By Lindsay Strouse

This week on Taking The Stage, the dancers get ready for the first dance ensemble show of the year.

Not everyone is beaming with excitement, however. Tyler’s ankle continues to give him problems and he thinks it might be a stress fracture. Anna is worried she will just fade into the background of the ensemble because of the rods in her back and her unfamiliarity with this new type of experience.

In order to either make or break her fears, Anna sees her director to see how she’s doing from his perspective. He basically tells her that while she has a great personality, her moves are too rigid and stiff and that she’s going to need to really work on it. Not exactly the news she was hoping to hear.

Tyler heads over to the doctor with his mom to see how serious his ankle injury is. The doctor looks at the X-Rays and thinks it is an overuse injury and a possible stress fracture. He says that Tyler’s body can’t meet the demands of his schedule and that he should cut down his dancing drastically. Tyler doesn’t handle the news well and doesn’t want to tone down dance at all, for it’s all he knows and loves.

Over at Anna’s house, Anna talks with her mom about the stress of balancing school and dance every day at SCPA. Add a relationship on the rocks to the mix and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster. Boyfriend Mike is coming over for a talk later, and Anna admits to her mom that she is really confused as to what is going on with their relationship.

Back at the dance studio, Emily starts practicing her and Tyler’s dance with her friend Garrett just in case Tyler’s ankle doesn’t get better. This sounds reasonable, right? Last time I checked, understudies were still a big part of show business. Apparently, Tyler doesn’t see it this way. When he walks into the studio ready to practice, he sees the two dancing together and almost makes it seem as though Emily is cheating on him. Maybe it’s just me, but I like to call this Tyler’s pool of unnecessary drama.

Emily Sones comes over to see Anna at her house and finds her reduced to tears in her room. After Anna and Mike’s talk, they decided the relationship wasn’t working anymore because of their two very different schedules. Anna is clearly heartbroken, but Emily reminds her that SCPA is one of the greatest opportunities she’ll ever have and all the time put into it will be worth it in the long run. Thank God for friends like Emily, huh?

Nothing ever remains a secret for too long. As soon as Carlton hears about the breakup, he starts coming up with a game plan for how to win her over.

As everyone starts to get ready for the show, tensions are running high between Emily and Tyler. They haven’t talked since Tyler found out Emily looked into an alternate partner just in case. Garrett tries to be a nice guy and see how Tyler’s ankle is doing, but Tyler can’t help putting on a big macho act and saying “my ankle is none of your business.” I mean…what? For someone who wants a potential career in dance, he has a very low level of professional behavior.

Emily decides to take the high road and apologize to Tyler (…for doing the smart thing and getting an understudy). She doesn’t want to perform their duet about love when they aren’t even talking—I would feel the same way. After some pouting, Tyler accepts her apology and says he’ll perform with her. What a standup guy. I have to admit though, they danced beautifully and you could really see the attraction between them.

At the end of the night, Carlton approaches Anna with some roses and her parents nonchalantly leave them for alone time. Love is always in the air at this school…

Taking The Stage airs Thursday nights at 11 p.m. ET on MTV.

(Photo courtesy of MTV)

Follow Lindsay at twitter.com/lindsaystrouse