We Are the World The Next Step

I've been so excited for Internationals

that I taught myself how to say "hello" in 55 languages.

Now that we are officially registered,

it looks like the male solos are first.

No-one gets eliminated in these rounds.

But whoever wins gains a five point advantage, moving forward.

Good luck.

She's doing my choreography.

She cheated, and she still won.

How is that fair?

Right now, we're entering the auditorium,

because each team gets to practise on stage.

Now, Poland is there -

and their dance is absolutely incredible.

They're all boys.

I've never seen so many male dancers in my life.

This Polish team is so impressive.

I've never seen anything like them before.

If I wasn't intimidated before, I sure am now.

I'm watching the Poland team right now and they're all really good,

but I noticed the Poland soloist.

And as I watch him, I realise he's definitely big competition.

I'm going to keep my eye out for him.

Did they win last year?

Actually, they didn't make it past the second round.

MUSIC: Stand Up by Jessica Lee and Kit Knows

Oh, look. Giselle's coming.

Hey, guys!

'At Internationals, all the dance captains of each team'

meet with the Internationals board

to hear what the next challenge is going to be.

'You never know what to expect,'

so you have to be ready for anything at any time.

-Hey!

-Hey. OK. So, what's the first round?

OK, basically, they're putting four dancers from different nations

onto one team, so you have to learn how to work together.

The thing is, there's 40 teams and only the top four advance.

Wow.

'There are 160 countries, and by the end of today,'

they'll be whittled down to 16.

Well, do we know who the best fit is from our studio?

Well, we get to choose.

OK, so did they give any hints as to who would be best?

Speaking other languages is important.

Thalia, how many ways can you say hello?

55 - well, 56, because I taught myself Swedish this morning.

You speak 56 languages? I speak one.

So, no to West, yes to Thalia.

OK, your team is going to be waiting up there.

-Let's go.

-Good luck!

She never fails to impress me.

THEY SPEAK POLISH

VARIOUS LANGUAGES SPOKEN

'Kate and I are entering the area

'where I'm meeting the rest of my team-mates and I'm so nervous.'

It's intimidating to walk in and hear all different languages.

Thalia, don't be nervous. You've got it. I totally trust you...

Hold on. The Polish team is talking about us.

-Sorry, you speak Polish?

-Yeah. My mom's Polish.

When I learn that Thalia knows Polish,

I'm surprised she didn't mention that earlier.

I overhear this guy talking to his coach

and how he's never heard of The Next Step

and that we must be so weak, if he's never heard of us -

'and that he hopes we are not going to bring his team down.'

-Did you just burn them?

-Uh-huh.

-Yes.

I wonder how Thalia is doing?

Oh, she's probably doing just fine. She knows 56 languages.

No, she knows how to say "hello" in 56 languages.

-What's this about?

-Probably an interview with Ella.

Come on.

Hi!

-Are you kidding me?

-What?

'After what happened with Ella and I,'

I've learned my lesson.

I just don't want anything to do with her any more.

Come on, Riley. I said when it comes to competition, I'm serious.

Riley just needs to understand that you can't trust anyone.

And you need to do anything to win.

Being competitive is one thing,

but stealing someone's choreography is something else entirely.

You want to think of this as a game? Fine.

I am going to beat you.

You may have won the solo round, but you are not taking home that trophy.

And not only is my team going to win,

but we're going to do it without stooping to your level.

I'm sorry you're seeing it that way. That's too bad.

Ella, they're ready to interview Miss International Soloist.

You should probably go do that interview you didn't earn.

Oh, that's a good idea(!)

'When Ella is called away

'for the Miss International Soloist interview,'

it just makes me so angry and frustrated.

And joining us live here in the foyer

is Miss International Soloist Ella, from Summerford.

Ella, that solo was absolutely brilliant.

Tell us, how did you come up with that choreography?

It was when I was on the exchange program with The Next Step.

They gave me the inspiration to come up with that solo...

'Ella won that competition with my solo.'

I'm now wondering, if I had the chance to perform that...

..then maybe I could have won.

'The rest of B-Troupe and I'

really want to feel connected to Internationals.

'We had this idea to create a leaderboard.'

And it would keep track of how all the teams are doing.

-Camille, that looks so good.

-Thank you. You guys like the purple?

PHONE RINGS C's calling.

'Hey, Sky. How are you?'

I'm good. How's everything going at Internationals?

Incredible. Internationals is amazing.

'It's also a little intimidating.'

Imagine Nationals, but ten times bigger.

'So, what are you guys up to?'

-Look - ta-da!

-Check it out.

We've already given England and Sweden the five point advantages

for winning Mr and Miss International Soloist.

