Dance Moms do Twitter!

This past week's episode of Dance Moms was unlike any episode before! It featured the original team members of the ALDC and was formatted as a talk-show reunion rather than a normal episode. All of the girls sat together and answered questions that viewers asked using nothing but one of our favorite social media outlets - Twitter! I thought it was so cool that this entire episode featured questions from fans via Twitter using the hashtag - #AskDanceMoms. It was really cute to see the girls speak for themselves without their mothers or Miss Abby present because you could tell they were a lot more comfortable and honest. Miss Chloe proved to remain one of my favorite gals on the ALDC because of how polite and sweet she is :) 

After learning that all the questions were prompted via Twitter, I discovered online that the @DanceMoms Twitter page is awesome! They post multiple times a day and receive a lot of feedback from consumers. They must have a lot of success with their social media because a large part of their fan base is young girls that are very active on social media. I thought this was a really neat connection to our class! 

Check out the Dance Moms Twitter here!

Reflecting on MY year as a Dance Mom for BU Orchesis Dance Company

This past week I was WAY too busy to watch Dance Moms, so I have decided to write this blog post about the past year being my own Dance Mom to 11 wonderful dancers :)

I have been dancing since I was three years old and have never wanted to stop. It was great that when I came to Bradley freshman year there were so many options of dance teams to join. A friend of mine from home was a Senior Orchesis member at the time and told me about Orchesis, so I took the plunge and auditioned & four years later - here we are!

This past week my team held our annual recital and I could not be happier with how everything turned out. I was elected as President of the team this year and I really wanted to push myself and the rest of the girls to learn as many routines as possible for our show. It really was an honor to preside over the girls this year and I am so proud that we accomplished all of our goals and put on the best show that I have been apart of as a member of BU Orchesis. It is such a great feeling to hear my friends and family that had come to our recitals over the years express how impressed they were with our performance. Dancing with such a talented group of girls really made for a perfect ending to my dancing career. I will miss each and every one of them so much! It's so refreshing to bring together 12 COMPLETELY different girls, yet have us get along just because we all love to dance.

Now here I am on a Monday night writing this blog when at this time the past four years I have been at dance practice! Not sure how I am going to move on from something that has been apart of my life for the past 19 years but I am really hoping I will find a way to continue to dance through life :)

The New Team Has Arrived

This week's episode of Dance Moms was everything we had been waiting for all season - the "new" team. As I mentioned in previous posts, Abby had been traveling all over the country searching for talent for her new team. This team will now compete against her already prestigious competition team comprised of our favorite little gals - Maddie, Mackenzie, Chloe, Nia, Kendall, and Kalani. 

The New Team from left to right:

Sarah H., Kamryn, Ava, Jade, Sarah R., & Tea

This page does a great job introducing each new girl and provides you with a video of each dancer as well as some photos! But there is a twist... Abby has decided to put Maddie on the new team. ruh roh....

After Abby introduced the new team, she started teaching choreography and theses were the routines she assigned: Kalani and Kendall were to perform a jazz/hip-hop duet against Ava and Sarah R. who were to perform a lyrical duet. It is a known fact that lyrical numbers score better at competitions, and this instance was no different. The new girls beat Kalani and Kendall by only a few points, even though I believe the K's had a way better performance.

For the group routines - the old team performed yet another hip-hop/jazz routine against the new team's lyrical piece. With Maddie on their side, the new team had yet another victory under their belts. Once again, I do NOT think the new team outperformed the old team, but lyrical routines are taken much more seriously at competitions.

Finally, Abby assigned a solo to Chloe and one of the new girls, Kamryn. Abby made Kamryn appear to bounds better than Chloe, but when it came down to their performance Chloe came out on top! Chloe is my favorite dancer on the show so this was very exciting to watch :) I am not liking this "new" team aspect all too much and I hope it doesn't last long!

Abby has a heart!

This blog post is dedicated to Miss Abby's late mother Maryen Lorrain Miller. This past week's episode of Dance Moms focused on the fact that Abby's mother was dying and was not going to get better. Abby did not travel to the competition this week because she was so emotionally distraught, and the audience saw a side of her that had not been seen ever before.

