This week, Abby Lee's dancers attend the Starbound competition in Nutley, NJ, performing three solos and a new group routine that almost doesn't happen.
Dance Moms: Week Three Pyramid
This week, Nia is at the bottom of the pyramid. Abby explains that this is based on a mistake she made in last week's group routine, which was supposed to be very easy. Next to Nia is Kendal, who Abby says is having trouble counting music and should take lessons. She is still on probation so she won't be getting a team jacket yet.
Also on the bottom row of the pyramid are Paige (Abby thinks she did a nice job last week) and Mackenzie (who will not be in this week's group routine, but will be performing a solo).
Next up on the pyramid, to everyone's surprise, is Maddie. Abby says she needs to stop resting on her laurels. While she is winning titles, she is not impressing Abby and is not continuing to improve. Next to Maddie is Chloe, who will also perform a solo this week.
Brooke is on the top of the pyramid, for her great performance last week. Abby says that she needs to continue to be a role model for the younger girls in the group, although Brooke isn't sure she wants to be put in that position.
Dance Moms: Week Three Competition Rehearsals
The girls rehearse their solos first. Mackenzie is doing a jazz routine which Abby says is called "My Parade". It features Mackenzie as the star of the show, leading the parade, and Abby thinks it is going to be adorable.
Chloe and Maddie will compete against each other in the same age group this week. Maddie is doing a jazz routine called "Lights Camera Action", and Chloe is performing a lyrical piece called "Don't Catch Me". The girls are excited to compete in the same category once again.
The group routine is called "Born to Dance", and Abby describes it as a story about a child being born. She wants to feature Brooke, and wants the dancers to appear as if they were just born. The moms in the observation room are disgusted, and Christi comments that "That's health class, not dance class." At one point, Melissa thinks one of Brooke's contortions looks "like she's coming out of the vagina."
After some prying from the other moms, Melissa admits that she is upset with Maddie not being at the top of the pyramid. She explains that Maddie had the highest score out of all the solos in the competition last week, and was one point higher than Brooke. However, Melissa agrees that other dancers should have a chance at the top as well.
Brooke's Cheerleading Opportunity
Brooke says that she appreciates being on top, but she is not happy that Abby is being extra hard on her in the group rehearsal. At a football game, her cheerleader friends encourage her to try out for the squad, and she knows she has a tought decision to make. She tells her mom, Kelly, that cheer tryouts are that weekend, the same day as the Starbound competition.
The moms, minus Holly, go out for drinks and Kelly discusses Brooke's dilemma. She thinks that, if she doesn't let Brooke tryout, she will blame her mother for making her continue in dance. However, she doesn't want to let the group down. Kelly wants to do what is right for her child, and the other moms support her.
In the next group rehearsal, Brooke just doesn't show up. Kelly is there with her other daughter, Paige, but Abby keeps calling for Brooke and she is not there. Eventually, Kelly goes downstairs to tell Abby that Brooke is not going to compete this weekend. Abby is understandably upset, and tells Kelly, "She should have opened her mouth and said, 'Abby, let someone else be at the top of the pyramid this week.' THAT is a mature 13-year-old."
Abby makes the split decision that there will be no group number this week. She tells Chloe, Maddie and Mackenzie that they will do their solos, and Nia, Paige and Kendal will stay home. While the other moms says that they support Brooke's decision, Abby reminds them that they are "teaching a kid to break a contract", and she doesn't want this to tarnish her reputation, since they were national title winners at Starbound last year in Lake Tahoe.
Quickly, Abby's assistant Gianna steps in and agrees to re-block the number and compete it under her name. Abby refuses to submit the routine under her own name as her own choreography, so the moms agree to having Gianna take over. They also agree to bring their children in early Saturday morning, four hours before the bus leaves for New Jersey.
As a final comment, Abby tells Kelly that good parenting would be to tell her child that she should see something through to the end of the year because she committed to it. If she doesn't want to do it next year, that's fine, but staying to the end of this year would show she has integrity.
