ABBY: All right.
This week, we are traveling to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[clapping]
We're going to attend New York Talent Experience.
They're doing something new.
They're critiquing the routines live, onstage.
So whether that means at the end of it,
whether that means at the end of the day, I don't know.
We are taking three soloists--
Maddie, Kendall.
My last solo will be going to Nia.
Yay. [applause]
The name of your solo is The Color Purple.
Now, you don't place with that solo,
there won't be any solos for a long time.
Do you understand me?
Yes. ABBY: OK.
The idea that Nia may never have a solo again
is a crazy amount of pressure.
And I just wish, for once, Abby would support and root for Nia.
ABBY: It's a famous movie.
It was also a Broadway show.
[music - "four jazz trumpet"]
Nice.
Now, Nia is doing The Color Purple.
It's more of an interpretive modern jazz piece.
Now, Nia, she looks great doing this contemporary work.
Will she step on stage and straighten her legs
and point her feet and keep everything clean?
Or does she get caught up in the performance and then everything
else goes down the drain?
You have to get that right leg all the way around.
Don't flex that left foot when you turn to sit.
Right there, you better turn that right heel forward.
And now, you've been doing this step in your solo.
It's been in every solo for three years.
And you still don't do it right.
I can't keep giving you solos just beacuse you're my student,
especially after all the crap that went down with your mom
in LA.
But can you put that aside whenever we're dance--
like, I'm in the studio.
OK, so if somebody was a murderer,
I should just bring them in and teach them a dance
and forget they murdered somebody?
No.
NIA: I think Abby's still bitter about what happened in LA.
But I already did the singing stuff.
So she just keeps on trying to talk about it.
And it's like, that's none of your business.
I just want to keep that separate from while I'm
in the dance studio.
I know that--
ABBY: But it's not separate.
It's representing the Abby Lee Dance Company.
And if you want to think your music's separate, good luck.
OK, I'm going to go downstairs and talk to Nia, just
to make sure she's OK.
Nia has known Abby for almost her entire life,
since she was three--
a decade.
Otherwise, I would move on and take my kid out of this.
NIA: She just--
HOLLY: OK, so we did everything the right way.
And what can she--
can you control Abby?
No.
You can control you and how you respond to her.
There's been a lot of conflict lately.
But I really want to stay with the team.
Because this is a great opportunity.
I just wish Abby was supportive too.
HOLLY: Focus on your dance.
Channel all that energy and make that dance better than she
could have ever imagined.
That's how you get a person like Abby Lee Miller to shut up.
[cheering]
HOST: Moving on to the open category, ages 13 and 14,
number 302, The Color Purple.
NIA: Abby said if I don't place in the top five,
I'm not going to have a solo for a while.
And I just want to prove to Abby that I can win.
[music - "four jazz trumpet"]
[appplause]
Good job, Nia!
Nia was amazing.
She was mature, and the style really suited her well.
Right now, I'm just worried about the judges' critiques.
Some really nice moments of focus.
You have those gorgeous eyes.
And when you light that up, it makes all the difference.
There at the end, that just look to the side was gorgeous.
And try to just kind of weave that in a little bit more.
But overall, really nice work.
Beautiful job.
Thank you, Nia. Congratulations.
[applause]
To have the judges publicly say that Nia did great,
there's nothing Abby can do to take that away.
It is now time to announce are overall soloists of the day.
Please scream and shout for number 300,
The Mannequin, Maddie.
[applause]
HOLLY: I'm absolutely devastated for Nia.
She didn't place.
In fact, the only person who placed was Maddie.
But that also means that Kendall didn't place in the top five
either.
And does that mean that Kendall's not going
to have solos in the future?
I highly doubt that.
And it's unfair, and I'm sick of it.