The girls reminisced on memories they had with Mrs. Miller and Abby choreographed this week's routines in honor of her mom. Maddie and Chloe both performed solos at the competition that were musical theater style. Chloe placed 5th and of course yet again, Maddie placed 1st. Finally, the group of girls performed a lyrical routine to Amazing Grace in honor of Mrs. Miller. This piece was beautiful and at any other competition would have won by a landslide. But unfortunately that was not the case. Another studio called "Studio Larkin" which has a very good reputation and a strong group of dancers placed first in the group routines. When the girls called Abby to break the bad news to her, she responded unlike anything I could have predicted! She said "Girls, this week it was not about the competition. It was about my mother and honoring her in your performances and you did that." This was the most compassionate and human-like I have ever seen Abby behave and it was quite refreshing to see that! 

One more episode before the mid-season finale!

Also - I found this super hilarious dance parody video to "Don't Drop That Thun Thun"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWaL2q38xdE

Underdog

This week on the Dedicated to Dance Moms blog, I would like to focus on a member of the group that usually goes unnoticed, Nia! Veteran member Nia usually flies under the radar, but this week she was given a solo by Miss Abby! Up until this point in the season Nia has only had two solos, neither of which have placed in the top ten. That is unheard of for the ALDC members who usually win first place in their age divisions.

Nia's solo was called "Damsel in Distress" which was a very animated, musical theater style piece. She executed the piece very well and the moms and girls were very impressed with their performance!

Below is a video of Nia's performance:

All of Nia's hard work paid off - she placed 3rd in the competition! I was very happy to watch Nia excel since she usually is not noticed in a positive way. Way to go Nia!

Boys vs. Girls

Ever since the caveman era, there has been competition between genders - I remember running around on the playground when I was younger yelling "girls rule, boys drool!" This week's episode of Dance Moms definitely plays into the gender competitiveness that exists today.

As you all know, the Abby Lee Dance Company is comprised entirely of girls. These girls are unstoppable and have been completely unbeatable this season. There is another team that the ALDC competes against every so often - the Candy Apples Dance Center. Candy Apples and Abby Lee have had a budding rivalry over the years because even though the Abby Lee girls are phenomenal dancers, the CADC has something that the ALDC doesn't - BOYS. The male gender is a minority when it comes to the dance world, so a team with boys definitely has a leg up on the competition!

The CADC performed a routine that they had been practicing for a few weeks at the competition while the ALDC performed a routine that they had just learned that week! Crisis ensues when the music for the Abby Lee routine "Frost" is too quiet for the girls to hear. They get off to a rocky start but manage to pull it together and execute a great performance. Below are videos of the two routines. Did you enjoy watching boys perform over the girls? Also - any guesses on who won the competition?!

Sister, Sister

Hello DM lovers. This past week on Dance Moms, the two sisters on the team - Maddie and Mackenzie - were put head to head at the competition. The two sisters are extremely strong dancers and have proven to be two of Abby's favorites. The funny part about their duel is that Abby made Mackenzie perform a solo that Maddie had performed when she was Mackenzie's age. The solo is called "Cry" and when Maddie performed it years ago, she won first place in her division. This put a lot of pressure on Mackenzie because everyone on the team is always being compared to Maddie. When Mackenzie is challenged to perform not just against Maddie, but with a solo that Maddie perfected, she is scrutinized the entire episode for not being enough like Maddie.

Below are two videos, the first is Maddie's performance of "Cry" from 2011, and the second video is Mackenzie's performance of "Cry" from 2014. Any opinions on who executed the solo better? 

Another New Girl?!

Good afternoon fellow Dance Mom fans! This week on the Dedicated to Dance Moms blog I would like to talk about ANOTHER new girl that Abby has invited onto the team - Fallon. 

