The dancers are very talented, both technically and in their stage performances, and they all genuinely like each other and support each other throughout the competition season. Of course, that doesn’t provide much drama for a reality television show. Luckily for the producers, the drama abounds among the adults in the show.
The Dance Moms
The first season featured five dance moms: Kelly, Christi, Melissa, Holly, and Cathy.
Kelly took dance classes in her youth from Abby’s mother, and returned to the studio with her two daughters, Brooke and Paige. Christi’s daughter, Chloe, is one of the top performers and usually competes against Maddie in solos. Melissa works at the studio’s front desk, and her older daughter Maddie is billed as the “star” of the small competitive group. Her younger daughter, Mackenzie, is the youngest of the group and sometimes does not compete with them. Holly is a school principal, and sometimes is offended by the overly “ethnic” solo routines that Abby gives her daughter Nia, since she is the only African-American dancer in the group.
In Season 1, Cathy came to Abby Lee’s studio to audition her daughter, Vivi-Anne, for the competition team. Cathy owns her own dance studio in Canton, OH, but felt that Vivi-Anne needed to be trained by someone other than herself. When the team started travelling on the west coast for competitions without returning home, Cathy and Vivi-Anne left the group and went back to their own studio, only to re-appear at a later venue to compete against them.
Abby Lee Miller
Founder of the Abby Lee Dance Company, Abby Lee Miller has been in the dance world since she was very young. Her mother was a dance teacher, and, at the age of 14, Abby decided to start her own company and take on the dual position of choreographer and director. For the past 31 years, Abby’s dancers have competed in national competitions, and many have moved on to successful professional dance careers.
Abby’s teaching techniques and oppressive demeanor are fairly well-known in the competitive dance world. In an interview with Rich Juzwiak for TV Guide, Abby stated, “I’m training people to go on and make a living. People forget that sometimes… I need to be tough. I can’t mince words. I can’t sugarcoat it. I want them to be prepared when they get to New York and go to an audition. If you want someone to say, ‘She’s so sweet and she’s so cute, and, honey, point your foot,’ that’s not my school. You can go to the YMCA and have a nobody teach your kid if that’s what you want to hear.” (July 21, 2011).
It is evident that Abby’s techniques have created successful, professional dancers. However, some may be put off by her aggressive style. In any event, this is a reality television show, and her aggressiveness, paired with the moms’ desire to make their children stars at any cost, makes for compelling television.
The Dance Moms TV Show
As with any reality television show, it is sometimes difficult for viewers to determine what is actual reality and what is the “reality” created for the show through editing, posturing, or scripting. For example, TV Guide’s Rich Juzwiak asked Abby about the pyramid system featured prominently during Season 1. Abby responded, “I’ve never done that in my life. That has nothing to do with me. That’s the show. They came up with that whole process.
“There’s a lot of things on the show that would never, ever happen. It’s television. When we got the opportunity to do the show, all the competitions that came to Pittsburgh were over. All these competitions we’re attending, I’ve never attended in my life. Teaching children a routine in a hotel hallway that they are performing onstage the next day? That’s insane. Nobody would do that. But you know what? These kids’ ability to comprehend quickly is truly a gift. This show has taught them, ‘I’m gonne learn it, and I’m gonna do it.’ The whole pyramid thing was for the show because we could not do a new solo for every single child, and a new group and new duets and trios every single week. There’s just no time available.” (July 21, 2011)
Whether the script stops there or not, the show as a whole has generated controversy throughout the studio dance world. Dance teachers and studio owners on Facebook and message board sites have expressed mixed emotions about Abby and the moms. While they deem some of Abby’s techniques viable (for example, sending a student out of class for not being in proper dress code), they hate that the exaggerations of reality television may be harmful for dance studios in general. When Abby sent the student out for violating her dress code, the mother (who is not a regular cast member on the show) chased Abby through the studio and threatened her, leading Abby to call the police to escort the mother and her child out of the parking lot. Script or no script, this does not bode well for other dance studios.
The show seems to spotlight only the negative aspects of the studio (with the exception of the titles and trophies won at the competitions). Parents not paying bills, moms upset with the choice of costumes and music, moms complaining of special treatment for certain students, costumes not being ready in time, dancers forgetting their routines onstage, and moms drinking during the competition instead of tending to their daughters, all make for good television. Unfortunately, they also portray competitive dance studios horribly, if what is shown on “Dance Moms” is meant to be an indicator of the industry.
