Paula Abdul may have left her show on less than amicable terms, but that doesn’t mean all FOX judges are unhappy.

In a new interview, Mia Michaels claims her So You Think You Can Dance departure had nothing to do with a contract. It also didn’t have anything to do with Adam Shankman…or a supposed battle with cancer. She simply felt it was time.

“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,” MIchaels 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 main reason why I left the show.”

And though she won’t be seen again on the American version of the dance show, Mia has been kept busy with several projects—including international editions of the SYTYCD. “It wasn’t a break because I came to Canada and I choreographed the finale here in Canada, and I have right now scheduled to do the U.K., and Australian [versions of the show], as well as the new Canadian season three, so it’s not like I need a break because creatively I feel like I have a lot to say right now. It was just a decision that I made. It’s just something that I needed to do. I’ve been doing this for a long time and this is just another step in my journey to now take it to the next level.”

So what about that hair? If she isn’t sick, why did she take it all off? “As far as me shaving my head, I just felt the need to get rid of it. I was kind of falling into a Hollywood image thing a little bit, and I just felt like it was a cool time to just start over. And that’s why I shaved it,” the 43-year-old explained. “And I had said on the show, ‘It’s been a difficult time,’ and it’s like the last couple months in my life personally I’ve just been going through things … And then when I read those things I went ‘Oh no!’ I do not have cancer. You can put that to rest.”