List of ''The Next Step'' characters

This list is of fictional characters in the Family Channel television series The Next Step. This article features the main, recurring and minor characters who have all appeared in more than one episode.

Cast

Main characters

• Emily (portrayed by Alexandra Beaton)^[1] A contemporary dancer. Emily is Riley's overprotective older sister, and former head of the E-Girls. In Season 1, she is quite bossy also a diva and rude when she is the A-Troupe Dance Captain, but after being dethroned, her personality eventually shifts for the better after she goes to Elite then returns. Emily is jealous of Michelle. She is used to Eldon's attention and admiration and takes him for granted, then gets jealous when he starts to develop feelings for Michelle instead. She and Michelle later become co-captains. She dates Eldon briefly while she is at Elite, only for him to break up with her to be with Michelle. In Season 2, Emily and new guy, Hunter develop a plan in which she will hopefully get Eldon back, although she falls for Hunter in the process. The two briefly date, only for her to be forced to break up with Hunter by Amanda (double agent), in the hopes of bringing her down. She and West later develop feelings for each other, but they remain friends. After obtaining a knee injury at Nationals, Emily is forced to leave the studio for a year, losing an opportunity to compete at Internationals. She has medium length blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.
• Michelle (portrayed by Victoria Baldesarra)^[1] A new contemporary dancer who moved to Toronto Ontario from Madison, Wisconsin and previous Miss Nationals soloist who Emily is jealous of. She quickly becomes enemies with Emily and the E-Girls. She starts to fall for Eldon, resulting in a fight for him between her and Emily. Michelle dethrones Emily as Dance Captain and later, at the latter of a nasty feud, she and Emily become co-captains. She briefly dates Eldon at the end of Season 1, but he breaks up with her in Season 2. She leaves The Next Step Dance Studio in Season 2 because of all the drama, especially with the arrival of former "boyfriend" Hunter and her break-up with Eldon, but then returns after realizing that she truly loves dance. She reclaims the title of Miss Nationals Soloist once more in Season 2. In Season 3, her parents go through a divorce and she goes through a lot emotionally, so she steps down as Dance Captain, then becomes an alternate for Internationals. In the Hotel dance (the blindfold round) at Internationals, she gives up her position because "I can't let someone who's on the actual team not dance". She helps Stephanie's confidence. After West gets food poisoning from a kebab, she has to take up his spot, due to a previous agreement from Amanda, another alternate. However, West comes dressed to the stage and wants to dance in the semifinals so Michelle has to step back which she then learns. She has wavy blonde hair (which was cut to shoulder length in Season 2), brown eyes, and lightly tanned skin. In Season 4, a fellow dancer Alfie helps her to up her game and she feels ready. In Season 5, Emily becomes the studio head of A-Troupe (which then becomes TNS East) and hires Daniel as her choreographer. Emily does not pick any hip-hop dancers, breakdancers, J-Troupers or doubters onto her A-Troupe and instead only technical and disciplined dancers. This upsets Michelle who eventually quits A-Troupe and decides to form her own troupe, TNS West.
• Riley (portrayed by Brittany Raymond)^[1] A shy contemporary and hip hop dancer who is Emily's younger sister and Matty's older sister and Ella's ex-best friend. In Season 1, she is a member of the E-Girls but gets kicked out by her sister when she stands up to Emily in favor of Michelle. Riley seems to have a crush on James in Season1, then starts to date James in Season 1.5, but later breaks up with him in Season 2, after seeing him and his ex-girlfriend, Beth kiss during their duet rehearsal. In Season 2.5, Riley makes a list of tasks for James to complete before she would get back together with him. Riley and James get back together and perform a duet at Nationals. In Season 3, she makes the Internationals team, and befriends the mischievous English transfer Ella, who starts to change Riley and strain her relationship with James. Ella is Riley's best friend all the way up until Internationals. At Internationals, Ella steals her solo in the Female solo round and Riley doesn't want to be friends with Ella anymore. In the semifinals, they will have to face on England, Ella's team, who already cheated The Next Step once already. Ella's team, Summerford Dance Academy, does a beautiful routine about a girl in the woods who is surrounded by scary trees. The Next Step do a routine where everyone does old-fashioned dancing and then James walks and the rest show him how to dance in that way. Then James shows then hip-hop and the routine is a combination of two dances. The Next Step win the semifinals and Ella asks Riley if they can be friends again but Riley refuses. In Season 1, she has medium-length brown hair and brown eyes. In Season 2, her hair is cut into a bob. In Season 3, she grows her hair longer. She wears braces for the first 2 seasons, and gets them removed in Season 3. In Season 4, she becomes Studio Head when Kate steps down in order to take a position as a judge in a dance competition in England. After the Regionals loss, Riley decides to leave The Next Step and go to business school.
