Dance Moms introduced the world to the talented young stars of the Abby Lee Dance Company,
whom fans immediately felt sorry for, once they witnessed the unbridled chaos of director
Abby Lee Miller. It was the best kind of trainwreck. But looking back, there was a lot about the
premiere season that was just downright bizarre.
One thing that immediately stood out about Season 1 was Abby Lee Miller's completely
unfiltered approach. Miller was not at all concerned with what people thought about her,
or about being viewed as politically correct in any way. And so much of what made the show
addicting to watch was not knowing how Miller was going to react to hearing a mother complain,
or a dancer miss a step.
"This is way beyond the realm of dance teacher."
As Decider bluntly put it,
"Here's this mentally unstable Pittsburgh dance teacher who's convinced herself that
she's actually an important human being. So important that she can berate 8-year-olds."
"Get over it. You know, man up, get over it, learn the number, go out there, sell it."
Yeah. Looking back, it seems pretty bizarre that an adult woman was allowed to behave
this way, in what the network generously described as quote "aggressive yelling" as a form of
dance instruction, and then go on to get her own show about it.
"Sometimes when Abby yells it makes me laugh 'cause her face turns red."
Still, there is no denying the fact that it was entertaining TV. And hey, if nothing else,
Miller helped launch some talented young dancers into the industry.
Fans know that despite the dancers' ages, the girls of the Abby Lee Dance Company are
incredibly talented. And they deserved every bit of praise they got for their skills. But
one of the weirdest things about the show was how much time the girls put into dance
rehearsal, when it seemed like they didn't do anything else. In a Q+A on Facebook, midway
through Season 2, Chloe's mom Christi explained that the girls were just very hard-working.
She wrote,
"They are very disciplined to get their homework finished whenever they have a free moment.
Chloe does hers BEFORE dance each day. They all attend regular, full-time school."
But as time went on, it became clear that not every dancer was crushing early-morning
homework sessions. Dancer Maddie even began homeschooling in 2013. Mom Kelly explained
on the show,
"Abby always says that the girls would be better dancers if they were homeschooled like
Maddie. And I agree, but in my family, school comes first. I just want my kids to grow up
normal, not just having dance be their entire life."
"The moms are on my back all the time about homeschooling and how much time my kids spend
at the studio. And if they want their kids to be here at the studio more often, homeschool
your kids as well."
As much as Dance Mom fans love the drama, they also enjoy getting to see these girls
tear it up on the dance floor. So, when one of the girls experienced what appeared to
be blatant profiling by Abby, it was painful to watch. On episode 7 of Season 1, Nia's
mom, Holly, grew outraged at what seemed like Abby stereotyping her daughter. In fact, the
episode description from Lifetime literally describes it as…
"Abby's continuous typecasting of little Nia in ethnic stereotype roles sends her mother
Holly over the edge. For the first time, Holly takes off the gloves and the fighter in her
comes out."
"Why is my daughter the only one dressed in animal print? All the other girls get costumes
that aren't typecasting them."
Holly took issue when Abby had Nia dance to RuPaul's Drag Race alum Shangela's song, "They
Call Me Laquifa," while wearing an afro wig and leopard jumpsuit. The problems were immediately
apparent, but still, the outrage came quickly. Parenting site, Black and Married with Kids,
described the bizarrely offensive routine, writing,
"Abby Lee makes it clear that Nia and likely all Black dancers in her eyes will be stereotyped
and typecast based on race; therefore, Nia must know how to drop it like it's hot if
she's going to make it in the 'biz.'"
One of the most memorable moments from Season 1 came during the finale when the girls auditioned
for the starring role in a so-called big time music video. The opportunity was painted as
a huge deal, with all the girls vying to land the lead.
"The idea here is we wanna see what you guys have, so we can make a decision on who's gonna
be the lead for the music video."
