Running gags

A running gag is a joke or a comical reference that appears repeatedly throughout the show.

A-Troupe's continuous loss of dancers

• In Season 1, A-Troupe loses Giselle, James, Stephanie, Emily, Daniel, and Chloe. All of the dancers, except Daniel, eventually return during the season.
• In Season 2, A-Troupe loses Tiffany, Stephanie, Daniel, Michelle, Chloe, Emily and Amanda, and the faculty loses Chris. All of them except Chris, Tiffany, Stephanie and Daniel return during the season, and Stephanie returns in Season 3.
• In Season 3, A-Troupe loses Eldon, Emily, Hunter, James, Shantel, Chloe and Ella. Only James and Eldon return during the season, and Emily later returns as faculty.
• In Season 4, A-Troupe loses James, Stephanie, Max, Giselle, Thalia, West, Eldon, Riley, Cierra and Amanda, and the faculty loses Phoebe and Kate. Only Amanda returns during the season. Riley returns as faculty, James briefly returns only to depart again, and Kate returns in The Off Season: Season 1.
• In The Off Season: Season 1 and Season 5, A-Troupe loses Amanda, Alfie, Cassie, Sloane, LaTroy, Amy, Henry, Skylar, Michelle, Piper, Noah, Elliot, Danielle, Jordan and Tyler, and and the faculty loses Riley. Amy, Henry, Noah and Piper return during the season, and Michelle returns as faculty.
• In The Off Season: Season 2 and Season 6, A-Troupe loses Richelle, Lola, Josh, Zara, Heather, Piper, Lily, Winnie, Amy, Noah, Kingston and Davis, and the faculty loses Emily, Michelle, Daniel, West and Angela. Emily, Kingston, Michelle, Noah, Piper and Richelle all return during the season. Amy returns in The Off Season: Season 3, and Lily and Angela return in Season 7.
• In The Off Season: Season 3 and Season 7, A-Troupe loses Noah, Jacquie, Summer, Cleo and Richelle, and the faculty loses Kate, Michelle and Emily. So far, only Summer and Richelle have returned.
• In The Off Season: Season 4 and Season 8, A-Troupe loses Henry, Summer, Amy, Cleo, Finn, Heath, Kenzie, Kingston, Lily, Ozzy, Piper, Richelle and Grace. Richelle returns temporarily, similarly to how James returns in Season 4, as a ringer and not to A-Troupe. Heath and Kenzie have returned.
• In Season 9, A-Troupe loses Dylan, Jude, Xander and Daisy.
• Kate lampshades this gag in "What You Waiting For?", by asking A-Troupe if they can go just one week without losing a team member. Richelle also lampshades this gag in "Can't Fight This Feeling", by claiming that the studio loses a dancer every five minutes. Emily also references this gag in "Dance, Dance, Resurrection," stating that A-Troupe has been left without dancers and alternates many times before and that she is unsure why this keeps occurring.

Amy's many love interests

• Amy has dated LaTroy, Henry, Ty and Finn, meaning she has had more romantic connections than anyone else on the show, discounting What if?, which is a non-canon mini-series that takes place in an alternate timeline.
• A trend is for Amy to quickly befriend those she has had a crush on or dated shortly after their attempts at a relationship fail, and to also befriend their subsequent girlfriends (these being Sloane, Summer and Piper).
• Amy lampshades this gag in "Good, Different." by saying that she's going to forget about boys and concentrate on dance for a while.

Dance-offs being used to determine solutions

• As opposed to simpler practices such as playing Rock Paper Scissors, or flipping a coin, most major decisions are determined via a dance-off.
• Piper and Richelle lampshade this in "United and Divided" in trying to determine where the dance battle should be held.

Piper: Then I guess we'll have a dance off to determine home studio advantage. I mean, what else are we gonna do? Flip a coin?

Richelle: No chance.

Daniel's many auditions and cuts from A-Troupe

• Daniel auditions for A-Troupe in "Get the Party Started". He is cut from A-Troupe in "Break Stuff".
• Daniel auditions for A-Troupe in "Ready to Start" and "The Final Cut". He quits A-Troupe and The Next Step Dance Studio in "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better".
• Daniel auditions for A-Troupe in "The Times They Are A Changin'" and is cut in the same episode.
• Daniel auditions for A-Troupe in "I Hope I Get It" and is cut in the same episode.
• James lampshades this gag in "I Hope I Get It", asking A-Troupe if they want to see Daniel audition for the team again.

