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Last week, Netflix dropped Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult, a documentary dissecting allegations that talent-management agency 7M Films is essentially a cult that controls the lives of its dancers. The doc largely focuses on Miranda Derrick, a dancer whose family has repeatedly claimed that she distanced herself from them in 2021, when she joined 7M and Shekinah Church, which was founded by Robert Shinn, the CEO of 7M.
In the documentary, Derrick’s parents and sister, Melanie Wilking, say Derrick isn’t allowed to talk to them — allegations the Cut previously reported in 2022. They and former 7M members also claim Shinn has control of members’ social media and email accounts as well as their bank accounts. Over the weekend, as viewers reacted to the documentary with concern for Derrick’s well-being, Derrick remained silent and turned off comments on her Instagram and TikTok accounts. On Tuesday, she finally responded in an Instagram story, where she thanked people for their concern but said the documentary is “one-sided.”
“I love my Mom, Dad and Melanie and they will forever be a part of my life,” she wrote in a statement similar to one she previously made to the Cut. “The truth is, we just don’t see eye to eye at this time. I believe that this documentary is a one-sided story. I gave my life to Jesus Christ in 2020 and asked my family for some space in the very beginning to collect my thoughts and process my new walk I wanted to take with God.” Derrick, 27, said that she can’t comment on specific allegations made in the documentary because she is a plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit, but she “just wanted to add my side of the story a little bit.” In 2022, Shinn denied all allegations made against him by former Shekinah members and filed a defamation suit saying they’d lied when they called the church a cult. It’s unclear if Derrick was referring to the same suit in her Tuesday statement. Last year, a group of former 7M dancers joined a complaint accusing Shinn of fraud, forced labor, and human trafficking. Per The Independent, the case is expected to go to trial in 2025.
In her statement on Tuesday, Derrick added that no one likes to be portrayed as “brainwashed/not in control of her own life/shell of herself/human trafficked daughter/sister when that just isn’t the truth.” She concluded: “I’m forced and feel like I have no other choice but to defend myself because of all of this. I can’t convince anyone to believe anything. I am just a woman trying to live my life. I am not a victim, I am not in any harm, I am not being abused.”
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- Dancing in the Name of the Lord
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Tariro Mzezewa , 2024-06-05 19:00:31
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