• James (portrayed by Trevor Flannagan-Tordjman)^[1] An easy going break dancer who struggles in math. James is the overprotective older brother of Piper and Deborah's only son. He has dated many girls, but feels differently about Riley and begins to fall in love with her and starts to date her in Season 1.5. When dance is starting to affect his school work, his mother pulls him from the studio until he gets his grades up. When he returns, he gets offered Daniel's solo after he gets injured, but turns it down. Riley and James continue their relationship in Season 2, but she breaks up with him when she finds him kissing his ex, Beth, during their duet rehearsal, resulting in them giving up their Nationals duet and James and Beth getting together. He then breaks up with Beth in Season 2 because he still has feelings for Riley. Riley makes a list of tasks for James to complete before she would get back together with him. Later in Season 2.5, Riley and James get back together and get their Nationals duet back from Giselle and Thalia. He makes the Internationals team in Season 3, and his relationship with Riley is going smoothly until the British transfer Ella starts to get involved. He does his last dance at the International tie breaker in the finals with Riley as he decides to leave The Next Step to carry on playing the drums in his band, who he began to work with at the start of Season 3. In Season 4, he competes with Eldon and West at the Bangers and Mashups International Hip-Hop Extravaganza. In Season 1 and 2 he has short hair. In Season 3, he grows his hair longer.
• Eldon (portrayed by Isaac Lupien)^[1] A contemporary dancer who had been obsessed with fellow dancer Emily for years. In Season 1, he continues to show Emily how much he likes her and ask her out, much to her disgust. After she humiliates him one too many time, Eldon decides to move on and like Michelle instead. He dates Emily briefly in Season 1.5, but breaks up with her in the season finale to be with Michelle. In Season 2, he has a good relationship with Michelle until her ex-boyfriend, Hunter, joins the studio. He challenges Eldon to a dance battle, with the winner getting Michelle as their prize. Eldon loses to Hunter, so he backs off Michelle and later breaks up with her in Season 2.5. In Season 3, he and fellow dancer Thalia start to fall for each other. James tells Eldon that when he can do 30 pirouettes, he will be ready to date Thalia. In the spinning contest at Internationals, James abandon the 30-pirouette rule, and tells Eldon that if he wins the round, he can date Thalia. Eldon wins the round by spinning the longest and wins Thalia. They kiss when The Next Step win the mystery song round, due to Eldon's win. In Season 4, Eldon has light blonde hair and blue eyes, and pale skin. Eldon leaves the Next Step at the beginning of Series 4 and competes with West and James at the Bangers and Mashups International Hip-Hop Extravaganza. He also makes a guest appearance in Season 5 where he agrees to choreograph a Regionals routine for both Emily's studio, TNS East and Michelle's studio, TNS West.
• Daniel (portrayed by Brennan Clost)^[1] A ballet and contemporary dancer who is selfish. He mostly focuses on what's best for his career, and not what is best for his team. In Season 1.5, he injures his ankle landing a jump. Later in the season, he fractures it when doing a lift with his ex-best friend, Giselle. He is then unable to participate in Regionals and leaves the studio for a while. He returns in Season 2 with his ankle healed. When he does not get the male solo, he threatens to leave the studio and join Chris's studio, Superstar Dance. He leaves the Next Step after Kate refuses to give him the solo. He later competes against Eldon in the male solo round at Nationals, and loses. He gets offered an audition for Juilliard, but it doesn't go well for him. He returns in Season 3 as a member of Elite Dance studios to compete for a spot on the Internationals team. He loses his spot to Giselle. During Internationals he finds out that Lucien is a judge. He wants to save The Next Step from Lucien so he sends an email with a video attachment to Giselle. The video shows Lucien trying to take down The Next Step with him and Tess. Daniel's voice is heard in the background but it isn't too influencing. Giselle shows this to Miss Kate, who then shows it to the woman in charge of Internationals. She gets two policemen to take Lucien out after showing the video to the man who owns the studio of the Swedish team, who says that Lucien should have been "screened more carefully" and Miss Kate is very happy that Lucien is removed. Daniel auditioned for a spot at Juilliard but he failed his audition. Daniel was denied the chance to return to The Next Step. After realizing how mean he was Daniel leaves dance for good. He has brown hair, chocolate brown eyes and tanned skin. However, in Season 4, he leads the auditions for A-Troupe, as if it wasn't for him, The Next Step would not have been able to dance in the finals of Internationals. In Season 5, Emily picks him to be the head choreographer for A-Troupe which later becomes TNS East.