Departures of Studio Faculty without warning

• Chris does this in Season 2.
• Phoebe does this in between Season 3 and Season 4.
• Kate leaves to be a judge on a reality TV Show in the United Kingdom. In "Square One," Kate walks out of the studio after giving Riley the position of studio head and is absent for the remainder of the season.
• It can be assumed that Riley also does this, as she reveals she's leaving in "Riley's Dance" and had already left by "New Girl Lola," without any onscreen goodbye to A-Troupe.
• Daniel and West do this in between Season 5 and Season 6.
• Emily also chooses not to say goodbye to the studio in "It All Comes Down to This" after deciding to help Michelle with her newly formed dance tour.

"Dolphin tail!"

Main article: The Dolphin Tail

"Don't even worry about it"

• James is the main character to use this phrase, although he has claimed that the phrase is one that has been passed down through his family for generations.
• Riley uses this phrase in several episodes.
• Zoltan recognizes James as the type of person who says this in "Work It."
• Thalia uses this phrase in "I Don't Know."
• Michelle references the phrase in "Danger Zone."
• West uses this phrase in "Blind".
• Piper, James's younger sister, uses the phrase in "Stir It Up", "A Change Is Gonna Come", "It's a Wonderful Life, Piper - Part 2" and "The Bicycle Thief".
• This gag is lampshaded in "Song for Riley," as heard in "Put You First."

Eldon's many love interests

• Eldon has had crushes on and dated Emily, Michelle, and Thalia.
  • While Eldon’s relationships with Emily and Michelle did not last, it appears that this gag has been broken, as he is still in a relationship with Thalia in Season 6.

Eldon appearing in every season

• Unlike Michelle, who was a main character for 6 seasons, Eldon has only been a main character for three, but, like Michelle, has appeared in every season in a main, recurring or guest star capacity. In Season 4, he competes with James and West in Bangers & Mashups International Hip-Hop Extravaganza and helps Riley with choreography for the small group for Regionals, in Season 5, he returns for the dance-a-thon with Thalia, Riley and James at Michelle's request and choreographs for both Emily's TNS East and Michelle's TNS West, in Season 6, he appears as Electric Eldon the DJ for The Next Step's prom and also as AcroNation's head choreographer, in Season 7, he returns for the Christmas party and appears as a guest choreographer for The Next Step, in Season 8, he returns as Electric Eldon and also as AcroNation's head choreographer, and in Season 9, he returns as a guest choreographer, before officially becoming The Next Step's Internationals consultant. Within The Next Step fandom, fans joke that Eldon somehow manages to appear in every season of The Next Step, no matter how small the capacity.
• Eldon himself lampshades this gag in "Stir It Up" when he suggests to Ms Kate that instead of saying goodbye, she says, "I'll see you tomorrow"; Eldon has obviously not said goodbye to the show, seeing as he returns every single season.

Henry's many love interests

• Henry has had crushes on and dated Jacquie, Amy, and Summer.
• Henry has been deemed the "biggest romantic on A-Troupe" by Emily and Michelle. In the same episode, Kingston and Ozzy lampshade this gag by noting how obsessed he is over each girl he falls for.

"I've never seen him/her dance like this before"

• Riley is the character who uses this phrase the most when describing watching other people dance, specifically used and made popular in Season 3 and throughout subsequent seasons, although it was used in earlier seasons (with less recognition) and other dancers use this as well. Within the fandom, people joke that this phrase is used too often and is used to exaggerate the competence of the dancer performing.
• Amanda says a variation of this phrase, saying, "I'm dancing like I've never danced before," when competing for a spot on the Nationals team in "The Final Cut".
• Riley says a variation of this phrase, saying, "I don't think I've ever seen her dance like this," when watching Michelle compete for Miss Nationals Soloist in "What You Waiting For?".
• Eldon says a variation of this phrase, saying, "I've never seen Hunter dance this good before," when competing against Hunter for a spot on the Internationals team in "Let the Games Begin".
• Riley says this exact phrase when watching Chloe compete against Jen for a spot on the Internationals team in "The Times They Are A Changin'".
• Riley says this exact phrase when watching Amanda compete against Tess for a spot on the Internationals team in "The Times They Are A Changin'".
• Daniel says this exact phrase when watching Giselle compete against him for a spot on the Internationals team in "The Times They Are A Changin'".
• Giselle says a variation of this phrase, saying, "I've never seen Chloe dance this way, ever," when she is performing in a hip-hop trio with Eldon and Max to showcase Giselle's dance captain skills in "I'm Your Captain".
• Riley says a variation of this phrase, saying, "I've never seen James dance like this before," when he is competing in the finals of Bangers & Mashups International Hip-Hop Extravaganza in "Bold As Love".
• Kenzie says a variation of this phrase, saying, "[Pete]’s channeling all that pain and dancing like I’ve never seen him dance before", when he performs his freestyle prop round solo audition for A-Troupe in “Tapped Out”.