All that was well and good, but the artist for the music video, a young girl named Lux,
didn't seem to be that big of a star, even though she is apparently Ted Danson's daughter,
Alexis, or "Kat", Danson, who, at the time, was attempting to disguise her identity with
a stage name. The episode, which made it seem like this music video would be some up-and-comer's
big break, was enormously misleading for everyone.
So, whatever happened to Lux? Her YouTube channel, which has just over 18,000 subscribers,
hasn't been active since 2012. And it appears Lux never actually released a full album,
meaning Dance Moms really played up her non-existent stardom. Though Chloe eventually got the lead
role in the music video, it was Maddie who went on to have a career built on music video
leads. The whole episode was awkward and looking back, totally strange.
As entertaining as this series is, it can also be really hard to watch. Especially early
on in Season 1, when the drama was too much to handle for a lot of the dancers. Even though
the kids weren't usually part of the fights, they still had to witness them. In one scene
from Season 1, Chloe's mom got so upset, she screamed at the other moms in the dressing
room, bringing Maddie and her sister Mackenzie to tears. Much later, Maddie claimed that
not all of those blowout Dance Moms fights were even real. She told USA Today,
"It's hard to do a reality show when there's so much crying and drama. The producers set
it up to make us all yell at each other. You know how I said that moms do fight? The moms
have a fake fight sometimes. Afterward they just start talking and laugh about it."
"Jill and I found your daughter learning her dance."
"F--- you, you know nothing."
While the drama on Dance Moms might be totally binge-worthy, that doesn't mean it was all
that authentic.
One thing that the show makes abundantly clear is that Abby Lee Miller is willing to do just
about whatever it takes to win. For instance, on episode 8, Abby brought in dancer Brandon
to perform a duet with Brooke, for the song "Snapshot," and it was immediately obvious
that the two had an awkward history. Brooke even claimed they had crushes on each other,
in the past.
"Brandon and I used to like each other a couple of years ago, but it never really went anywhere."
But during rehearsal, Abby complained that the two had zero chemistry together, and then
brought the moms down to talk.
"Watching Brooke and Brandon in rehearsal is like waiting for paste to get sticky."
Miller declared,
"If you two wouldn't mind, I'm gonna send them on a date."
Desperate to force the dance partners into some kind of pre-teen romance, Miller then
shouted at the moms to leave the imagined couple on their own, and not ruin the date.
Brooke and Brandon were then accompanied by their moms to a carnival, where Brooke was
clearly uncomfortable. She said on the show,
"I haven't seen Brandon in a while, and now we're on a date, and it's really weird. If
Brandon thinks anything is gonna happen between us on this date, he's crazy."
"I've been trying to connect with Brooke the whole week, but she's been pretty cold towards
me."
The entire episode was pretty cringe-worthy, but not even the awkward performance that
came out of all of this could be more bizarre than Miller's borderline inappropriate attempt
at forcing these two together.
The driving force behind all the drama on Dance Moms was the fiercely competitive nature
of professional dance. And no, that doesn't just mean the competitions in which the dancers
perform. In reality, each dancer in the Abby Lee Dance Company is literally ranked by Miller
herself, and by a pretty brutal system. Decider reported,
"To top off all the drama, Abby unveils a pyramid each week with the best dancers…and
the worst…The moms are expected to be in the studio for this unveiling."
"Are you gonna get out there and choke, or are you gonna be exceptional?"
"Exceptional."
It's no wonder there's so much drama between the mothers and Miller. She is literally pitting
little girls against each other in her own studio. Mom Christi said on the series premiere,
"She puts these kids in a pyramid, it's a nightmare. It is a nightmare for a child and
an adult, because we have to stand by and take it."
"So are we surprised who's on the top of the pyramid?"
"My God!"
"No."
"I would have been shocked if someone else had been there, now that would have been surprising."
The mothers were obviously annoyed that Maddie was nearly always at the top of the pyramid,
and the division between the moms quickly became more deeply defined.
The dancers on Dance Moms are uniquely talented, but the amount of pressure they're made to
stand is immense, and in some cases, almost unbearable. In fact, Chloe eventually left
the show because of the excruciating stress that had been mounting on her shoulders since
Season 1.