• Stephanie (portrayed by Samantha Grecchi)^[1] A bossy jazz dancer and Emily's best friend. Her parents aren't very supportive of her dancing career and she relies on Emily for encouragement. She wants to be famous and because of her parents' absence, relies mostly on Kate for advice, and sees her as a "mother figure". She is the main saboteur of Season 1, committing almost all the sneaky acts to defend Emily as dance captain. She is the only member of A-Troupe who sticks by Emily. She tried out for Elite with Emily, but didn't make it. She auditioned for a role on a TV show and got it, but turned it down after realizing it was being filmed the same week as Regionals. After the auditions for Nationals, Stephanie is cut from A-Troupe along with Tiffany. Stephanie had always wanted to be a triple threat (actress/singer/dancer). Stephanie can be seen singing in the song "Play the Game" for the next step. She is also seen singing with Jennifer papps aka Chloe and Victoria Baldasarra aka Michelle on the next step 'on set'. Stephanie's inspirations run from Grande to Beyonce just like Tiffany. Her triple threat classes were the reason she was late and failed the audition routine denoting her to B-troupe. Later when Chloe leaves The Next Step to join a ballet touring company, Stephanie takes her place. In Season 4, Stephanie leaves The Next Step in order to go to Los Angeles to pursue her career as a triple threat after leading the auditions for A-Troupe.
• West (portrayed by Lamar Johnson)^[1] A friendly hip hop dancer, he is smart at some times but says it in a silly way, he can be really funny at times. He hates drama, and while he doesn't always share his opinion, when he does most people are often confused by it. He rarely makes sense, but uses this to his advantage in multiple instances to get out of sticky situations. It was revealed that he used to be in a street dance group, Seeds, who gave him the nickname 'Compass', in "Dancing in the Street". He makes it to the Nationals team in Season 2. At the end of season 2 he kisses Emily but later becomes 'just friends' with her. In Season 3, West gets onto the internationals team and is challenged by Eldon to audition for a ballet company and asks Chloe for help. He doesn't get in but she does, causing her to leave The Next Step. At Internationals, before the semi-finals round, West gets food poisoning, thought to be from a kebab. He is unable to dance in the semi-finals and Michelle takes up his spot, as she and Amanda agreed to take the spots of people that they had chosen, and Michelle took West as one of hers. However West does dance in the semi finals and afterwards there is no signs of him being ill. He leaves the Next Step at the beginning of Series 4 because he wants to travel the world and does not want to wait for the next Internationals to do so. He competes with Eldon and James at the Bangers and Mashups International Hip-Hop Extravaganza. In Season 5, Michelle picks him to become the head choreographer of TNS West.
• Cierra (portrayed by Cierra Healey)^[1] A contemporary dancer who spent the first two seasons at Elite with Max, Shantel and Amanda. She is the older sister of Skylar and has to compete against her for a spot on the Internationals team. Cierra makes it to A-Troupe whilst Skylar switches from Elite to B-troupe. She does not make it to the team in Series 4.
• Shantel (portrayed by Shantel Angela Vailloo)^[1] A dancer who is a single player and does not care what anyone thinks about that while she spent the first two seasons at Elite with Cierra, Max and Amanda. She left The Next Step after losing to Giselle in the Dance Captain competition with a lot of jealousy.
• Noah (portrayed by Myles Erlick)^[1] A contemporary dancer who was in J-Troupe in season two with Richelle but moved up to A-Troupe in season three with Richelle (until she lost to Max in the battle.) He was in a band with James in season two. In season three, he develops a crush on Elite dancer Abi, and when she transfers to The Next Step, he starts to talk to her more, but is unable to explain his feelings, or even talk to her properly. However at the surprise party of Amanda coming back to The Next Step, he gets to know Abi more and they kiss whilst dancing together. In Season 4, he makes it onto A-Troupe again. However, he has a severe back injury which meant that The Next Step lost the first qualifier for Regionals. He dates Amanda during this season, however, during the Off Season, they break up. In Season 5, he falls in love with Jacquie after meeting her at a dance workshop led by Daniel. However, Jacquie is Henry's ex-girlfriend and Henry is Noah's best friend. After realising Michelle's troupe is the better of the two, Noah decides to leave TNS East and join TNS West.