While the girls attend the competition, Brooke tries out for cheerleading and her mom goes to support her. She looks nervous at first, and the judges comment that she is not loud. However, she makes the team and now apparently will not be competing with Abby Lee anymore. Kelly says she is happy for Brooke, but "she's walking away from something that has been her entire life".
Starbound Competition in Nutley, NJ
After the last-minute rehearsal, the girls and moms (minus Kelly and Brooke) get on the bus. They are all somewhat disappointed when Abby shows up and tells them that she decided to go, because Gianna "doesn't deserve to be thrown to the wolves". On the bus ride to New Jersey, Cathy from Candy Apple's Dance Center calls Melissa and informs her that they are also attending Starbound. Christi thinks this "could be Cathy's week", since their dancers "re-blocked getting on the bus".
The solos perform first, and as Mackenzie gets ready to go onstage, Abby tells her: "If you forget, stay backstage, don't come out, because I'm gonna chop your head off. Go." With that, Mackenzie performs her jazz solo, which is mostly acro, and does a wonderful job.
Chloe comments that she is not as nervous as she usually is backstage, and thinks she may be getting more confident. She has a few missteps and looks shaky at times, but she dances her lyrical piece beautifully.
Maddie says she is confident, although she doesn't like doing jazz solos and prefers lyrical. Her routine is clean and well-performed, with a lot of over-the-top facial expressions and a skimpy costume.
The solo awards are presented, and Mackenzie wins "Top Junior Petite Soloist", the top award in her category. The announcer calls her routine "Bigger Isn't Better". Moving on to Junior Soloists, 3rd place goes to Maddie and 1st place goes to Chloe. While Christi says that "this is based on dancing, and Chloe danced the best today," Melissa has another comment: "Abby told me that the reason [Maddie] didn't win was that she looked professional; she didn't look like the amateurs that were dancing against her."
Before the group routine performs, Abby has a parting comment: "The way I choreographed the routine is the way it should have been competed. We all make choices, and we have to live with those choices."
Cathy's group performs first, with a piece called "Mermaids". There are 4 older girls, including Brooke's competitor from last week, Erica, with Cathy's daughter Vivi-Ann. Abby puts down the choreography, and then says, "I just hope the judges realize that Vivi-Ann was used as a human prop to bring the age level down, and those girls should not be competing in 9-10."
Gianna's dancers perform next, and the routine looks beautiful. Maddie and Chloe basically take over the featured parts that Brooke had, and the actual choreography looks nothing like babies coming out of the womb. The girls are also very much together in their movements.
In the Junior Group awards, Cathy's mermaid piece takes 8th place, with a score of 279. The Top Overall Junior Group goes to Gianna's (no longer Abby's) "Born to Dance".
Abby says that, as a sign of good sportsmanship, they should go tell Cathy and her dancers that they did a good job. However, she has an ulterior motive - she wants the bee costume back that Vivi used previously. Cathy says she gave the "ugly bee costume" to Goodwill, and she exchanges some insults with Christi.
Starbound Results: What Actually Happened
This week, the real-life competition results actually matched with what was shown on the TV show. Mackenzie won 1st place Top Junior "Petite" Solo, Maddie won 3rd place Top Junior Solo, and Chloe won 1st place Top Junior Solo. The group numbers were also accurate, since Cathy's mermaid piece won 8th place Top Junior Group and "Born to Dance" won 1st place Top Junior Group.
The only thing that wasn't shown was that Cathy's young male dancer, Justice, also performed a solo at Starbound. He came in 4th place Top Junior Solo, right behind Maddie. Justice wasn't in Cathy's group routine, and he was only shown very briefly telling Cathy that he noticed Brooke wasn't there.
Terry Finch - Terry Finch is a dance teacher and choreographer in Central PA with an extensive training and teaching background in many forms of ...
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