"It All Comes Down To This"

• Chuck Anderson says a variation of this phrase, "It all comes down to this one moment," when talking about The Next Step versus Elite in the finals at Regionals in "Winner Takes All".
• Emily says this exact phrase when talking about whether or not Amanda will trust her after learning that Amanda is a double agent in "Game On".
• Chuck Anderson says a variation of this phrase, "It comes down to this moment," when talking about The Next Step versus Life of Dance in the finals at Nationals in "Rewind".
• Riley says a variation of this phrase, "In the end, it all came down to me and James," when talking about their Internationals tiebreaker duet in "One More Time".
• An episode that aired during Season 7 was titled after this quote.

James and Riley being together in every TNS Universe

• Unlike all other The Next Step couples, James and Riley are together/get back together in every single The Next Step universe. In the regular The Next Step timeline, they get together in Season 1 and are still together in Season 8 despite breaking up twice. They are together in both seasons of Lost & Found Music Studios, the spin-off show of The Next Step that takes place between Seasons 3 and 4, and are the only couple to crossover on both shows (Michelle and John's relationship is only alluded to in Season 4 of The Next Step and Giselle and Theo's mutual crushes are non-existent in Lost & Found Music Studios). In the Rewind: Halloween Edition (Music Video) universe, James and Riley are on a date together in Culture Shock and their love ends up being what defeats the alien (as shown through their beating hearts). In the timeline where Piper never came to The Next Step, it is implied that they eventually get back together after Piper reminds the dancers that they love dance again and Riley leaves Alfie for James and dancing with the others. In the What if? timeline, despite not appearing, James and Riley are engaged and have been for a long time. James lampshades this in "Walk This Way" when he confesses, "It doesn't matter where I'm going. If I'm in England or I'm on the moon, me and Riley will always be together."

James, Riley, and mountain spring water

Main article: Mountain spring water

Max drinking milk in Hidalgo's

• Max lampshades his frequent milk-drinking in Hidalgo's in "Mixed Messages."

Max's surprising hobbies

• Max's hobbies include square-dancing, burping, and football, which are all at odds with his stoic demeanour.

Montevideo

• Deborah corrects James on his pronunciation of the capital city of Uruguay in "Dance, Dance."
• Noah reveals that his cat's name is Montevideo in "Can't Fight This Feeling."
  • Abi subsequently points out that it is the capital of Uruguay, impressing Noah.

Name change of the juice bar

• In Season 1, the juice bar is called Squeezed.
• In Season 2, the juice bar is called Culture Shock.
• In Season 3, the juice bar is called Hidalgo's.
• In Season 4, the juice bar is called Java Junction.
• In Season 5, the juice bar is called Neutral Grounds.
• In Season 6, the juice bar is called Shakes & Ladders.
• In Season 7, the juice bar is called The Next Steep.
• In Season 8, the juice bar is called Middle C Bubble Tea.
• In Season 9, the juice bar is called Cha-Cha’s.
• Riley lampshades this trend in "One More Time", Piper lampshades it in "Dance, Lies and Hoverboards" and Michelle lampshades it in "Journey to the Past".
• Up until Season 5, the reason for the regular name changes is known to be the owner's travels to Orange County, Tokyo, Spain, Colombia and space, as revealed by Richelle in "Here Comes Your Man."

"Nationals is right around the corner."

• This phrase is used often, specifically used and made popular in Season 2 and throughout subsequent seasons (interchanging the "Nationals" for the appropriate competition). Within the fandom, people joke that this phrase is used too often and that actual competition isn't as close as the phrase would imply.
• Kate says this exact phrase in "Never Enough" when admonishing James and Riley for not working on their duet for Nationals.
• Eldon says a variation of this phrase in "Never Enough", saying "Nationals is around the corner," when talking with Michelle about their relationship.
• Eldon says this exact phrase in "I Hope I Get It" when confessing that breaking up with Michelle was one of the hardest things he had to do but that there is too much going on with upcoming Nationals.
• Kate says this exact phrase in "You're the One That I Want" when telling James and Riley that Giselle and Thalia are going to challenge them for their Nationals duet.
• Kate says this exact phrase in "Hazy Shade of Winter" when telling Giselle and Thalia that they have to rehearse their Nationals duet now that James and Riley have refused to take back the duet.
• Kate says this exact phrase in "Game On" when scolding Emily for yelling at Riley when she is auditioning for the female solo for Absolute Dance Nationals.
• Giselle says this exact phrase twice in "Sacrifice", once when expressing her frustrations at Emily being late to rehearsal again and again when telling Michelle that they gave the female Nationals solo to Amanda in Culture Shock.
• Michelle says a variation of this phrase by saying, "It's [Nationals] around the corner," in "Water It".
• Giselle says this exact phrase in "Run This Town" when talking about Michelle's commitment to the team and the studio.
• Xander says a variation of this phrase by saying, “Internationals is right around the corner” in “Tutu Can Play That Game”.