• Richelle (portrayed by Briar Nolet) Acro dancer, Ballet dancer, Contemporary dancer who is determined to become dance captain of A-Troupe one day. She has a crush on Noah in season 3. As a J-Troupe Member, Auditions for "The Challenge". After Emily leaves The Next Step because of her knee Kate put Richelle on A-Troupe but lost to Max in the battle and went down to B-Troupe with new member Skylar, Gabi and Shannon. Richelle is then moved to B-troupe, where she befriends Abi, an ex-Elite dancer, and unfortunately, Noah's crush. Richelle first likes Noah in season 3, but she gives up on him. However, at one point in Season 3, Phoebe tells the B-troupers to partner up with an A-trouper. Noah and Richelle are put together, and after Richelle sees Noah blow raspberries and gets chocolate spread around his mouth, she strongly dislikes him. In Series 4, Richelle joins A-Troupe for the Regionals team but loses dance captaincy to Skylar. In Season 5, she becomes dance captain of TNS East.
• Max (portrayed by Devon Brown)^[1] A lyrical dancer who was at Elite in season 1 and 2 with Shantel, Cierra and Amanda. He joined A-Troupe in season 3 after beating Richelle in the dance battle for a spot on the Internationals team. Max is great friends with West, James and Eldon. In Season 4, Max leaves The Next Step so he can go to university as he feels The Next Step have helped him crack out of his shell and that he is ready to move on to a new chapter.
• Chloe (portrayed by Jennifer Pappas)^[1] A shy ballet dancer whose parents can't afford her dancing at the studio. She has to work a part-time job as a waitress while being a member of A-Troupe as well as an E-girl. As Season 1 progresses, she becomes less and less of an E-girl until things eventually boil over and she secretly joins Michelle's group until Stephanie catches the group rehearsing and sees Chloe with them. In the Season 1 finale she sides with Michelle, and seems to show no remorse for it. In Season 1.5, everyone finds out about her job and give her huge tips to pay for A-Troupe. In Season 2, Kate gives Chloe a job at The Next Step to teach dance to little kids (even though Chloe is afraid of kids). One of those kids named Margie became Chloe's guardian angel. when Chloe had a problem Margie was there for her and finally in season 3 when Chloe gets offered a position in The Nutcracker and can't decide if she will compete in internationals or act in the nutcracker, and West convinced Chloe to take the role (because Margie told him to) and after she told Kate, Margie came to the room with Chloe and danced with her one last time Chloe found out that Margie was an angel literally after she disappeared.
• Tiffany (portrayed by Tamina Pollack-Paris)^[1] A bubbly hip hop dancer and member of E-Girls. She has been shown to love gossip. In the Season 1 finale, when everyone is forced to choose who they want as Dance Captain, she sides with Michelle to cover herself, shocking Emily and Stephanie, and possibly costing her her spot as an E-Girl, while at the same time gaining her respect with the rest of A-Troupe. Tiffany loves gossip, but sometimes it can seem to backfire on her. She is cut from A-Troupe after the Challenge for getting onto the Nationals Team after struggling with the spinning section of the routine. She then thinks if she even belongs at the Next Step anymore. Tiffany disappears from The Next Step after the mall dance for Michelle. It can be assumed that she left The Next Step. She isn't featured much anywhere else and there is no trace of her in Season 3. Where she is remains a mystery but it is sensible to predict that she left the studio. In Season 4, we see that she is an administrator for a dancing tour company. In Season 5, we hear that Tiffany is a studio head.
