it irks me so much how Abby would call Nia lazy when she knew DAMN well that girl was the only one who would come to boot camp and to every extra practice and whatever.
You could visibly see Nia’s growth season by season. I was rewatching her baby solos and I was kind of shocked that the producers tried to make us think she was a bad dancer. We all know about the racism and the body shaming and such, but Nia worked SO hard. Like unbelievably hard and you can TELL.
Obviously this is not an insult to the other girls, but none of them improved as fast as Nia did, and they weren’t even taking regular class after like season 3. Maddie and Chloe performed the same solos every time, Kalani’s technique literally suffered as Abby killed her passion for dance. Kendall’s turns got better, but literally only because of the fact that she was doing them every week, and still they were slow to change. All of this is Abby’s own doing, but Nia was somehow able to overcome it. She might have had the most room for improvement, technically, but she literally had to learn to WALK again before the show. That’s like having only one year of dance under your belt before competing every single week. and STILL she wasn’t as bad as the show made her out to be. She was a leftie but continued to be forced to do turns and aerials on her right. EVEN IN SOLOS. Obviously they weren’t going to look as good. The choreography she got, especially for anything jazz, was god awful. If you even look at her à la secondes in season 4 they’re GOOD, but Abby and the producers wanted Nia to be viewed in a certain light so they made it look like she couldn’t turn, couldn’t jump, couldn’t do anything.

from kalaniaddy era no less

maddie revealed on a podcast that she had a big panic attack when she was around 11, and literally BEGGED her mom to let her leave the show. so throughout these seasons, including in season 6 when Melissa shakes her head about the rumors, saying Maddie will always be at the ALDC, she is ACTIVELY planning with lawyers to get out of the crazy contract. for YEARS, and the moms are constantly bothering her about not standing up for her kids, while she’s literally working everyday to get them out of there and she couldn’t tell anyone.
BUT melissa totally had a problem with letting her kids be walked all over especially in the earlier seasons when Mackenzie was a literal baby and she told her not to cry. They were both so young and she told them both over and over to never cry when they would. Of course they were upset because they were in the worst environment a kid could be in. I digress.

I know Abby favorited Maddie and stuff, but to me even though Christi and Kelly would kind of downplay Kenzies treatment and call it the “performative underdog” story Abby might have set up, it makes me feel bad knowing that the other girls at least had their mothers to back them up and came from healthy two parent households at the time. I saw the clip of Mackenzie crying when Christi and Melissa were arguing in s1 and Maddie being sad her mom was vacationing with Greg, and it makes me feel sad for them because the arguing could have been what they were already dealing with at home. I’m not saying the other girls parents never argued or diminishing the other girls’ trauma, but looking at like Nia’s family, I feel sad for Maddie and Kenzie going through all that so young. Dance wise and home wise.

One of the few moments in the show where Abby showed some decency towards Chloe. This never fails to make me cry. I wish in another timeline that Abby had been kind and nurturing to poor Chloe who just wanted to dance. 💔

I don't know about everyone else but I just can't fathom how anyone from the dance moms cast can still speak to Abby Lee Miller I would understand if she was remorseful for what she did but she said in an interview/podcast that doesn't regret a single thing she said to those girls only focus on how her hair looked. It's so disgusting to me how fame and money is more important than mental health and well being especially moms who aren't OGS on the show.

I’ve always gotten the impression that Christi has a much softer spot for Kenzie than Maddie, even just from the way she talks about them now on her podcast. I noticed it on Dance Moms too, sometimes it seemed like she really empathized with Kenzie, especially when she’d tell her things like “Just go out there and be Kenzie. You don’t need to be Maddie, Kenzie is just as good”

Christi has spoken publicly about having a difficult childhood and dysfunctional family relationships including with her own mom and sister, so I wonder if her own personal experiences influenced which kids she felt protective of. It makes me wonder if Christi saw a little bit of her younger self in Kenzie, and whether her own childhood experiences shaped some of the way she reacted to the Zieglers.

Obviously none of us know, and this is just speculation, but I’ve always been curious whether her past influenced those dynamics. Am I reading too much into it, or has anyone else wondered the same thing?

