected your votes?
HA: Yeah, I do think so because she wasn’t standing with me when I was saying, “Call No. 11” and because it was only for me. But it could be argued that it could’ve affected my votes for the better and gotten me more votes, but I don’t think it works that way because people know she’s not a competitor.
TVG: Is dancing at the end of a two-hour show, which ends at 11 p.m., an advantage or disadvantage?
HA: Myself, I get a little bit tired by 11 p.m. if I’m watching it, but hopefully I woke everybody up with my dance because I felt like I did really well.
TVG: Jean-Marc made a point of saying it wasn’t a unanimous decision to let you go. Did he elaborate about this to you after the show?
HA: No, no he didn’t. I don’t really have any answers. I’m sure they’ll come up sooner or later in my life. I would love to know the reason, or what unanimous actually means in that sort of situation. But maybe at the same time, I’d love not to know. Who knows, it’s not even relevant really because everything happens for a reason.
TVG: What do you think of the show airing back-to-back episodes in Season 2’s first week?
HA: I think it’s amazing. I think the fact that more dance is on television is one of the most amazing things ever because people need to be educated on what good dancing is, and I’m a little upset I’m not there to be a part of that because I think I could’ve done that really well.
TVG: Some people wrote to TVGuide.ca’s editor over Twitter saying they felt you might have been eliminated as a warning to viewers to vote — would you agree?
HA: I guess more votes means more viewers, which means more money for the network, but I wouldn’t say that’s the intention whatsoever about kicking me off. I’d really hate that to be the intention because I worked my butt off and if it was something like that — that trivial, playing with my career and my life — then I think that it’s very wrong, so I’m going to say no.
TVG: Do you plan to stay in touch with anyone in particular from the show?
HA: I’ll stay in touch with everybody from the show, whoever wants to stay in touch with me.
TVG: In your bio on CTV's website, you mention you love music. Do you have a favourite artist?
HA: Right now, I’m into a lot of electronic indie music, a lot of British bands like Bloc Party, The xx, Apparat. Being a dancer, I feel like I listen to every genre of music because I can be moved by anything, so I’m obsessed with Beyoncé, Michael Jackson is a king — it just depends on what mood I’m in.
TVG: What are your future plans?
HA: I’m going to stay in Toronto for the next few weeks. I’m going to teach — I’ve got some kids to go inspire, and I’m going to try and work and see if there’s any jobs around here. I’d love to stay for the film festival; I’ve never been around that sort of situation. And then back to L.A., back to the grind.
So You Think You Can Dance Canada airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET and Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on CTV.
Catch up with the latest eliminated participants every Monday.
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