• Giselle (portrayed by Jordan Clark)^[1] A sweet acro dancer who is Daniel's ex-best friend and the older sister of Clara. She was formerly an A-Troupe member and E-Girl, but gets kicked out of the E-Girls when she is demoted to B-Troupe. She waited right at the door to come in A-Troupe. When Emily and Stephanie leave The Next Step, and A-Troupe has B-Troupe auditions, Giselle, who is one of Emily's best friends, replaces Emily. She and Daniel grew up together, and partly why she was so devastated about not getting into A-Troupe was because she felt like she let him down. Daniel has not said anything about their friendship though. Giselle makes it to the Nationals team in Season 2. Giselle becomes dance captain in Season 3. She takes the Female solo round in Internationals after Ella steals Riley's choreography. Giselle leaves The Next Step during Season 4 to become a professional dancer.
• Hunter (portrayed by Zac Vran) Michelle's old love interest and ex-boyfriend. In the Season 2 one-hour special, Michelle tells him that she has moved on and leaves Hunter heartbroken. But he and Emily try to make Michelle jealous. Then Hunter challenges Eldon to a dance battle over Michelle, with the winner gets to be with her. Hunter wins, meaning Eldon has to break up with Michelle. However, we then find out that Amanda was filming the dance battle and Amanda shows the video to Michelle who then shows it to Kate. Kate decides to give Hunter the solo, which makes Eldon dislike Hunter more. Then, in "You're the one that I want" Hunter finally takes Michelle on a date and realises he'd rather be with Emily. Later on in that episode, Hunter is rehearsing his Nationals Solo and admits his feelings to Emily, kissing her. Then Hunter does not get in the Internationals team as he gets beaten by Eldon and moves back to Madison. He does a goodbye dance with Eldon, West and James.
• Thalia (portrayed by Taveeta Szymanowicz) New A-Troupe member in Season 2. Thalia is a contemporary dancer from a studio who has won Nationals before. In Season 2, Thalia did a duet with Giselle and won Small Group with Amanda and Giselle.^[1] In Season 3, Thalia develops feelings for Eldon, but can't date him until he can do 30 pirouettes, according to James. However, after Eldon wins the turning round at Internationals, she finally got to date him, after making friends with a Polish man named Baruk. Just after Eldon and Thalia get together, Bartek's team (Poland) leave Miami, after getting beaten by England due to their five-point advantage (due to Ella's solo) in the mystery song round. In Season 4, Thalia leaves to join Bartek's studio in Poland and discover her Polish heritage.
• Amanda (portrayed by Logan Fabbro) Contemporary dancer and Dance Captain of Elite Dance Academy, The Next Step's rival studio. Sometimes, she was referred to as "Elite's old Emily", referring to Emily's rude nature before. Sometimes, she was seen tormenting Emily, which makes her uncomfortable. In Season 2, she auditions for "The Challenge". In episode 4 (episode 1 extended = episode 1 2 and 3 ), she, as well as Thalia and Hunter, make the team. She secretly records Hunter and Eldon's battle on her phone and shows it to Michelle later on. She joined A-Troupe in Season 2 to stop them from reaching Nationals, but The Next Step caught her and sent her back to Elite. She dated James in the past, before Season 1. However she makes up with the Next Step when she takes Emily's spot in the final dance when Emily hurts her leg. In the middle of season 3, Kate sends Amanda to Sweden as part of the Internationals Exchange Programme because Kate revealed to Amanda she was an alternate and she wasn't one of the strongest dancers, therefore Amanda was not featured in the Internationals routines. Amanda returns after her trip at Sweden and finds out that a lot of events happened whilst she was away from The Next Step. She tells Michelle that Sweden are amazing and unbeatable at her welcome back party and that A-Troupe wouldn't even make it into their B-Troupe. At the beginning of Season 4, Amanda misses her A-Troupe audition as she chooses to audition for a world dance tour with Giselle. Miss Kate does not pick her onto the team but when Riley becomes studio head, she joins the team. She then starts dating Noah. Giselle later comes by to tell Amanda that she is welcome to join her on the world dance tour but that they will leave just before the final dance at Regionals. Amanda soon decides to stay with A-Troupe. However, during the final dance at Regionals, Amanda is taken off the final line-up and soon decides to leave A-Troupe to join Giselle on the world dance tour.
