Dance Moms Is Back!

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.