[music playing]
Elliana, "Castaway."
So a castaway is not just somebody
stranded on a desert island.
You have been cast away because nobody on the big mainland
wants you.
Kind of like you felt when you came.
You're sad, and you're lonely, and you're
angry when you're out there.
All right.
Let's go.
Aerial walk over and land.
Step right, PK, kick your head left.
Step [inaudible],, step through, then pivot,
but keep your arms [inaudible].
I think she's, like, not all there.
I think there's something weird there.
I think she looks like a dead fish.
OK, can we start the beginning?
Elliana is doing a beautiful lyrical dance,
and she's struggling to embody what I want to see.
You're all alone.
Where is everybody?
Why did they leave me?
The old Elliana was a winner, but two
weeks ago she came in third.
That's not the Elliana I trained.
She just needs to get back to where she was.
Sloppy foot on the floor.
Watch your body.
Don't fall over.
STACEY: Elliana was brought here, according to Yolanda--
According to Abby.
STACEY: --to raise everybody's game,
and now she's in the competition of the second placers.
So I'm confused.
YOLANDA: Well, I personally think it's demoralizing.
I think it's negative when you're saying second string,
but the fact is I'm not seeing her dancing to what I've
seen her dance in the past.
I'm seeing stuff that she's trying to do down there right
now that she used to be able to do two years ago,
and she's not doing it now.
And it was embarrassing to come back
to be like, yes, she's going to save the day,
there's no talent here, and guess what?
I'm eating my words.
And if you don't think that bums me out, I'm telling you,
it really, really burns my ass.
So yeah, she has a lot to prove.
A lot to prove.
Time will tell.
STACEY: Yolanda is hard on Elliana all the time.
That's dumb.
Abby is there to insult your kid enough.
You think the way to secure a win is to add more pressure?
All the stress will destroy Elliana.
It's time to shut her up.
Make her wear a muzzle, and be done with it.
ABBY LEE MILLER: Look at what Yolanda is
doing with Elliana right now.
She's a competitor right now.
STACEY: That's because Yolanda's quitting
if she doesn't win today.
What?
I don't understand.
STACEY: This morning at the hotel,
I overheard Yolanda telling Elliana she'd better win today,
or they're quitting the team.
She's nuts.
But Yolanda, like, you would really, like, leave the team?
It just really depends on Ellie.
So it depends on Ellie?
If Ellie makes a mistake, you're quitting?
YOLANDA: She needs to bring it, and she hasn't been.
But taking her from here--
how would that help her?
That would hurt her.
YOLANDA: If she's not dancing up to where she should be,
this isn't the place.
STACEY: I have trouble understanding this.
My kid is dying to dance.
You came here week six, and you were
handed every single advantage.
And now you're ready to quit?
The reason that she's just kind of upset and wants to quit
is because my first two solos, I kind of, like, messed up.
I just think she has some weird habits.
I've told her that a bunch of times, and she knows that.
Don't plop down on that floor so hard.
But, Gianna, that's the thing.
If you and Abby have told her once, she should apply it once.
You shouldn't have to tell her the same thing over and over
again.
When I was trying to help her last night,
and every single time I would say something, she would say,
I was doing it.
I'm like, no, I wouldn't open my mouth if you were doing it.
I'm trying to help you.
Now, you'd better go in there, and you'd
better be first overall, or we're going home.
I'm tired of it!
ABBY LEE MILLER: Don't you dare tell her what
to do, you piece of [bleep].
Sorry, girls.
Didn't mean to use that language but, you know.
I don't know what's going on with Yolanda.
I mean, what kind of whack-adoo way
is that to psych up your kid?
She's not psyching up the kid, she's psyching out the kid.
I'm the only one around here that gives ultimatums.
Woo-hoo!
Yay!
ABBY LEE MILLER: Well done, well done.
Elliana, I thought some of your lines were beautiful.
You're getting your technique back,
you're back to where you are, but you're getting nervous.
You still get nervous.
The pirouettes, your shoulders are up.
How many times have I told you to put your shoulders down?
- Lots. - Lots.
OK.
So I'm trying to help you, not hurt you,
by doing those kinds of things.
Yes, I know.
By reiterating what she had said.
Why are you playing the victim--
I'm not playing the victim!
Yes.
Quit using your little terminology.
I'm not playing the victim. - No, you've always done that.
YOLANDA: I'm taking responsibility for it,
but I want Elliana to take responsibility for it, too.
I am.
These two teachers should not be saying the same thing over,
and over, and over, and over again.
Let's move on to something different than shoulders
up to our ears.
You've been hearing that for years.
ABBY LEE MILLER: Do you have anything you want
to say about their dancing?
I said you looked shaky on the first leg that you did.
That's why I said that you were nervous.
Because that was so close.
You looked nervous to me.
Yeah.
Shaky.
Like, your whole body was like that.
That's exactly what I told you last night.
I'm like, you can't do that.
And then you're going like that.
It's because we were in the first row.
So--
I didn't know that I was shaking.
All right.
Well, now you know.
Fix it. - It's not--
Suck it up, kid.
You didn't fall over--
It's one dance.
You just looked nervous to me. That was-- that's my direction.
ABBY LEE MILLER: Yeah, you need to step out on that stage
like you are a winner.
Like you are a champion.
And that's not what I'm saying.
So get it together, all right?
Go have lunch, and I'll see you back here after lunch.