• Ella (portrayed by Ella Gilling) An exchange dancer for the Internationals programme and Riley's ex-best friend. She is mischievous and comes from Summerford Dance Academy, England. Ella soon befriends Riley, telling her why she should wait around for James, and if she can do anything fun in the meantime. She changes Riley's sensible personality to a lively, mischievous personality, and they both pull many pranks. One prank is changing the Internationals letters from hotel information to an old-fashioned square dance. At first A-troupe is stressed and upset, but by the end of the day, they all lighten up and are happy about it. Ella's main goal for the prank was to stop A-troupe from being too uptight. They also wrap James' bad set in bubble wrap which he finds funny, but after Ella and Riley pull many pranks (including the square dance) he dislikes them, especially Riley. He is annoyed in the square dance prank, as he says the it's a waste of his band time. In Ella's last prank, which was to pretend that Riley's back had broken, James knew better and sussed it out. At Internationals, Ella betrays The Next Step by stealing Riley's solo and performing it herself to "On My Way". Riley ends her friendship with Ella after this. Giselle performs a solo instead to "When The War Is Over", but Ella still got the 5-point advantage and trophy. The Next Step learn that they will have to face England in the semi-finals and are questioning in whether Ella will betray them again. However The Next Step's semifinals routine beats England and Riley rejects Ella. Ella makes a guest appearance in Season 4 by telling James that Riley still loves him.
• Piper (portrayed by Alexandra Chaves) A sensible contemporary dancer. Piper is the younger sister of James and one of Deborah's daughters. Piper didn't want to come to The Next Step at first because she didn't want to dance in James' shadow. After James quit dance to focus on his band, Piper took his place in A-Troupe. James is overprotective of Piper and he doesn't want to see his little sister get hurt. She is dismayed when Riley kisses Alfie and worried about the Jiley relationship but is later relieved when they make up. In Season 5, she originally becomes a member of TNS East but when Amy takes her spot, she joins TNS West and becomes the dance captain. She throws a dance-a-thon in which dancers have to dance for 12 hours in order to raise money for a scholarship so that less fortunate dancers can dance at TNS.
• Alfie (portrayed by Giuseppe Bausilio) Alfie first appeared in Season 3 as the male soloist for Switzerland at Internationals. He auditions for A-Troupe in Series 4 and gets in. It is discovered during Season 4 that Alfie is a prince from Switzerland, but keeps it a secret to most of the troupe to avoid trouble and be able to dance. He develops feelings for Riley and they kiss during Season 4. He leaves The Next Step after Riley makes up with James but comes back before they dance at the finals. However, after The Next Step lose at Regionals, he leaves The Next Step.
• Skylar (portrayed by Skylar Healey) Skylar is the younger sister of Cierra and a former member of Elite and joins B-Troupe after losing against Cierra in the dance battles to compete for a place on the Internationals team. Skylar auditions for A-Troupe in Season 4 and gets in. She does not make it into A-Troupe in Season 5.
• Sloane (portrayed by Erika Prevost) Sloane is a hip-hop dancer who joins A-Troupe in Season 4. Her best friend is LaTroy, who later becomes her boyfriend. Sloane struggles to do any other dance styles apart from hip-hop. Sloane gets disqualified at Regionals when she uses choreography in a free-style round. In Season 5, Sloane leaves The Next Step after being offered to work with Luther Brown.
• LaTroy (portrayed by Akiel Julien) LaTroy is a hip-hop dancer who joins A-Troupe in Season 4. His best friend is Sloane. He is Amy's boyfriend but soon he became Sloane's boyfriend in Season 4. After being forbidden to audition for A-Troupe by Emily, he decides to join Michelle's troupe, TNS West.
• Amy (portrayed by Shelby Bain) Amy is an acro and jazz dancer who joins A-Troupe in Season 4. She is LaTroy's girlfriend throughout the fourth season, but he breaks up with her in the season finale after he realizes that he has feelings for Sloane. In Season 5, she auditions for A-Troupe but does not make it. She then decides to join Michelle's troupe, TNS West but is taken off when her mum sees her messing around. Piper then asks Emily and Daniel to let Amy audition and Amy replaces Piper on TNS East.
• Henry (portrayed by Isaiah Peck) Henry is a hip-hop dancer who joins A-Troupe in Season 4. He joined to get his mind of Jacquie, his ex-girlfriend who said he was not a good enough dancer. However, he is shocked to see her in Season 5 and is even more shocked to see that she is dating his best friend, Noah. Henry auditions for A-Troupe but does not make it so he joins Michelle's troupe, TNS West.
• Cassie (portrayed by Allie Goodbun) Cassie is jazz dancer who joins A-Troupe in Season 4. Later, Cassie is disappointed to become an alternate for Absolute Dance Regionals, but is encouraged by Henry. Although, Cassie does end up dancing at Regionals anyway. However, she decide to leave Studio prior to Season 5.