'You really had to remind me of that?'

Oops! Sorry.

Yeah, that's OK. But I should probably get back.

OK. Well, good luck.

-'Thanks.'

-B-TROUPE: Bye!

'It's really nice that B-Troupe cares this much about A-Troupe.'

You can see that we're really a family.

'Right now, we're rehearsing the two to seven person dance,

'because if Thalia gets through her round,'

then we're up next.

'I honestly don't know why Stephanie is marking right now.'

'We are about to perform this in the next round.

'When you mark your routine,

'you don't get the same overall experience.'

Your body needs to know what it's doing.

OK, Steph - why are you marking?

Um, I just think that it's important for me to save my energy.

I mean, I want to save it all for the stage.

"Save your energy"? While everyone else is doing it full out?

I don't think I had a big enough breakfast, to be honest.

My stomach kind of feels weird. Yeah, I'm feeling a little fainty.

'She didn't eat enough today? Like, what?'

You should be on top of your game every single day of Internationals.

This is not a joke.

OK. Why don't you go and get some food and water and come back, OK?

OK, thanks, guys.

'Right now, I'm extremely frustrated with Steph.

'This is where she wanted to be.'

Be here, if you're going to be here.

-What are we going to do?

-We cannot have her in our routine

if she's going to be marking it like that.

We should think about replacing her.

-Whoa...

-We're already in Miami. There's no more prep time.

There's no more time for her to make up for it.

We need to have someone who is going to dance full out, right now.

I don't think it's right that we cut Stephanie out of the routine,

because I know she's an amazing dancer. I know she can pull through.

I feel she's going through something right now and I need to talk to her.

Listen, before we think about replacing her,

why don't I just talk to her?

Well, then, you let her know this isn't B-Troupe any more.

Oh, I'll let her know. See you guys later.

Good luck.

The Polish dancer is telling me that he can speak French.

So, he can talk to the French dancer. This is going to be really helpful.

OK. So, France and Vietnam can speak together

and France and Poland can speak together

and I can speak Polish, so we should be fine.

Perfect!

'It seems to be going really well,'

even though I have no idea what they are saying.

Ah, excellente! Fabuloso!

Uh, don't worry. It's OK.

Well, we've already seen our fair share of dance,

but we're welcoming you

to the official opening round of this competition.

I'm Chuck Anderson and I'm alongside Ashley Leggat.

She brings a fair bit of knowledge of the dance world

to the table here and I've been having fun picking your brain.

I've been having fun with you too, Chuck.

Of course, I'm so excited. And now, things are really turning up.

It's the first elimination round. This is where the drama begins.

This is the multi-country, four person part of this competition.

And this is where it gets really nutty,

because we're going to go down from 160 countries to just 16.

That means only the top four groups of four will be moving on.

First is a group that is represented by the following countries...

They're off to a great start.

The other teams better be ready for some stiff competition.

THEY SPEAK VARIOUS LANGUAGES

Right now, we're just working through some choreography

and it's going really well.

Everyone's kind of contributing their own ideas

and their own dance style

and it's making the choreography really unique and really different.

What are you doing? We have rehearsal right now.

Do you think this nail polish would look good on me?

Is that a no?

'I find Stephanie reading a magazine and I'm so annoyed,'

because she needs to be in rehearsal, right now.

What are you doing?

Do you understand that the team is this far away from replacing you?

Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

That's so cute...

Is it?

-OK, that was five dollars.

-I don't care.

You've worked way too hard to not compete with us.

'I really wanted to do this and I really wanted to be here.

'But the pressure of Internationals is just getting to me.

'I don't want to let anybody down.'

And I'm really scared and I don't want to do it.

I mean, what happens after this round?

And if we make it to semifinals? And then semifinals,

and I mess up the whole dance and I make a mistake

and everybody's going right and I'm going left,

or I fall and I hurt myself and I mess up everything

and everybody regrets they let me back from B-Troupe into A-Troupe...

I just don't want to let anybody down and I feel like

I'm going to let everybody down.

Maybe if I just stay up here, then I don't have to do it.

-You guys can go without me - replace me.

-I get it now.

You don't think you deserve to be here with everyone.

I get it.

'I guess Michelle's right.'

I don't feel like I deserve to be here.

Do you think this team is just carrying you?

Like, we let you back on the team as a favour?

No, you deserve to be here.

Now, look at me and say, "I deserve to be here."

I deserve to be here.

Sorry, what?

I deserve to be here.

No, This is how you do it.

Hi, everyone!

We're at Internationals and I deserve to be here.

So does my friend Stephanie, but she won't say it.