"Chloe, you wanted this shot, your mother, all I hear is Maddie, Maddie Maddie, Maddie,
this is your shot. Here we are in Las Vegas, and you better win."
Not only did Chloe put in more than her share of hard work, but she also had to deal with
constantly being compared to fellow dancer, Maddie. Mom Christi once said on the show,
"[Chloe has] been going from 6:30 in the morning, until 9:30 at night."
On another episode, Chloe landed a solo dance, but was obviously feeling the tension when
she told her mom,
"Miss Abby was saying to me like, 'Oh since Maddie's not in this, you have to win, you
have to win.'"
After Chloe left the show after Season 4, she explained in a video posted to her YouTube
channel,
"I am incredibly grateful for [the experience]. However, it was a really hard time for me
on the show. Definitely the hardest thing I've ever been through"
"I don't want anyone to think I'm not grateful for that opportunity and experience."
Fortunately, Chloe is now free from the stress of Dance Moms, but looking back on Season
1, it's evident that she had to put up with quite a lot.
A defining characteristic of Season 1 was the competition between Maddie and Chloe.
Abby Lee Miller constantly pitted the two girls against each other, particularly because
the show seemed determined to make it clear that Maddie was Miller's star student. The
favoritism ran deep for so many reasons, including the fact that Miller had gone to school with
Maddie's dad, and they were basically family friends. But even though Miller would sometimes
deny favoring Maddie, it was impossible to ignore the truth. As Decider reported,
"The Maddie versus Chloe drama got out of control. To the point that you were actually
rooting for Maddie to fail because the show painted Chloe as such an unfortunate underdog."
Maddie was consistently on top of the pyramid, got the best solos and outfits, and was often
praised by Miller.
"If Candy Apples and the Abby Lee Dance Center clash, it could be like a boxing match."
Perhaps the most interesting of the plot points from the first season of Dance Moms was the
rivalry between the Abby Lee Dance Company and the Candy Apples Dance Center. Tensions
certainly seemed high when Miller came face-to-face with owner of Candy Apples, Cathy Nesbitt-Steinn.
But if all that sounds too strange to be true, it just might be. A journalist for the International
Business Times reported on some behind the scenes moments during filming, writing,
"The rival groups remain cordial, saving their infamous bickering until after the cameras
started rolling…While it's hard to tell if the tension among the parents is generally
genuine or forced, it is clear that their buzz-worthy one-liners may not always be [their]
own."
"You have absolutely nothing to say. You're just a blob with big hair."
"I don't think my hair's that big today."
It's safe to say that the infamous matchup between Miller's dancers and the Candy Apples
might have been a little over-dramatized for ratings.
Dance costumes must be practical and comfortable, but also speak to the story of any particular
dance. On the first season of Dance Moms, that's typically how wardrobe went down, with
the girls wearing a lot of tutus for performances. But there were a few numbers that may have
seemed a bit inappropriate for underaged girls. For example, Maddie was 8 years old when Dance
Moms premiered, yet she was wearing a crop top, booty shorts, and thigh-high stockings
for one show. The network described the episode, writing,
"The Dance Moms allow their daughters to wear outfits in a competition that are revealing
and the scandal threatens to bring down the house."
"It's just embarrassing for our daughters to be up there dressed like that. They look
like prosti-tots."
The dance in question was called "Electricity," and it featured plenty of booty-shaking, suggestive
facial expressions and lyrics, and even a moment where the girls dropped it like it
was hot. During the episode, mom Holly, who is a private school director, explained,
"This is definitely not a dance I want anyone from my school seeing my daughter performing.
At all. Ever."
It's understandable that Holly would feel that way, as the dance and the outfits could
be deemed inappropriate for elementary-aged kids. But that kind of drama is just part
of what made Season 1 of Dance Moms so addicting to watch!
"You know what, let 'em wear whatever they want. When they don't win, it's on them."
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