"She's tired of fighting it, and she told me that giving me the money was a way for her to help me to begin my life and career as hers comes to an end."

The show's forced seclusion has been hard on Sarangay, who joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the emotional turmoil of the past year. When she struggled with choreography during practice one week, Inaba gave her a phone and told her to call her grandmother. Sarangay's tears and the conversation were part of the next "Dance War" episode. The call helped. So has the decision to change her first name.

"Mariel is my stage name," she said. "It puts me in a different mood. It comes from my mom's name, Marie Elizabeth. I always carry my dad's name with me, but I wanted to do something to carry her name, too. It also lets me do things I wouldn't normally do, because on stage you have to do things bigger than life."

Wilson's strength is his dancing, but Tonioli challenged him during the last episode to be a sexier dancer, which made the strait-laced, returned LDS missionary uncomfortable.

"Bruno wants me to bring a little more sexiness to my dancing," Wilson said on air. "I don't even like saying that word. (For this dance) I have to have an edge. I have to be the bad guy who parents don't want their daughters to date."

Wilson said the 15-hour days the teams spend learning new song-and-dance routines are grueling.

"This is probably the most physically straining thing I've ever done," he said, "But it's also the most rewarding thing I've ever done."

At 26, Wilson had been preparing to give up his dream of being a professional performer and pursue dentistry. He hoped "Dance War" could lead to a career as a country singer, "but I also love dancing, and there isn't too much dancing in country."

Sarangay wants to sing, too, but she said songwriting is the most fulfilling thing she does.

"I want my music to be heard and respected," she said. "There's a lot I'm not good at saying in conversation that comes out better when I put it in a song. If everybody in the world could hear my music, that would be my dream."

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com