CHRISTI LUKASIAK: I'm a little afraid that something called
The Last Text might be a little too bloody
and gory for a national title.
[music playing]
[brakes squealing and crash]
CHRISTI LUKASIAK: We really need to bring it.
You will do a hip hop routine in the competition this weekend.
[cheering]
[MUSIC - PHOTRONIQUE, "WE ON TOP"]
(SINGING) Put your hands up in the air.
Put your hands-- hands up in the air.
ABBY LEE MILLER: If I was going to create a landmark routine,
chances are.
It wouldn't be hip hop.
But the kids love it.
It's Maddie and Mackenzie's last week.
And if that's what they wanted to do, so be it.
The name of your routine is The Boss Ladies.
But just remember, you are not the boss of me.
I am the boss of you.
(SINGING) --my money.
So much dough, so much bread, I could have a bakery.
Watch out, I'm in my zone.
Hand me the microphone.
They say, when in Rome--
WOMAN: I love this number.
They had fun with it.
Their costuming was very well thought out.
The choreography was great.
I would love to go out with a win.
(SINGING) --magic there.
We unlock, 'cuz we on top.
We on top.
(SINGING) Hands up in the air, put your hands up in the air.
Put your hands up in the air.
Put your hands, hands up in the air.
(SINGING) That's right, listen.
Don't trippin.
(SINGING) Put your hands, hands up in the air.
(SINGING) We don't stop.
Be on top.
[cheering and applause]
[music playing]
Here it is, you guys.
Top senior group of the day, it goes out to 128.
[cheering and applause]
DANCER: I wanted to win.
And it happened.
So it was just a great day.
[music playing]
The group routine takes place in a hospital waiting room.
So imagine, if your family, your loved ones,
were brought in by ambulance from a car accident.
So imagine waiting to hear that news.
Is it happy news?
Or is it the worst humanly possible news?
[MUSIC - FRANKIE VINCI, "I WILL PRAY FOR YOU"]
(SINGING) Tear drops fall on my wristwatch.
I lose touch.
Time stops.
ABBY LEE MILLER: There's an emotional range.
There's interaction between the dancers.
Maddie is playing our lead.
It's heavy.
I want the judges to feel something.
I want people to be on the edge of their seats.
Losing is not an option.
The girls have to win.
This is Nationals.
This is my reputation on the line.
[cheering and applause]
In second place, The Waiting Room, Abby Lee Dance Company.
[cheering and applause]
I was just shocked.
We can't win all the time.
But I thought we definitely should have won with this one.
[music playing]
ABBY LEE MILLER: This number is called The Last Text.
I have this vision.
We're going to put the kids in a car.
Even though they're really a little young to be driving,
they're on their phones, and they're
taking pictures of each other, that's what little kids do.
And then, in the music, boom, there's a car crash.
It's going to win.
It's going to win everything.
CHRISTI LUKASIAK: I'm a little afraid that something called
The Last Text might be a little too bloody
and gory for a national title.
[cheering and applause]
And we either won it all, or lost it all.
Our top scoring national winner for the Energy Junior
Small Group goes to entry number 138.
[cheering and applause]
We did it.
We came to Nationals.
We won.
DANCE COMPANY: I need to dance some more!
[cheering and applause]
ABBY LEE MILLER: The Abby Lee Dance Company remains a force
to be reckoned with.
The group routine is entitled Stomp the Yard, inspired
by a hot television show right now, "Orange is the New Black."
You will be prisoners.
Acting in this dance routine is going to prepare you
for auditions in Los Angeles.
[MUSIC - BECKAH SHAE, "HEARTBEAT"]
(SINGING) And his blood as ransomed people for God.
From every tribe and language--
ABBY LEE MILLER: We need to make it fierce.
We need to make it rough.
You're pardoned criminals.
(SINGING) There's a resurrection coming.
It's your time to rise and shine.
Oh, wake up, you sleeping giant.
Oh, love and justice are being healed by the peace.
Hey!
Of YHWH who's bringing us power through unity.
Where warriors are falling, there's a resurrection coming.
Tribals, tribals, come alive.
Yeah, wake up, you sleeping giant.
We have a lot to prove.
People are trying to knock us down.
We have to show that our girls are winners.
And we're not going to let it happen.
(SINGING) I feel it.
Your heart-- I feel it.
Bring us together.
Together we cry.
Yeshua, bring us together.
Bring us together.
We cry out, out, for your heartbeat, your heartbeat oh,
give us your heartbeat.
[cheering and applause]
I thought the group dance was excellent.
And our top scoring Energy Junior Small Group is entry
number 70, Stomp the Yard.
[cheering and applause]
Congratulations.
We got served.
[MUSIC - JOSEPH KERSCHBAUM, "WHERE HAVE ALL THE CHILDREN
GONE?"]
(SINGING) The creaking silence of age.
ABBY LEE MILLER: It is a dark topic
that has to do with children that have gone missing.
Choreographically, there is an edginess to it.
And it's very subtle.
So I don't even know if the judges will
see all of that happening.
(SINGING) Or maybe they just disappear.
CHRISTI LUKASIAK: I'm not really sure about,
Where Have All the Children Gone?
It's really dark.
I mean, we have little kids on stage handling an issue
that's--
that's too dark for most adults.
(SINGING) Are the children gone?
But we know this is really happening.
Where are the children gone?
[applause]
ABBY LEE MILLER: I don't think that anyone would say
it's too heavy and too mature.
Now, maybe some of the moms thought that.
But once again, I'm not out to please the moms.
I'm out to please the judges.
Ladies and gentleman, the highest group routine
of the day went to entry number 250,
Where Have All the Children Gone?
Congratulations.
JILL VERTES: Our girls did qualify for Nationals.
So we are going to Nationals.