Noah's many love interests

• Noah has had crushes on and dated Abi, Amanda, and Jacquie.
• Some have deemed Noah a second Eldon for this reason. However, unlike Eldon, whose gag appears to have been broken, Noah's has not, since Jacquie broke up with him prior to him leaving A-Troupe at the end of Season 6.

"Oh my dance"/"OMD"

• In the Season 1 Aftershow, climactic moments in episodes were documented as “OMD moments”.
• Tré Armstrong uses this phrase at Nationals.
• Beth uses the phrase in "Today I'm Getting Over You."
• Family Channel's preview for "East Meets West" had this phrase displayed at the beginning.

Ozzy's dance battles

• Ozzy challenges Elliot to a dance battle in "Never Been Picked."
• Ozzy challenges Kingston to a dance battle in "Little Big Lies."
• Ozzy challenges Heath to a dance battle in "Three's a Crowd."
• Ozzy challenges Jones to a dance battle in "A Tale of Two Auditions."
• Richelle lampshades this gag in "A Tale of Two Auditions," along with the fact that Ozzy tends to challenge dancers who are better than he is and lose.
  • Finn also lampshades this gag in "Play It Again, Finn."

Phoebe's strange quotes

Main article: Phoebe/Quotes

Rechoreographing dance routines just before the competitions

• In Season 1, this happens when the group routine changes from "Addicted 2 U" (Emily's version) to "Addicted 2 U" (Michelle's version) to "More Than That" to finally "Stutter".
• In Season 2, the dancer for Mister Nationals Soloist changes from Eldon to Hunter, back to Eldon with the routine going from Hunter's "Never Get Lost" solo to Eldon's "Oxygen" solo.
• In Season 2, the dancer for Miss National Soloist changes from Michelle to Amanda, back to Michelle with the routine going from Amanda's "When the War Is Over" solo to Michelle's "Showstoppa" solo.
• In Season 2, the Nationals duet goes from Riley and James's "Heartbreaker" duet to Giselle and Thalia's "Heartbreaker" duet to Riley and James's "Whirlwind".
• In Season 2, the Nationals small group goes from Giselle, Amanda and Thalia's "Let's Go Swinging" trio to West, James, Eldon and Hunter's "Never Get Lost" small group.
• In Season 3, the blindfolded "Hotel" routine changes from Riley, Giselle, Stephanie, Cierra and Michelle to Riley, Giselle, Stephanie, Cierra and Noah.
• In Season 4, the qualifier duet changes from Alfie and Piper's "Addicted 2 U" duet to Alfie and James's "Rivalry" duet.
• In Season 6, the group routine changes to the "Hold On to Me" ropes routine following Davis's departure to Encore Dance Studios.
• In Season 8, the Nationals finals group routine is rechoreographed the day of the competition duet to Lucien stealing all the props and costumes of the original dance.

Refurbishment of the secondary rehearsal room

• In Season 1, the room is known as Studio B.
• In Season 2 and Season 3, the room is known as the Music Room.
• In Season 4, the room is known as the Rehearsal Room.
• However, this gag appears to be broken, seeing as Studio 1 is created in The Off Season: Season 1 and it is used in Season 5, The Off Season: Season 2, Season 6, The Off Season: Season 3, Season 7, The Off Season: Season 4, Season 8 and Season 9.

Riley, James and shawarma

Main article: Shawarma

Romeo and Juliet

• In "Forget You", Emily tells Stephanie that she'll be her "Romeo" in reference to the titular character.
• In "Winner Takes All", the final group routine for Regionals is to the theme of Romeo and Juliet, with Eldon and Michelle playing the “star-crossed lovers.”
• In "It Takes Two", James calls Eldon "Romeo" in reference to the titular character.
• In "Re-Match", the song for Max's Nationals solo includes a monologue from Romeo and Juliet.
• In "TNS: Civil War", Noah compares his and Jacquie's relationship to Romeo and Juliet's.
• In "A Fine Showmance", Kingston compares his and Lily's relationship to Romeo and Juliet.
• In "The Friendly Skies", Amy calls Henry "Romeo" in reference to the titular character.
• In "Bad Attitude", Ebby compares her and Remi's potential romance to Romeo and Juliet's.
• Fittingly, seeing as Romeo and Juliet are a tragic romance, none of the couples - Michelle and Eldon, Noah and Jacquie, Kingston and Lily, Amy and Henry, and Ebby and Remi - who all compare their relationships to Romeo and Juliet's, end up being "endgame".
• Ironically, Riley and James, whose names actually are the most similar to Romeo and Juliet's out of all The Next Step couples, and are The Next Step's most iconic couple, are never compared to those characters.

