Aishah Begum
This article is a review on the TV show Dance Moms.
Concept
Dance Moms is an American reality TV show centred around a group of young girls, their mothers, or “Dance moms,” if you will, and their Dance teacher, Abby Lee Miller. Each week, the girls are ranked on a pyramid (more on this later), learn a new routine, and attend a new dance competition.
Season 1
Now, with the concept of the show out of the way, we can focus on season 1. Season 1 is shorter, containing only 13 episodes, as compared to the later seasons, which contain over 20 episodes per season. Before discussing some of the episodes, I would like to focus on the girls, their mothers and Abby Lee Miller.
Maddie Ziegler was Abby Lee Miller’s favourite child on the cast, which, surprisingly, the show does not hide, and she is deemed the star dancer of the elite competition group. To put it simply, Maddie is characterised as a perfectionist and a ‘brat’. Maddie has a sister, Mackenzie Ziegler, who is one of the youngest children on the show and, as a result, does not get to participate in many of the dances this season. We do not learn much about Mackenzie initially, but you can tell she gets overwhelmed by being on camera and constantly being compared to her sister. Their mother, Melissa, has a reputation at the studio as a cunning woman who acts innocent but would do anything it takes to make sure her kids get ahead.
Melissa is obviously disliked by Christi Lukasiak, who is the mother to Chloe Lukasiak. Chloe is portrayed as a sweet girl, and early on, the show focuses on her rivalry with Maddie. Kelly Hyland has two children, Brooke and Paige Hyland. Kelly has a complex history with Abby, and there are many events only hinted at in the show. Abby was Kelly’s dance teacher before Kelly quit dancing as a teenager. Brooke Hyland used to be Abby’s favourite dancer but, as a teenager, has lost a lot of her passion for dance. Paige is portrayed as a kind girl who is best friends with Chloe. Abby treats all the girls poorly, but in Paige and Nia's case, that is particularly evident. Nia Fraiser is the daughter of Holly Fraiser, more commonly referred to as Dr Holly. Holly is, for the most part, calm, level-headed and one of the most well-liked moms on the cast. Nia and Paige are often background dancers. A bigger issue the show neglects is the alleged racism from Abby towards Nia and Holly, as they are the few people of colour on the show.
Abby Lee Miller is a memorable part of the show because she is quite simply, ruthless to the children. She sees no error in her behaviour and thinks her harsh teaching style is justified. As the show goes on, you learn lots of things about Abby, such as her mother was a dance teacher. Whilst you can sympathise with her, at times, her treatment of the girls left many of them traumatised.
Returning to season 1, there are some infamous moments I would like to mention. We are introduced to Cathy, who is from Ohio and is the studio owner of Candy Apple Dance Centre. Her daughter is Vivi, who at times does not want to dance and is as young as Kenzie, so they become close friends. Cathy later leaves the studio and takes Vivi off the team. However, Cathy constantly returns with her team in many future competitions after season 1, with her team, the Candy Apples, trying to defeat Abby’s elite competition group.
Abby tends to yell, scream and say awful things to the girls in all the episodes. Abby fighting with the mothers and vice versa became a common feature of the show. The mothers wanting to pull their daughters out of the studio because of the way Abby treats them also becomes a common feature of the show. Abby usually takes her anger out for the mothers onto their daughters. For instance, within “Wildly Appropriate”, an accurately named episode, the girls perform the controversial dance “Electricity”. The mothers rightly so are uncomfortable that their daughters are wearing revealing clothing and doing an age-inappropriate dance, but Abby gets angry at the mothers because of their complaints.
Another part of Abby’s teaching style is to pit the girls against each other. One way is the pyramid, which is initially the blackboard. The girls are ranked each week. Maddie is usually at the top of the pyramid, and girls like Nia are usually at the bottom. In the case of Maddie and Chloe, their rivalry is pushed by Abby. There is contention over Maddie being the favourite and her success. Whilst Maddie is given amazing choreography, girls like Nia usually get given awful solos. Other well-known moments are a Broadway talent agent coming to the studio, Abby’s annual showcase, Regionals where the girls perform an emotional dance called “Where have all the children gone?”, Nationals and the girls performing in a music video.
Other seasons
Other essential additions to the cast are Jill Vertes, her daughter Kendall Vertes, Kira Hilliker, her daughter Kalani Hilliker, Jessalyn Siwa and her daughter Jojo Siwa. Generally, as the show goes on, it becomes less enjoyable, especially as some of the original mothers and daughters leave. There are massive fights, such as a physical altercation between Kelly and Abby, ensuring the girls never come back to the studio. At Nationals, Abby makes fun of Chloe’s eye condition, which is edited out of the show. Christi and Chloe leave as a result. Abby, in the later seasons, is portrayed as more troubled. This is most likely because she was on trial and was about to go to jail.
Brief updates
An eighth season was made with Abby after she got out of jail with a new group of kids, which is different to the revival show called “Dance Moms: A New Era”. The revival was not that popular, most likely because Abby was one of the main reasons to watch the show, and without her or any of the original mothers or daughters, there was no reason for original fans to watch the show.
There was an official ten-year Dance Moms Reunion, but a few of the girls and their mothers did not attend. Most notably Maddie, Mackenzie, Melissa, Nia, Holly and Christi. This was not the first time most of the girls had been reunited. Most of the mothers took part in podcasts and, in 2024, are part of Dance Mom-related projects together.
Conclusion
Whilst the show can be ridiculous at times, it is a fascinating glance into the world of dance. Even though Abby sometimes makes the girl do cheesy dances, there is still the fundamental understanding that dance is a serious discipline that takes commitment to master. Whilst I would recommend watching the show at times, it can be quite heartbreaking. Abby treats everyone harshly, and the good moments do not make up for it. The girls faced an extreme amount of pressure. They were surrounded by adults fighting and long production hours. They tried to thrive in a tough industry despite their teacher. Overall, the show helped most of the cast to become famous and become household names. You got to watch as the girls grew their dance ability and grew up essentially. Many members of the cast are still popular today, but you should still question the harshness of reality TV and how unnecessary it was for the mothers, even more so their daughters, to go through so much pain.
Rating
7 out of 10 stars.
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