What happened to Dancing for the Devil's Miranda Derrick? (2024)

Dancer Miranda Derrick has been in the spotlight lately thanks to the Netflix Documentary Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult.

The docuseries accuses the dance management company 7M and the Shekinah Church of being a cult. Both are under the leadership of Robert Shinn, who is both founder and pastor respectively. (Shinn denies any wrongdoing, and the company issued a statement denying that it was a cult, and saying, "While the recent portrayals of Dr Robert Shinn and 7M Films have been wildly offensive and riddled with inaccuracies, those false claims will not deter 7M from supporting Miranda in whichever endeavors she chooses to pursue next.")

Dancing for the Devil received testimonials from many former members of both the church and 7M, as well as their family. Among those to come forward were Derrick's family the Wilkings, including her sister Melanie.

Melanie and her parents detailed how they lost contact with Miranda as she became heavily involved with Shekinah and 7M.

The family made a public plea for help and to raise awareness in February 2022, explaining that they were not allowed to contact Miranda, had been blocked on social media and that Miranda was "no longer in control" of her life.

Since then the family have been able to reestablish a relationship with Miranda, with Miranda attending Melainie's wedding in May 2024.

They resumed social media contact. The daughters even collaborated on a post with their mum Kelly Wilking in April 2024 which they each shared on their social media accounts.

Miranda followed that up with a solo post of her with her mum on May 12th to celebrate Mother's Day.

So if Miranda is now in communication with her family, is she still a part of 7M? Here's everything we know.

It is unclear whether or not Miranda Derrick is still a member of 7M management. Derrick has made no public announcement to suggest that she has left, however both she and her husband James 'BDash' Derrick (also previously affiliated with 7M) no longer make reference to 7M or Shekinah in their bios on Instagram.

Both still follow and are followed by 7M's Instagram page.

It was explained in the documentary that Miranda agreed to contact with her family with the stipulation that they were not allowed to ask about 7M or Shekinah.

Despite the seemingly positive steps to improve their relationship, Melanie noted in the docuseries that their Christmas-meet-up in particular was "all for show."

Melanie explained: "It's just so she can take a video and post it online and then the public is happy and Robert's happy."

The Netflix docuseries closed with a statement that said Miranda "[continues] to have limited contact with [her family], and makes content almost exclusively with other dancers believed to be affiliated with Robert."

To date, Miranda and James are still married and collaborate regularly on each other's Instagram page, sharing a post on June 1st 2024.

Miranda captioned their 'coffee' dance sequence: "sometimes you gotta just stop and smell the coffee."

In 2022, Miranda put out a statement denouncing her family's claims that she was part of a cult: "I am not held against my will and I've never been a hostage.

"I go to church and I have faith in God. If one day I wish to pursue my faith elsewhere, I will and feel completely free to do that.

"As far as my career, my time at 7M Films has been one of the most exciting years ever and if one day I wish to partner with a different management company or start my own company, I will.

"No one is forcing me to do anything. I am excited to move forward in this incredible walk with God, an amazing marriage and exciting career. I'm also looking forward to moving past all of this and mend my relationship with my family privately," (via The Cut).

In the same year Robert Shinn also echoed this sentiment of Miranda's personal and professional life stating:

"Despite her family's claims, Miranda is a successful businesswoman and a loving wife and daughter who cares very much about her family."

He also added: "It is pathetic and contemptible to try to turn her private family matters into a tawdry public scandal for clicks and clout," (via The Daily Mail).

In April 2019, while Miranda and Melanie were still working together under the brand The Wilking Sisters, they received a DM from the James 'BDash' Derrick on their 'Wilking Sisters' TikTok account. Melanie shares that James was considered a "very admired dancer in the dance community."

From there, the three began collaborating on projects, merging their different dance styles. This relationship naturally migrated to a group chat between the three until eventually Melanie was removed, establishing James' romantic interest in Miranda.

The two began to date seriously with James staying at the Wilkings' family home during the pandemic.

Through James' mutual friend, Isaiah Shinn (Robert Shinn's son), they came to learn about Shekinah, where their Shekinah/7M journey began.

The two announced they were engaged in August 2021 on Instagram, with Miranda posting:

"Words cannot explain how overwhelmed with joy I am. James, you are more than anything I've ever dreamed of and I am so incredibly excited that we get to spend our lives together."

They followed that announcement up the following month on September 5th with news that they had gotten married, unknown to Miranda's family who found out about the engagement and subsequent marriage through Instagram.

"She got married. That's something that I wish I was there for," Melanie had said during the documentary. "We've been those girls who dreamed about our weddings since the time we were little. We had the expectations that we were going to be each other's maid of honour."

Dancing for the Devil: The 7M Tiktok Cult is available to stream now on Netflix.