Mia Michaels On Why She Left SYTYCD: Opportunity Knocked

Opportunity knocked – and Mia Michaels answered.

Essentially that’s the reason she gave for suddenly leaving Fox’s hit show “So You Think You Can Dance’ after gaining fame as an Emmy-winning choreographer.

“It’s been an amazing five-year journey and I am in a place where I have all these great opportunities that have been presented to me and I am ready to take on all these challenges,” she told People magazine.

“So when I was working on the show, I wasn’t able to really focus on anything else. Now I’m really focusing on these other projects that I can’t pass up. I think that’s pretty much the reason why I left the show.”

Michaels said she loved the show, but needed to make the leap before a new season started.

However, as soon as she announced her departure on Twitter, rumors sprang up as to why she left. They ranged from creative differences to illness.

(Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Michaels flamed the speculation when she appeared on the final Las Vegas callbacks with her head shaved, making some think she had cancer.

None was true.

Her haircut was merely a change, albeit a drastic one, she told People. “I just felt the need to get rid of it.”

Michaels is now working on her own choreography show, a musical that’s being shot as a docu-reality show, and her own clothing line for dancers.

She says she’s feeling good and excited about her future, explaining she has total faith in her instincts and “actually more inspired and more excited” and her life and work.

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