 
Fallon is a dancer that impressed Abby at one of her open call auditions, and everyone who is dedicated to Dance Moms knows that is not an easy task. Abby gave Fallon the privilege of performing a solo at this weeks competition, and let's just say that it was not ALDC worthy. In fact, halfway through Fallon's performance, Abby waltzed up to the judges booth and asked them to disqualify the routine, how humiliating! But after Fallon's poor solo performance, she was able to rise to the occasion and keep up with Maddie, Chloe, Kendall, and Nia in the group routine, which placed First Place! This is the ALDC's 10th First Place win in a row, which shows that Abby does not necessarily need recruit new team members -  her original team is tough to beat.

Here is the group dance that the girls performed this week entitled Red With Envy. I thought the costumes were extremely fierce and gave these sweet little girls a devilish appearance. 

Next week we will discover if Fallon stays or goes... OR if another new girl is added to the team! Stay tuned!

Riches to Rags

On this weeks episode of Dance Moms, the members of the ALDC performed a routine called "Riches to Rags" Abby chose this theme because the competition took place in Detroit, Michigan and she wanted to express the hardships that some people are going through due to the decline of the motor industry. Oh Abby, always has to push the envelope!

The routine actually turned out to be pretty cute! The girls executed the theme very well. I like when they perform cute dances like this because I think it plays better into their youth than to perform super serious pieces with a lot of deep meanings.

Below are videos and in each routine the ALDC performs very different . What type of dance do you prefer to watch? Do you like fun and cute routines or serious and meaning-filled routines?

How Much Is Too Much?

Instead of talking about a specific episode of Dance Moms on this week's blog, I would just like to talk about the topic of "tough love." Abby Lee Miller is quite the advocate for tough love, as she is often yelling and screaming at her dancers. Though I agree that sometimes you can't always be the nice guy, I think that Miss Abby takes it too far and has over time broken down the spirits of her dancers, and has instilled fear into them. 

I am the President of Bradley's Orchesis Dance Company, and I have had to give tough love to my teammates before. It's not always the best feeling being looked at as the one who "doesn't want to have any fun" and is making everyone do extra work, but in order to look our best for performances I know that it is necessary. While tough love is needed sometimes, I still do not think taking it to the level that Abby does is appropriate. I have attached a brief video of a time when Abby yelled at her group when I don't think it was appropriate, and this video actually makes Abby look like an angel in comparison to other situations!

I recently saw this photo online and I thought it did a great job giving a distinction between Bosses and Leaders. According to this I definitely think Abby Lee acts as a boss instead of a leader.

I know we have a lot of athletes in class, and I was just wondering if I am being too sensitive to the girls on the ALDC when I say that Abby is too harsh on them? Are the remarks and the feedback she gives the girls appropriate or is it too much? Would love to hear some thoughts on the topic from anyone!

Bye Bye Brooke and Paige :(

Writing this blog post saddens me. As I explained in the post from last week, Abby got into a physical fight with one of the dance moms, Kelly, and there is current lawsuit going on between the two of them. Because of the legal matters, it was revealed this week that Kelly's daughters, Brooke and Paige, will not be returning to the Abby Lee Dance Company and will no longer be stars on Dance Moms. These two girls danced with Abby since they were two years old and were dedicated members of the elite ALDC for many years. I will definitely miss watching them grace the stage with their outstanding performance skills, so I would like to dedicate this post to the two of them with pictures and videos!

Brooke's National Title Winning Solo:

 

Paige's Solo "Ooh La La"

 

Paige & Brooke: 2013

The Most Disconcerting Drama to Date!

This week's episode of Dance Moms has left me absolutely speechless. While Abby Lee Miller is a genius when it comes to her competitive dance team, she is a bonafide bully. This week Abby assigned a duet to Chloe and Paige, an additional solo to Paige, and a solo to Paige's sister Brooke - all of which are abnormal because Paige and Brooke never get any sort of recognition on the team.

Abby also enters a few of her other dancers into ANOTHER competition that weekend, but the footage from this trip does not make any sort of appearance onto the episode. It is known that Abby's favorite dancer, Maddie, performs a duet at this other competition with a dancer not on the ALDC named Kalani.

Kalani was a competitor on "Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition," Basically an American Idol for young aspiring dancers, where Abby is the head judge, and where the winner receives a scholarship to the prestigious Jeoffrey School of Ballet in NYC.

