The end of an unexpected journey has come for engineering physics student Phillip Chbeeb. Chbeeb, 20, was one of this season’s finalists on the Fox television series So You Think You Can Dance. He survived four elimination rounds, putting him among the top 12 contestants out of the thousands that auditioned, before being eliminated July 9.
The Houston native earned a free pass to the show’s second round on the basis of his strong performance last season (Chbeeb could not participate because of a bout with pneumonia). He performed with fellow LMU student Arielle Coker, who made it out of the initial round but was not selected to be among this season’s finalists.
“I started dancing around 15 years old … actually, pretty late,” Chbeeb told Fox viewers. “I instantly fell in love with hip-hop dance and popping, mostly just because it seemed almost unreal what some of the people could do.”
Popping, the subset of street dancing that is Chbeeb’s specialty, generally involves the dancer quickly contracting and relaxing his or her muscles. Combined with other mime-style and floating movements, the overall effect is fluid and illusory. One judge on SYTYCD told Chbeeb last year that his popping-style performance was “one of the best I’ve ever seen of that genre.” (Watch this year’s clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwWEIH3CMh4)
After making the final 20, Chbeeb was paired with Jeanine Mason of Miami, an 18-year-old veteran who started dancing at age 3. Chbeeb, by comparison, has no formal training, though he co-founded a dance studio in Houston.
The winner will be named in August and competition has been tough as the judges narrow down the field. Chbeeb hung in there despite the challenge of performing in a new dance style each week.
Though he was eliminated, Fox announced that Chbeeb will participate in the So You Think You Can Dance 2009 tour, which will visit 40 cities from September through November.