Rewind The Next Step

Previously on The Next Step...

Emily's knee looks really bad.

I don't know how she's going to be able to compete in the finals.

I can't believe this happened to her.

We need to start thinking about forfeiting.

'You have to have a troupe of ten dancers.'

You also have two alternates, but we lost both of our alternates.

It looks like we have to officially...

Not forfeit.

'Kate submitted my name on the Nationals list.'

That means they have one alternate left. And it's me.

# All eyes on you

# And you don't know what to do

# But we're all here for you Hey! #

I will be dancing with The Next Step.

'Why would she want to help us?

'She went behind our backs and left us hanging,

'and now she's just going to save us?

Whoa, wait, how is that even possible?

Cos I'm registered on both teams.

Which gives me the right to compete with them.

'I was registered on both Elite and The Next Step.'

Kate sent in the names when I was already at the studio.

'I've never heard of anything like this happening at Nationals before.'

It's a long shot, but it's our only chance.

There's rules against this. She can't be on both teams.

You know what? I don't know, so I'm going to find out. All right?

So, give me a minute and I'll find out from the judges.

'She was part of our roster,'

and it was approved, so it's not exactly our problem

that she was approved on The Next Step roster

and as well as the Elite roster.

If she can dance for them, hopefully she can dance for us.

I'll get back to you in a few minutes, all right?

OK, Phoebe, why don't you go with them?

-Yeah, I'm on it. Let's go.

-'I feel a lot better

'knowing that someone's going to dance for The Next Step,'

but that still doesn't mean that I trust Amanda.

How do we even know we can trust you?

What other choice do you have?

OK, I think we need to do what we always do - let's take a vote.

-Who thinks Amanda should dance with us?

-Miss Kate...

There's no need to vote. Amanda's right.

We need her.

'We can't face LOD in the finals with only nine dancers.

'I never thought I would say this,'

but...looks like Amanda's our only hope.

# We

# We are gonna show the world

# Everything we're made of

# We're gonna tear the roof off

# This place

# Stand up! #

Well, Tre Armstrong, this competition is winding to a close,

but it's not going out with a whimper.

More like a bang. A big bang. This is monumental.

Huge controversy here, let me wrap it up for you, folks, as best I can.

A Next Step dancer was injured yesterday in the semifinals.

Well, she will not be able to perform in the finals

due to the severity of her injury.

'I'm really nervous when the representative comes out,

'because we worked so hard to get here'

and if Amanda can't perform with us

then all that hard work goes down the drain.

'I was registered on two teams at the beginning,

'and I'm still registered on two teams at the end.'

So, what's the difference?

There's a dancer from another team who...

somehow is apparently registered to The Next Step...

OK, so we have a decision, the judge's ruling is final.

Next year, we'll tighten up the loophole,

but as of this year, Amanda can dance with The Next Step.

ALL: Yes!

'After everything I've put them through,

'I'm finally dancing on their team.'

If we win, maybe they'll forgive me. I hope.

OK, well, let's flip a coin, see who goes first.

OK, we'll do that. Yeah.

-Call it.

-Heads.

Heads it is.

-We choose first.

-Cool.

'I'm actually excited to go second.'

It means that we're closing the Nationals show.

Save the best for last, right?

64 teams whittled down to two.

Let's talk about this incredible dance season -

the trials, the tribulations, getting to this 64-team competition.

-How crazy is that?

-I mean, it has been gruelling.

The amount of passion and dedication that these kids have put in.

-The hours of dance...

-Where's Amanda? She should be seeing this.

..this is the time.

64 teams holding their collective heads high,

but two teams holding them a little higher.

Life Of Dance and The Next Step. Up first...

LOD.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

LOD's dance is about models

and stars being followed by the paparazzi.

CHEERING

CHEERING

They're like robots. How do you compete with that?

There's a reason why they won Nationals

the last two years in a row.

They're so clean. They're so together.

