June, 2012 | Dance Mom Junkies

Archive for June 20, 2012

Skipping CD’s, Paranoia and Probation Highlight The Episode This Week

June 20, 2012 sabrina Dance Moms

Tensions were building last night on Dance Moms as Kelly and Christi continue to work on Melissa to join their side in a crusade against Abby Lee. The big drama revolved around cdskip-gate last week where the moms convinced Melissa that Abby set that up purposely as a cheap way to make Maddy win. For those who didn’t understand the situation, judges tend to favorably view a dancer who can continue to perform when things don’t go smooth. If done purposely, that’s about as low as it gets and is looked down very harshly.

Obviously Melissa wants to protect her daughters reputation, so she confronted Abby about the rumors, but naturally they were denied. We’ll never know the truth because as bad as it looks for Maddie, it looks 100x worse for Abby Lee to cheat for her students. She’ll never admit it even if it was on purpose, her studio would lose all credibility right away. Do I think it was done purposely? The reality show fanatic in me originally felt it was, but logic set in and I don’t think so. Maddie is a fantastic dancer and doesn’t need any help getting back on top, especially at the risk of Abby’s precious reputation.

With that aside, it was time to do Abby’s apparently new favorite thing, the pyramid (I say new because she’s on record saying the pyramid is a Dance Moms thing). Just like last week when Maddie skipped a chance to dance, Brooke and Paige were both at the very bottom. The difference was Maddie didn’t have a big ‘PROBATION’ written on her picture. Kind of unfair to Brooke and Paige, but that’s Abby being Abby.. there is more than enough evidence of some type of favoritism, and it was even on display again last night.

During the group number, Paige came out with the only unique dress and was instantly forced to give it up to Chloe. This meant Chloe ended up wearing a dress too tight, and Paige’s was too large. The funny part is, the 11 year old dancers were the ones acting mature about it all.. Chloe wanted Paige to be the unique one, and Paige also handled it well by simply going along with it all. Was it favoritism, or do you believe Abby’s excuse that Chloe should have had a unique dress because of her role in the dance?

As far as the rest of the dancers, Maddie and Chloe had a duo and looked phenomenal, but still only ended up in 2nd place in their category.

Nia, Maddie and Mackenzie also had solo’s, and only one of them won first place in their category. Can you guess which one? I’ll give you a hint, it’s not Maddie, and it’s also not Nia. That’s right, Mackenzie finally remembered her entire solo and rocked it on stage. She won 1st in the petite category, while Nia won 9th and Maddie 4th in their categories.

The group number ended up looking very cute and well done, but in the end, it wasn’t good enough because they finished 2nd. That wasn’t good enough for Abby who went off on the group after that. Again, feeling embarrassed and ashamed and taking it out on the kids. This is the part I don’t understand. She has a bunch of pre-teen dancers, some (Maddie) has to learn *3* dances in a matter of days, yet gets worked up they only finished 2nd? It just blows my mind that she gets upset at 2nd place with that short of prep time. Maybe it’s normal in the competitive dance world, but it just seems like a lot to place on kids.

What are your thoughts on the episode last night?

12 comments Abby Lee, Brooke Hyland, Chloe Lukasiak, Christi Lukasiak, dance moms, Episode Recaps, Holly Frazier, Kelly Hyland, Mackenzie Ziegler, Maddie Ziegler, Melissa Ziegler, Nia Frazier, Paige Hyland

Dance Moms Is Back!

June 8, 2012 sabrina Dance Moms

Ahh the weather is warming up, and the regular Dance Moms is back on TV. Things just feel normal again, especially after watching Dance Moms: Miami. Look, I don’t want to bash that show, it is entertaining to watch, but it’s just not Dance Moms. It almost has the feel of some art school students who made a parody show to try and mock the original. Sadly, the moms outrageous behavior mask the great dancing and sweet kids who are trying to avoid the drama.

This isn’t a post on Miami though, it’s about the return of Abby and company, and it felt good watching it! Before I talk about the episode, did anyone watch the “OMG Moments” with Abby beforehand? Kind of weird. It was fun watching the highlights, but Abby’s commentary between was kind of cringe-worthy, bashing the moms who aren’t even being filmed to defend themselves. Just very strange and would have been better off doing one of those terrible VH1 shows where they hire “comedians” to try and joke between clips.

Anyway, enough of that. The episode picked up where last season ended with Abby having a mini breakdown and storming out of a competition. Apparently the moms haven’t heard from her in weeks(?) yet walk into the room with the pyramid all set up ready to go. Right. Do us a favor Lifetime, don’t try to stage moments because it’s very transparent. The moms probably did stand there for 30 minutes waiting for her, but it was clearly set like that for drama purposes to continue from last season.

Once that little quirk was out of the way, things were back to normal in the ALDC with the Abby yelling at everyone, the moms yelling back at her, and the poor kids just caught in the middle trying to dance. I guess in that sense it’s not too different from Miami, but the biggest difference is how the moms interact with each other, and it’s totally refreshing. Christi and Kelly are hilarious, Holly is the calming influence, and Melissa is generally caught in the middle of the moms and her friendship with Abby.

Maddie watching the trio for mistakes

What bothered me was sometime in the middle of the episode, Abby was trying to get the girls to criticize each other, and having Maddie act as a choreographer which was totally out of character for the girls, the show and even Abby. You can see a genuine friendship with all the girls, and the last thing I want to watch would be the dancers turning on each other for drama purposes. I don’t know if this was a one time thing, but I hope it is. The girls looked very uncomfortable doing it, and it was uncomfortable to watch.

Despite a little bit of drama through the episode, the team still went out to L.A. to compete, and the rust from some time off was pretty evident. Mackenzie had a solo, and did very well until she slipped and hurt herself, but still ended up finishing 10th. Chloe also had a solo, and performed well as did the group number, but both only finished 5th place. The trio was the highest performing number with a 3rd place finish.

The results didn’t please Abby and in the dressing room after awards, she had it out with Kelly which was again more reminiscent of Miami than what we’re used to. It seemed that show loved to put drama right at the end, and this week was no different.

While it was a good episode, and refreshing to see them back on the air, I just hope future episodes have more of a regular Dance Moms feel and not some cross between Dance Moms and Dance Moms: Miami.