• Jacquie (portrayed by Dylan Ratzlaff) Jacquie is a contemporary dancer who joins TNS East in Season 5. Prior to Season 4, she was Henry's girlfriend but she broke up with him because she thought he was not a good enough dancer. She is now dating Noah.
• Zara (portrayed by Milaina Robinson) Zara is Jazz Funk dancer who joins TNS East in Season 5. She used to be a member of A-Troupe and she befriends Josh. She is also a mathematician but has to choose between maths and dance when her maths competition is scheduled on the day of the dance battle against TNS West.
• Lola (portrayed by Jessica Lord) Lola is Jazz dancer who joins TNS East in Season 5. Prior to this, she was the dance captain of Encore Dance Studios but left there because she felt she did not have any friends. She arrives at The Next Step in the hope of making friends and instantly becomes best friends with Richelle. She is originally happy to get the solo in a routine being choreographed by Eldon but is then embarrassed when she realises that he mistook Jacquie for her. However, Jacquie comforts Lola and motivates her to work harder.
• Josh (portrayed by Dawson Handy) Josh is Hip-Hop dancer who joins TNS East in Season 5. He used to be a hockey player but joins TNS East when Michelle quits A-Troupe in favour of forming TNS West.
• Elliot (portrayed by Julian Elia) Elliot is a ballet dancer who joins TNS West in Season 5. He is extremely egoistic and thinks that without him, the team will not be successful. When he is paired with Piper in the dance-off against TNS East to decide where the dance battle to go to Regionals will take place, he forces Piper to agree to changing West's choreography which he deems "as bland as a piece of toast". However, after coming clean, Michelle orders him to leave TNS West but he strongly believes that the team is going nowhere without him.
• Heather (portrayed by Hanna Miller) Heather is first seen in Season 4 as a member of Dance Extreme. She performs in the winning trio at the Regionals qualifier. At Regionals, she performs in the freestyle round against Sloane and wins. However, her team lose in the quartet round. During the Off Season, Heather becomes a barista at Neutral Grounds and is said to have quit dance after her parents not being able to afford it. She does a flip in Studio A and says that although she can no longer dance, she will always be a dancer. She always dances before Neutral Grounds opens but is embarrassed when Piper and Amy catch her dancing. She dances in Studio A which makes Piper encourage her to audition for TNS West. She is furious to hear about the dance-a-thon as it means that everybody knows about her financial problems, however, when Piper is unable to dance, she takes her place and ends up winning joint 1st place with Henry. After this success, she decides to join TNS West.
• Ozzy (portrayed by Julian Lombardi) Ozzy is first seen in the Off Season as a member of J-Troupe when he is upset that Amanda quits teaching J-Troupe in order to be part of a famous dance tour but is ecstatic when he realises that Richelle is the new teacher and has an enormous crush on her. In Season 5, Emily forbids him from auditioning for A-Troupe so he joins Michelle's troupe, TNS West. He likes pranking others.
• Kingston (portrayed by Noah Zulfikar) Kingston arrives at The Next Step upon West's invitation to join TNS West. He is a vlogger on YouTube who learned how to dance from watching online videos. He struggles to learn choreography which causes Michelle to take him off the troupe but his willingness to improve his dancing (as he joins Baby Ballet in order to get some proper training) causes Michelle to let him back onto the team.

Recurring Characters

• Beth (portrayed by Megan Mackenzie) One of the B-Troupe dancers. She is James' ex-girlfriend and wouldn't leave him alone, even though James doesn't like her back. In "Winner Takes All", she watches James and A-Troupe perform, and before they perform, admits she loves James. She asks him for help a lot in Season 2 and they become a couple later on, but James breaks up with her realizing he still has feelings for Riley. Beth soon realises that James doesn't love her like he loves Riley and she leaves him alone, after giving him a four leaf clover for one of the tasks on Riley's list.
• Chris (portrayed by Shamier Anderson)^[1] The former head choreographer at the Next Step, known for his 'Dolphin Tail' tactic for making the A-Troupe dancers pay attention. The sort of 'father figure' to the dancers, especially James, acting as a compassionate, helpful, and rarely serious male advisor. He leaves in Season 2 to become co-owner of a rival studio, Superstar Dance. Chris is a math whiz and tutors James when his mom threatens to pull him out of the studio due to his bad grades.