Everything from their head to their toes together.

It's like you could take a picture at any moment

and they would all match.

Three letters - LOD.

Could mean Life Of Dance, Ladies Of Destruction.

I'm inclined to say Legion Of Doom,

because these guys take no prisoners.

Every year, they come to the table with something different.

That's why they're perennial champs.

CHEERING

I'll give you three other letters that the dancers know...

OMD!

Oh, my dance!

When I was at Elite, Lucien was always measuring us up

against LOD's Nationals performances.

I've always wanted to go up against them.

I just never thought it would be with a different team.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Tre, it comes down to this moment.

Phenomenal. I mean, I don't know if The Next Step

can really do anything much better than that.

That was as bang-on as you're about to see.

LOD's routine is amazing. But I know we can do this.

If we trust each other and come together as a team,

we can win.

I really don't know, Chuck, how The Next Step is going to top that one.

-Really.

-Well, you know, I'll tell you this much.

The fact that The Next Step has moved this deep in the competition,

and considering what they did at the Regionals,

I would not be surprised...

-There's other wings.

-There are other wings.

As LOD just blows right past us, it's so disrespectful.

Let's go!

'Amanda was at The Next Step long enough to learn our finals routine.

'I mean, if it was anyone else, we could never pull this off.'

But because it's Amanda, we actually have a chance.

The Next Step about to take the stage for all the marbles

here at the Absolute Dance National Championships.

There's one word I'm going to tag on that performance by Life Of Dance.

-What is it?

-Insane.

Yo, Eldon. Let's have a good show, man.

-Love you, bro.

-Love you, too.

-Let's do it.

I just... I'm excited, and nervous at the same time.

Amanda, even though we had a rough year, I love you.

Love you, too, West.

'He's probably just nervous and getting the nerves out of him,'

but I love him, too.

Yo, James.

-Love you, man.

-I love you.

I know you do.

Yes! All right! Let's have an awesome show!

The Next Step on three! One, two, three...

ALL: The Next Step!

We are really a team and we really do genuinely love each other.

And that shows. We have the chemistry. We definitely have it.

And I think we're stronger than any other team out there.

We're going to see how this pans out for The Next Step,

as they have a new addition to their squad.

In the big kahuna, this is the moment we've all been waiting for.

The curtain's about to rise, here we go.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-What a set-up.

-That is eye-popping stuff.

That is, like, straight out of... I could see that on Broadway.

DANCE MUSIC INTRO BUILDS

-MICHELLE:

-Since our duet helped win us Regionals,

we wanted to start our Nationals routine with a duet, too.

At Regionals, me and Michelle's duet was the focus of the piece,

and now it just starts the dance.

BEAT STARTS

APPLAUSE

My goodness.

CHEERING

I do feel bad that Emily wasn't able to dance,

but I do feel good about helping them.

This is finally it. It's the moment where I get to dance with them.

It is a little weird not having my sister on stage with me.

We wouldn't have won Regionals without her,

and we wouldn't have made it this far without her, either.

But we are dancing for her and we all want to win for her.

'The Next Step is dancing incredibly.

'Seeing how far every individual person has come,'

I'm so proud of them.

CHEERING

CHEERING

Yes!

'I'm the most pumped I've ever been in my life.'

I've been dreaming of this moment ever since I was a little kid.

'Amanda looked like she's really committed and I'm proud of her.'

And I know the feeling of when you've messed up.

And I know the feeling of really needing that second chance.

I've grown to like them and...they're my friends.

I would consider her a part of The Next Step.

CHEERING

Oh...my...goodness.

Oh, my goodness.

Tre, did we see a dance miracle happen right before our eyes here?

Honestly, both crews have been doing some really incredible things.

New benchmarks.

I mean, you have one crew that is giving amazing syncopation.

-You're seeing amazing shoulder stands, great Russians.

-Right, sure.

Then you have The Next Step, who brought Broadway here,

and they're doing leaps and jumps of life.