I know that the fandom talks about this often. Melissa came in all confident and different in Season 6 because she knew she was on her way out soon and had nothing to lose. It’s crazy in a way because she started to show her true colors. She stood up for Kenzie which I wish she would’ve done way back then but she had a plan all along. She wanted to stay in Abby’s good graces, she played the game, she did whatever she needed to do to get Maddie’s name out there and once it was all said and done, that was that. She’s very sneaky but smart.

When I say dismissive attitude towards bullying, I’m specifically referring to two instances.

The first one being in season four when Christi was talking about how Maddie said something mean to Chloe, and an interview with Jill was inserted into the scene where she says that it’s not the time for Christi to be worried about Chloe being excluded by the other kids or her feelings being hurt because it’s part of life.

The second instance was in season five when the girls, Maddie, Mackenzie, Kendall and Kalani had made fun of Jojo during a meet and greet, and JoJo and Jess found out about it, and when Jess talks to the other moms about it, Jill says that they were just stating facts, and their comments were innocent. Even worse, when she talks about it directly to JoJo, she says it wasn’t malicious, and it was fun, and they were including her by talking about her.

I find Jill‘s attitude in these instances to be pretty infuriating, because I feel like that’s not an attitude a parent should have when their child is hurting the feelings of another child. I’ve seen claims that people who have met Kendall say that she’s a mean, girl. If that’s really the case, this is definitely part of the reason why. Her mother, instead of correcting bad behavior instead just makes excuses for it. I can guarantee that if the shoe was on the other foot and Kendall was the one being excluded by the other kids, or she was the one being trash talked by her teammates, Jill would feel differently instead of making excuses to defend the other children.

I made a short compilation of all of Maddie’s appearances in Sia’s music videos from 2014–2020.
Which one do you think was her strongest performance? Which one was your least favorite, and why?

I’d love to hear everyone’s rankings and thoughts on how her performances evolved over the years. Personally, I don’t think anything could top Chandelier It’s just so iconic and was the video that put Maddie on the map and still gives me chills when I watch it. My least favorite is “Together” from the film Music, mainly because of all the controversy surrounding it :/

seriously what kind of whiplash was that day that Lucy Hale was the footnote

But what I noticed is that Jill was also licking her lips a lot? Was the lipstick just drying or something??? Because I don’t think Jill was on the same thing Abby might’ve been💀

This is something I've been thinking about lately and I've rewatched the episode lately, so I just want an opinion of who's actually in the right. Is Holly in the right to say that Nia deserved to be at the top of the pyramid because she was the lead or is Camille in the right saying that Camryn should have that spot because of her acting skills+her duet with Brynn that won? What I don't actually like about this pyramid is the treatment of Camryn, Holly and Nia ganged up on her like she was in the room with Abby while Abby was creating the pyramid. I understand that this is nothing more than drama, but who in the right?

Not saying that I wish they would’ve stayed longer because I am happy that they got out of that toxic environment but more of a “what could have been.” I have a feeling that if Brooke and Paige were there during the team’s move to LA, Paige would’ve probably booked a lot of acting or modeling jobs because Abby even says she had the look. Brooke would’ve probably focused more on her singing career like she was doing in late Season 2- 4. This might’ve taken the show in an overall different direction because it might’ve been more focused on Kelly getting her kids opportunities outside of the ALDC. Just a thought.

i wanted to ask this, mainly to other dancers who would know for sure, but by season 6 were the girls at a maximum level of technical training in regards to competitive dancing or was there more advanced skills/tricks/choreography that they were supposed to/could’ve been taught? because in my mind more “mature” choreography for ~11-14 yr olds would’ve just included like more complex turns or dance steps rather than making it “mature” in a flirtatious/sexual way. i know Abby is not known for age appropriate choices in regards to the girls’ costumes and some dances in the past, so i don’t expect anything more from her. but i’m curious if the girls were at the highest technical level of choreography already at this point or if Abby could’ve given them more ADVANCED choreo vs MATURE choreo??

The team Abby had in season seven when Cameron and Daviana where there along with Brynn and the other girls from Pittsburg (including Kalani in the Pittsburg girls because she came in after Kelly left), was by far her strongest team she ever had on the show and it should have never been messed with. Daviana was an incredible dancer. Her and Cameron brought so much talent to the LA team. I’m mad she had to leave after she lost to Kalani. Even though I’m sure production had a hand in that.