I don't know - should you say it out loud?

Oh, my. Seriously? You're going to make me say it?

Say it, right now.

Hi, guys. I'm here at Internationals,

because I deserve to be here.

Sorry, I can't... I can't even hear you, sorry.

I deserve to be here at Internationals!

Good.

All right. I think we can go now.

I really didn't think I was cut out for the Internationals team.

But after speaking to Michelle...

She really believes in me and she's so supportive of me.

Maybe I am ready for this.

Right now, our team is just taking a break from rehearsal

and I'm hanging out with Bartek. He's actually a really cool guy.

'I came to check up on how rehearsals were going'

and I see Thalia's talking to the Polish soloist.

They seem to be getting along a little too well.

Bartek tells me that a weird guy is staring at me,

but it's just Eldon.

OK.

Well, we're back, Chuck.

Yes, we are, Ashley. 39 dance teams later.

And they are doing a great job.

Well, they'd better be doing a great job, Ashley Leggat,

because this is the penultimate -

the second last team performing in today's incredible competition.

A sort of United Nations of dance has transpired today

and it has been unbelievable.

Right now, Bartek, Minnou, Nan and I are just warming up.

We're about to go on soon.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The members of that group were all speaking the same language -

the language of dance.

You are so right. And it's true.

Dance is the universal language, no matter what your native tongue is.

'Team 39 moves into fourth place with 95 points.'

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

This is getting exciting, Ashley.

We are about to have our last group perform.

'Me and James come backstage

'to watch some of the routines going on at Internationals.'

Oh, there she is.

Across the wings, I can see Thalia and that Polish guy talking again.

Good job?

-Well done.

-Well done.

Are they really still talking to each other?

They had lunch together and they were talking to each other.

I saw them rehearsing together and they're talking to each other.

Now, they're talking to each other again.

Eldon is totally overreacting. He's going to be fine

Dude, they're dancing together.

Of course, they're going to talk to each other.

You just worry about your pirouettes, OK,

and that girl will be all yours.

OK, but, girls only like me because I'm a good dancer

-and he's a good dancer too.

-Oh, man...

'Do you not get how serious this is? I lost my coin.'

I lost Mr International Soloist,

and now, it looks like I'm losing Thalia too.

'Our leaderboard is completely up-to-date

'and all the other teams have danced,'

so Thalia's the very last one to go.

TABLET RINGS I think Cierra has an update.

-Hey!

-Hey. We filled in the board. What do you think?

That's incredible.

It still makes Internationals look a little confusing, though.

I know. There are so many teams.

Look, Cierra, we got to go. Thalia's performing soon.

OK, yeah. Just a second.

-Do you want to see this cool thing Skylar made for us?

-Sure.

-We all helped.

-Hi, Richelle.

Hi.

It's a leaderboard - to track Internationals for The Next Step.

-Impressive, right?

-Yeah, it's awesome.

Wait, guys - can you put it back to the board?

Move it to the left a little bit.

'As I look at the leaderboard,'

I notice that the current fourth place team has 95 points.

That means that Thalia's team has to score a total of 96 points.

That's a huge score.

Thalia, you guys have to score over 95 points

to guarantee that we go on to the next round.

-Can you tell them?

-Yeah. THALIA SPEAKS POLISH

We have seen some solid performances put forth so far today, Ashley.

We sure have. It's going to take something incredible

to crack that top four and ensure that their groups are moving on.

Hey, yeah. We'll try our best.

-TANNOY:

-'We now welcome to the stage our final group.'

'As I take the stage,'

I've never felt this nervous in my life.

If we don't get a 96, we lose and my team is going home.

Bon chance!

This next group is comprised of members from The Next Step,

Poland's Voden Dance Academy, Vietnam and France.

'I am so incredibly stressed out right now.'

I can't even imagine how much pressure Thalia's feeling.

'Our entire future at Internationals rests on her shoulders.'

As the routine goes on, our team is really starting to gel.

I can't believe how far we've come today.

CHEERING

Thalia and the Polish guy are doing really well, dancing together.

I don't want the Polish guy to win, but I want Thalia to win.

These guys look like they are authentically enjoying this.

They absolutely do.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I'm really nervous. We're waiting for our scores.

We're about to find out if we're moving on to the next round,

or if we're being sent home.

-TANNOY:

-'Ladies and gentlemen, the final score is...

'96!'

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Actually, the reason why this group is so pumped up is,

they know their 96 points will have them moving on to the next round.

This means The Next Step is moving on

and we're one step closer to winning Internationals.

I'm really glad that The Next Step is moving on,

but I'm really not glad that the Polish guy is moving on, too.