I really don't know.

So, you're saying this is a toss-up.

I think we're about to find out

exactly who will be crowned champions

here at the Absolute Dance National Championships.

'Waiting to hear if we won

'is one of the most nerve-racking experiences'

of my entire life.

The judges are just looking at us, just dead faces.

They're not giving away anything.

'I can't wait to hear who won. We want this so bad.'

And we're so close.

And the 17th Annual Absolute Dance National Champions are...

'If the judges are feeling technical and to the book,

'Life Of Dance has it, but if they feel like they want to watch a show'

and a true performance, I think we got it.

'If The Next Step wins Nationals, it means that we will be known'

by everyone almost.

I mean, Nationals is the competition to win.

..The Next Step!

CHEERING

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

That has to go down as the greatest win

in the history of these Absolute Dance National Championships.

We won Nationals!

We won the most prestigious competition

in the dance world, in the country.

It took a lot of teamwork

and it took a lot of tears throughout the year.

I'm so happy we won.

I'm just so excited that I run up to Emily and I kiss her.

You know, I just really want to share this moment with her.

We had this whole drama and all this stuff happened,

but now, we finally won.

And, honestly, it was all worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

-ALL:

-Go, Next Step! Go, Next Step!

THEY CONTINUE CHANTING

That, my friends,

THAT is how you wrap up five days of intense dance competition

here at Absolute Dance National Championships.

The Next Step, they're moving on.

Where are they moving on?

-They're going to Internationals. Hello!

-That's right.

The Next Step are on their way to represent

at the International Championships.

So, do we have any ideas for Internationals?

Totally. So many great ones. I cannot wait to get started.

Uh, Miss Kate?

'I see pasted on the doors

a big, yellow eviction notice.

-We have a week.

-What are we going to do?

I don't know.

I just think that reason is so stupid,

because they're building condos.

It doesn't matter the reason, doesn't change what's happening.

But it's just so harsh. Like, they just evict people? Like...

It's ridiculous.

Where are we going to dance now?

What, we're just going to dance on the streets?

We can't go to Internationals if we don't have a place to rehearse.

I think Miss Kate's going to figure something out.

We couldn't even raise enough money to pay for uniforms

and you think that she's going to somehow

miraculously come up with a studio?

-HE SIGHS

-I don't know.

But I think we're going to Internationals.

I don't know.

'I wish I could be as positive as James is right now,

'but I have to be realistic.

We have to start preparing for Internationals right away,

and if we don't have a studio space for that,

I can't see how that's even possible.

WEST SIGHS

Me, James and West are helping Kate pack up the office.

I've read it over and over again

and there's nothing that we can do about it.

-I can't believe the studio's gone.

-I know.

-That's the last of the trophies.

-Thank you.

Uhh, I don't know what we're going to do, guys.

There's a lot of amazing memories in there, but they've all got to go.

I'm going to miss it.

I just wish there was something that we could do.

Me, too. Thank you, guys, for helping me pack up.

You're welcome.

Look at you sad sacks. So glum. Such a shame.

I heard about your little eviction notice.

And how have you heard so fast?

I'm Lucien. I hear things.

This is a nice place you had here. I had no idea.

Look at that trophy. Too bad it's not going to do any good.

WHAT are you doing here, Lucien?

OK, I've got a proposition for you.

What could you possibly have that we would want?

Well, you don't have a place to dance right now.

What are you saying?

I do.

Elite and The Next Step merge for Internationals.

Lucien's proposition is insane.

'The Next Step and Elite joining together for Internationals.

I don't know if that's such a good idea.

We're not going to merge with Elite. Right?

'I can't believe I'm even considering this,

but The Next Step has to make it to Internationals, no matter what.

# We

# We're gonna show the world

# Everything we're made of

# We're gonna tear the roof off this place

# You

# You can never fade us out

# Don't even ask the DJ

# Everybody knows we own this town. #