Studio Heads of The Next Step saying "I'll see you later" instead of "goodbye" to the studio as it will always be a home

• In "Riley's Dance", Riley says this after deciding to leave for business school.
• In "The Goodbye Girl", Michelle says this after deciding to pursue a professional dance career.
• In "It All Comes Down to This", Emily says this after deciding to leave the studio to assist Michelle on her new dance tour.
• Both Riley and Michelle prove this to be true by returning to The Next Step in various episodes after their official departure.
  • Emily appears in "The Next Step's Best Studio Head" and although she does not return to The Next Step in that episode in the Dancemania Vidcast, she still returns to the show in that mini-series.

Task #7 on Riley's list

• Riley creates a list of tasks for James to complete with the reward being that they will rekindle their romantic relationship. Task #7 is said on several occasions to be the hardest task on the list and is constantly implied to be impossible. Mandatory prerequisites for the task are: learning how to scuba dive, receiving malaria pills, possibly getting his ears pierced, learning how to do magic, learning to juggle, getting a passport, and hiking at a high altitude.
• The gag is eventually broken when it is replaced with learning how to do CPR, which James successfully does.

"The auditions are in here, right?"

• Michelle says this when she arrives at the studio in "Get the Party Started."
• Daniel says this when he returns to the studio to audition in "I Hope I Get It."
• Piper asks James a variation of this question in "One More Time."
• Riley and Richelle imitate Michelle saying this in "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "The Goodbye Girl" respectively.

Things going wrong on stage at competitions

• In "Fancy Footwork", this occurs when Riley's hairpiece falls out while performing during Regionals.
• In "You Love Me", this occurs when Emily injures her knee while performing during the semi-finals at Nationals.
• In "Even Better Than the Real Thing", this occurs when Sloane performs choreography instead of performing a freestyle solo at Regionals.
• In "Don't Stop Me Now", this occurs when Michelle faints while performing during the sudden death round at Regionals.
• In "No Shell", this occurs when Piper falls out of her aerial while performing during the contemporary round at Regionals.
• In "What I Did for Love", this occurs when Dylan runs off stage just before the small group performs and Kenzie steps in last minute to replace them.
• In "Defying Gravity", this occurs when all of The Next Step's costumes and props go missing with a few hours to go before the final group performance.

"This changes everything."

• Riley says a slightly different version of this by saying "This is going to change everything" after A-Troupe decides to hold the Challenge in "Don't Stop the Party".
• Amanda says "This changes everything" after Emily reveals to her that she knows that Amanda is a double agent for Elite in "Make a Plan to Love Me".
• Riley says a slightly different version of this by saying "This is going to change everything" when Emily is kicked out of the studio after Amanda frames her for stealing the Nationals money in "Under Pressure".
• Riley says a slightly different version of this by saying "This twist changes everything" after Gemini Dance Studio reveals that they can steal one dancer from a studio if they win the second qualifier for Regionals in "Nobody's Fault but Mine".
• Riley quotes a slightly different version of this by saying "one choice can change everything" after replacing Amanda with Michelle for the Regionals finals routine in "A Change Is Gonna Come".
• Michelle quotes this when she finds out that Elliot is a professional dancer who appeared on Broadway, meaning that TNS East's win doesn't count in "Brave New World".
• An episode that aired during Season 5 was titled after this quote.
• Piper quotes this when she kisses Finn whilst is he is dating Amy in "There Can Only Be One".
• These have been named "famous words" by the show.

Unexplained Departures of Members of The Next Step Dance Studio

• In recent seasons, it is common for both dancers and staff to leave The Next Step Dance Studio with little to no explanation as to why they did.
• In Season 3, this occurs with Tiffany.
• In Season 4, this occurs with Cierra.
• In Season 5, this occurs with Alfie and Cassie.
• In Season 6, this occurs with Lola, Josh, Zara, Daniel and West.
• In Season 7, this occurs with Jacquie.
• In Season 8, this occurs with Henry.
• In Season 9, this occurs with Dylan.

West's strange quotes

Main article: West North/Quotes