Emmy-winning choreographer Mia Michaels shocked So You Think You Can Dance fans when, after being a prominent presence since the show began, she tweeted Oct. 14 that she was leaving the show.
“I AM OFFICIALLY AN ADORING FAN OF SYTYCD….THANK U FOR 5 WONDERFUL YRS,” Michaels, 43, wrote on her Twitter account after appearing on season 6’s Vegas week. “TO CREATE MOMENTS AND MOVEMENT FOR THE WORLD TO SHARE WITH ME WAS A GIFT…..THANKS SYTYCD AND LOOK FORWARD TO WHATS AHEAD FOR ME…LOOKOUT WORLD!!!!!”
More questions were raised when the contemporary star appeared with a newly shaved head in the final Vegas callbacks. Again, she took to Twitter: “CANT A GIRL JUST SHAVE HER HEAD??????????”
As fans speculated as to why one of the show’s most talented and beloved choreographers had decided to move on, judge and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe assured PEOPLE that there is nothing scandalous behind the move.
“There’s no mystery,” he said Sunday at a taping on the show. “Mia decided that she wanted to move on. She decided that she wanted to extend herself in other areas. She’s done this now for five years. She’s the only choreographer that’s been with us all of that time. Brian Friedman took some time out, Wade Robson took time out to do other things, and Mia has been so sort of So You Think You Can Dance-centric. It stopped her doing other things and she said, ‘No, I’ve got to go and do other things.’”
But Lythgoe added that this is not the end of her relationship with the show. “As far as I know, she is still going to come and do So You Think You Can Dance UK. She’s still I think going up to Canada to do [So You Think You Can Dance Canada],” he said. “It sounded so final on that tweet, you know, which is really sad. She was on the phone the next day — ‘How are the dancers? How were they?’”
Despite the speculation about the exit, Lythgoe explained why he’s kept mostly mum on Michaels’s departure from the show. “I’ve got 20 other choreographers who I adore just as much, who work just as hard and do everything else. So I’ve got to worry about them, too,” Lythgoe said. “Love Mia to death, love Mia’s work to death, but, hey, this isn’t about the choreographers. It’s about twenty kids that are working their ass off, too!” –Jed Dreben
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