Abby herself commented on this phenomenon with Dave Nemetz of the Yahoo! TV Blog: “I have amazing, respectful, wonderful customers who pay their bills on time, who drop their children off, who help out… but they just don’t make good TV.” (October 5, 2011)
Backlash Against "Dance Moms"
With the controversy surrounding the show, some backlash from the industry is now beginning to surface. No one was quite sure what the first season would be like, so it appears that some of the competitions they attended now feel that they were duped. One in particular, StarQuest, has taken a stand.
In April 2011, the StarQuest dance competition had a stop in Lancaster, PA, at which Abby’s students competed. The general consensus from the moms was that the group dance to be performed at StarQuest was “too sexy”, and their costumes were too revealing. They voiced their concerns when the girls were trying on their costumes for the first time, and again after seeing them rehearse the dance. In addition to the group routine, and a few others, Maddie and Chloe also performed their solos.
In the StarQuest episode on “Dance Moms”, routines from other dance studios were shown in a few clip packages, with audio from the competition’s announcer. As the voice was announcing the top winners in each category, clips from dances were played. However, based on feedback from several local dance studios, they have confirmed that the dancers shown did not match the names of the studios announced. In a nutshell, the clip packages showed dancers that were less technically proficient than Abby’s dancers, while the announcer read names for studios that compete at the same level as Abby’s company.
The edit may have meant to stir up some controversy, since Abby’s “sexy” routine did not place in its category. How dare StarQuest judge them so harshly as to not even come in Top 5?! However, the fact that the dance and costuming were so over the top made even newbies to the competition scene realize that they were disqualified or docked points for inappropriateness.
In addition, the editing on the episode gave viewers the impression that Chloe and Maddie were competing in the same age group with their solos. At the time, Maddie was 8 and Chloe was 9, so they were actually competing in separate categories: Maddie was competing for the title of Petite Miss StarQuest, and Chloe was vying for Junior Miss StarQuest. On the television show, Maddie was announced as the winner of the Petite Miss title, complete with crown, sash and trophy. Cut to Chloe looking sad and disappointed.
What actually happened was a little different: It is true that Maddie won Petite Miss StarQuest, as well as 1st place in her category, Top Petite Solo. However, Chloe competed in the Junior level, and also won her category, taking home Top Junior Solo. While she did not win the title of Junior Miss StarQuest, she did come in 1st place in her category. This was never shown on the episode of “Dance Moms”.
What happened next sparked an entire group of competition directors to shun the TV cameras. Michael Ian Cedar, Associate Producer at StarQuest, told TMZ staff that the producers did not air the true results. This was obvious to anyone that checked the results online after the competition. He also claimed that the television producers misled him about the premise of their show. He is not allowing the dancers to compete in StarQuest’s 2012 season. Since this announcement, other competitions have followed suit, either banning the dancers from their schedules, or allowing Abby’s dancers to compete - without the camera crew.
"Dance Moms" Moving Forward
Despite how the moms and Abby are portrayed on the show, they have all signed on to film the second season. They began filming in October 2011, and will follow the winter competition schedule. The first episodes of the new season will air on Lifetime in January.
Announced on Abby’s company website, the producers also held auditions for a new mom-and-dancer duo to join the original cast. Rumors on message boards claim that the producers had originally sought out an entire studio or competition team to “compete against” Abby’s dancers, but all the studios that were contacted declined the offer.
When asked by the local CBS station why she will continue to be a part of the show, Maddie’s mom Melissa answered, “I’m proud to be a dance mom, I support my daughter… [It’s] no different from a football dad or a soccer mom. The only real difference is our girls are wearing rhinestones and fake eyelashes.” (October 26, 2011)
Sources:
1) Juzwiak, Rich (July 21, 2011). "Dance Moms' Abby Lee Miller On Ranking Students and Dressing Them Sexily". TV Guide. http://www.tvguide.com/News/Dance-Moms-Abby-Miller-1035511.aspx. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
2) TMZ Staff (October 21, 2011). “’Dance Moms’ Banned from Dance Competition”. TMZ. http://www.tmz.com/2011/10/17/dance-moms-lifetime-reality-show-starquest-banned/. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
3) Sorensen, Kristine. (October 26, 2011). “’Dance Moms’ Reveal Inside Scoop Behind Reality Show”. CBS Pittsburgh, KDKA. http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/10/26/%e2%80%9cdance-moms%e2%80%9d-reveal-inside-scoop-behind-hit-reality-show/. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
4) Nemetz, Dave. (October 5, 2011). “’Dance Moms’: We Have Three Questions for Abby Lee Miller”. Yahoo! TV Blog. http://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/yahoo-tv/dance-moms-three-questions-abby-lee-miller-192801136.html. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
Terry Finch - Terry Finch is a dance teacher and choreographer in Central PA with an extensive training and teaching background in many forms of ...
Join the Conversation