Despite being eliminated from So You Think You Can Dance Canada after making it to the top six, Vancouver’s Emanuel Sandhu sounds upbeat on the line from Toronto.

“I’m so proud of how far I’ve come,” the 28-year-old figure skater and dancer said in an interview with the Straight today (October 16), two days after he was cut from the show. “Yes, my dream would’ve been to make the top four”¦but I have to say that I couldn’t have done it by myself. Obviously my scrappiness and my tenacity, hard work, and my determination helped, but it was because of Canada that I was able to do this, so I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity of first being on the show and then coming as far as I did. I mean, who knew a figure skater could do something like that?”

He’s also grateful that he now has a chance to sleep, he says with a laugh. “Our schedule has been so hectic, especially after getting into the top 10,” he explains. “Especially the last two weeks when we had to not only switch partners but do a solo, learn two couples dances, a group number, et cetera, et cetera—the work load just increased so much. And of course, with my body, it just needed time to heal.” Sandhu is referring to several injuries—broken fingers and a sprained ankle—that he sustained during the show and had to cope with while competing. Yet instead of letting these handicaps slow him down, he pushed himself to work even harder.

“This is probably the most injured I’ve ever been. But the thing is I never let it get to me. I know that everybody has a choice in a situation like this”¦but I just got more determined. Whatever sprain or broken bone or whatever else was thrown my way, I just looked at it and made myself more determined to not let it interfere with my dancing. It’s probably more painful to me emotionally to know that I chose not to dance because of an injury than going home.”

Unfortunately, he’ll have to delay surgery until after the cross-Canada So You Think You Can Dance Canada tour wraps up on December 23.

“Knock on wood, it’ll be a faster healing time than what they say,” he says. “But just in between when I get back home and when we start rehearsals for the tour, there’s not enough time to have surgery.”

However, there were many other challenges he had to contend with.

With a background as a solo skater, not only did he have to adapt to dancing with a partner, but he also had to tackle dance styles he’d never tried before. Though he had some limited experience with hip-hop and jazz, ballroom and the quickstep were new territory for him.

“I hadn’t been on stage as a dancer since probably some time in the early ’90s, back when I was a student at the National Ballet School,” he says. “Most of my performance experience in the last little while has been on the ice. I kinda just threw myself in there. I think that’s for me the best way to do it, and learn as I go.”

His favourite pieces were the “Love Sex Magic” jazz-funk number and the contemporary dance performance (set to the Cinematic Orchestra’s “To Build a Home”) which judges Dan Karaty and Tré Armstrong both deemed “flawless” in execution.

Despite his flair for performance, it’s surprising to hear Sandhu describe himself as shy in social situations. “Obviously you wouldn’t think that when I’m up on stage, and I think the reason for that is ironic because what I can’t say in a social situation I feel that I can say through my body on stage.”¦People might be like, ”˜Oh, well, you don’t seem shy,’ but it’s true. I think maybe sometimes that can be read as arrogance or standoffishness, and it’s not the case at all.

“And I’m a big flirt,” he adds with a laugh. “I’m a Scorpio so I’m a big flirt, and being on stage to me, there’s an energy from the audience and there’s also an energy that you give to your audience so it’s a little bit like a courtship or flirting, and it’s something that I really enjoy. I love that. It’s a lot of fun.”

Yet this certainly isn’t the last we’ll see of the mutlifaceted performer. He’s gearing up for rehearsals for the show’s finale (to air on October 25). He’s particularly glad he’ll be seeing his fellow dancers again on tour, which begins in Kelowna on November 25 and hits Vancouver on November 27. He says he felt closest to his first partner Kim Gingras from Montreal (“We created something in those five weeks”) and Lethbridge native and fellow Vancouverite Tara-Jean Popowich (“She definitely has a spot in my heart”), who he thinks may win the competition.

After the 18-city tour wraps up, he says he’d like to shift gears into music. He’s already recorded one song, “Burn Up the Floor”, which he says is inspired by “how dancing makes everybody feel”. One day, though, he’d even like to have his own show.

Sounds ambitious? Although he admits to having big dreams, he has learned a lot from his experience on the show that will help him pursue his aspirations.

“I’ve learned that when there’s a will, there’s a way, and mind will definitely conquer matter. I believe that talent is never enough, that it’s sort of the tortoise and the hare story. If talent is a hare, and work ethic is the turtle, work ethic will always pull ahead of talent in the end. And I’ve learned that when I put my mind to something, there’s really not much—not even a broken bone—that can stop me. I really am a sort of scrappy person, and I’m very determined. And you should take your responsibilities seriously but yourself not too seriously, so have a sense of humour with anything you do.”