Jeanine Mason won so You Think You Can Dance and talks about life being a whirlwind ever since.
The So You Think You
Can Dance champ lets us in on life under the spotlight.
America’s favorite dancer
SheKnows: What has life been like since you won So You Think You Can Dance? Was your family there?
Jeanine Mason: It was the craziest night ever. It finished and I went straight into press and I was standing behind that rope…being taken pictures of and I felt like I had just
been bust out of my normal life and thrown onto some Hollywood red carpet. It was amazing. I am so happy to be here. I am so blessed to be here and loving every second of it. I’m trying
to take it all in. My family did actually come here — my mom, my dad and my three siblings were here along with my best friend. They were all at the Kodak — they were in the fourth row and
just shaking in their seats waiting for that final announcement. I was so lucky that they were able to make it out in time because it is really far and it’s obviously not exactly the cheapest
ticket to get over here from Miami.
SheKnows: Have you gotten any sleep at all?
Jeanine Mason: After that we had the wrap party with all the cast, production (staff), all the dancers and choreographers. We had an incredible party and we obviously did a whole
lot of dancing. Then I went home and tried to go to sleep, but it really didn’t work so I ended up staying up talking to my friends who were all awake in Miami — even though the
time difference they were still up. I think I slept like three hours, if I’m lucky and I was up doing more interviews this morning. I’m still okay though. It’s still enough
excitement to hold me up.
A dancer’s education
SheKnows: Are you still planning to go to UCLA?
Jeanine Mason: Yes, I’ll be seeing my degree in communications. I love journalism. I love broadcasting. If, for some reason acting and dancing doesn’t work out, I
would love to go into that industry as well.
SheKnows: On So You Think You Can Dance, you mentioned hating dancing when you first started. What do you think it was that turned around your passion?
Jeanine Mason: It wasn’t really that I hated it. I always loved dancing. I hated that it made me feel so defeated toward the beginning of my lessons. I was so horrible. My
teachers didn’t feel like putting in the effort because they knew how much work it would take to get me to a place that was anywhere near good. It took me such a long time to find a teacher
that was willing to work with me and was willing to put in all that work. I definitely came home crying a lot between the ages of six to nine. My mom, it was the hardest thing in the world for her
to sit there and see me sobbing saying that I didn’t want something and telling me that she felt it was good for me. She doesn’t know what it was, she had this gut feeling that she
needed to keep me in dance and she needed to push me and that it would pay off one day. It was really hard for her to do that and I’m so grateful for her and for keeping a stern fist when I
was pretty convincing.
Up next…Moms read on! Jeanine tells how her mother got her to stick with dance!
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