• Kate (portrayed by Bree Wasylenko)^[1] The former owner of The Next Step studio and Phoebe's sister. Elite Dance Studio owner Lucien is often seen always plotting against and teasing Kate, Phoebe and the A-troupe dancers. She is known to all as "Miss Kate". The sort of 'mother figure' to the dancers, especially Stephanie, as she does not have one, acting as the enthusiastic female advisor though she can be strict when she needs to be. Kate eventually leaves The Next Step as she is offered a job as a judge for a dance competition in the UK, due to The Next Step's success at Internationals and hands ownership to Riley.
• Phoebe (portrayed by Natalie Krill) A yoga instructor and Kate's sister. She is the complete opposite of Kate, being more fun, but can get angry when people don't listen to her when she's talking. Phoebe is often seen as being not that bright, but she is an amazing dancer and choreographer. After Chris leaves for his new job, Kate calls Phoebe to take his position. When the dancers first meet her she appears rather strange and odd. Phoebe leaves The Next Step in Season 4 to swim with the turtles in the Galapagos Islands.
• Lucien (portrayed by Allain Lupien) The owner and head choreographer of the Elite Dance Academy. He is very rude as well, and makes fun of the fact that Kate owns The Next Step just because Kate's mother (who previously owned it) quit. He also is a schemer and does not like The Next Step ever since they beat Elite at Regionals and wants to beat The Next Step Studio once and for all. In Season 2, he gets Amanda to go undercover and pretend to be a member of A-Troupe. Amanda leaves them with 9 dancers. However, this plan backfires as Amanda realises her ways and becomes good. After Nationals, Lucien evicts The Next Step from their studio and would only offer them the studio if The Next Step merged with Elite to make a new team for Internationals. However, this plan backfires but he tries to bring them down one more time during the final round by becoming a judge. However, he is taken away.
• Luke (portrayed by Shane Harte) The lead singer and guitarist of James' band. Luke is also a character on "Lost & Found: Music Studio"
• Theo (portrayed by Levi Randell) A member of Luke's band and Giselle's love interest in Season 3. Theo is also a character on "Lost & Found: Music Studio"
• John (portrayed by Alex Zaichkowski) A member of Luke's band. He is also a character on "Lost & Found: Music Studio" thus it is revealed on an episode of "Lost & Found: Music Studio" that he has a crush on Next Step dancer Michelle.
• Deborah (portrayed by Viviana Zarrillo) James and Piper's overprotective mother. Deborah has a no nonsense personality. Deborah is concerned about James when his grades slip. Deborah thinks that James has been spending too much time on dance and not enough time on school. Michelle talks Deborah out of taking James out of The Next Step. Deborah reluctantly agrees to let James stay at the studio. She does take James out for two weeks and grounds him until his grades improve. Deborah doesn't approve of James doing dance and music as she wants him to focus on his education.
• Abi (portrayed by Abigail Bergman) A ballet dancer and former student at Elite Dance Academy who transfers to The Next Step in Season 3. When Abi arrives at The Next Step she joins B-Troupe. Noah had a crush on her and at Amanda's welcome back party, they kissed and danced together.

Guest Stars

• Stacey Tookey (portrayed by Herself)^[2] S1.5 - 4 episodes. One of the two hosts of the Absolute Dance Regionals Competition along with Chuck Anderson.
• Chuck Anderson (portrayed by Damian Goddard) Seasons 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 - 13 episodes approx. Hosts the Absolute Regionals, Nationals and Internationals Competitions with either Stacey Tookey, Tré Armstrong and Ashley Leggat, depending on the series.
• Tré Armstrong (portrayed by Herself) Season 2.5 - 5 episodes. One of the two hosts of the Absolute Dance Nationals Competition along with Chuck Anderson.
• Ashley Leggat (portrayed by Herself) Season 3.5 : - episodes. Hosts of the Absolute Dance Internationals Competition along with Chuck Anderson. Ashley Leggat is the former star of Life with Derek and Vacation with Derek.
• Lindsey Russell (portrayed by Herself) Season 4 - 4 episodes. Announcer of the Bangers & Mashups International Hip-Hop Extravaganza, alongside "The Masked Man".
• Tanisha Scott (portrayed by Herself) Season 4 - Chuck Anderson's co-host for the Absolute Dance Regionals.

References