After practicing during the week leading up to the competition, Abby comes to the conclusion that Paige and Chloe's duet is not up to par to her standards and states, "I want a winning duet, and THAT is not a winner." At the last minute, Abby secretly enters Kalani and Maddie's duet into the competition, so they will be competing against Paige and Chloe's duet. When the mom's discover this, they go into an uproar.

What happened next was extremely disturbing. After Abby already insults Paige and Chloe by putting their own teammate up against them, she continues her rampage by insulting Brooke's desire to be on the team. Kelly (Brooke and Paige's mother) and Abby begin a verbal battle regarding the days events. After some poor language exchanges, Kelly and Abby get physical, and Kelly is escorted off the premises with Brooke and Paige. Abby calls the police and as my current readings have led me to discover - there is a lawsuit going on between the two, and Brooke and Paige have not returned to the team.

After this episode's upsetting ending, I am unsure if I can continue to watch this show without being disgusted. I just wish they would show more footage of the dancers, because that is where the true value in the show is!

Here's a link to see the brawl unfold! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYOiCfByL24

New Chloe vs. Old Chloe!

The most recent episode of Dance Moms is one for the books! 

The crazy Abby Lee Miller has been searching across the nation for dancers to join her elite Company. While in Orlando, Abby was blow away by a young girl named Chloe and invited her to dance with the ALDC at a competition. But there's a catch - this new Chloe has very similar body type and dancing skills to a current ALDC member, who also happens to be named Chloe! 

New Chloe: Center, Old Chloe: Right

Miss Abby challenged each Chloe to perform solos against each other at this weeks competition, and new Chloe placed 2nd at the competition while Original Chloe placed 4th. Abby was, of course, outraged that Old Chloe didn't outshine New Chloe (even though she still would have been angry if New Chloe had NOT outshined Old Chloe... but that's Abby for ya), but she was even more outraged that New Chloe's headpiece fell out of her hair during her performance. ALDC holds higher standards than that! We shall see if New Chloe sticks around long enough to claim a spot on the ALDC. 

And of course an episode of Dance Moms isn't complete without some mommy drammy. New Chloe's mother, Kim, insulted all the other mothers & Abby, and they all yelled at each other. Just a typical encounter in the ALDC dressing room!

Free At Last

Hi there!

This week on the Dedicated to Dance Moms blog I would like to talk about a routine that the Abby Lee Dance Company performed at a competition in the most recent episode of Dance Moms. 

The competition itself was in Atlanta, Georgia, and in my opinion, Abby seemed to take advantage of the type of crowd that would be attending. The name of the routine is entitled "Free At Last" and features Nia, the African American girl on the team. Early in the episode, Abby announces that since the group will be competing down South she would like to choreograph a routine that will be educational and represent the Civil Rights movement. She tells the girls that they need to perform in honor of the many African Americans that struggled during this time in history.

After watching the routine, I agree that it did a great job of creatively representing this point of time in history, and that with Nia's physical characteristics, she was the right member of the team to be featured. I may not always agree with Miss Abby's method of tough love, but the woman is absolutely brilliant. While I am sure Miss Abby does care about American History and representing it correctly, what she cares about more is winning. And though she is well aware that if a routine is impressive as can be, it is nothing if it doesn't move the audience. If you watch the footage of the routine in the link below, you will understand what I am talking about! The audience reacted in the exact way that she wanted them to, and it is because the story behind the routine personally relates to each of them. 

Some may call this manipulation, but Miss Abby calls it winning!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE ROUTINE!

Crash Course on Dance Moms!

Hello blog world! I have never been a blogger before so this will be an interesting experiment. I decided to create this blog, Dedicated to Dance Moms because whether I am proud to admit it or not, I absolutely adore Lifetime's hit TV show, Dance Moms. I have been a dancer my entire life so I live vicariously through these talented toddlers and tweens (who are a million times better than I will ever be!) 

I'd like to start off this blog by introducing you to the cast and explain a little bit about the show. The show features the lives of the members of the Junior Company of the Abby Lee Dance Studio and their mothers. These girls spend hours everyday stretching, learning choreography, and working on technique. Some of the girls are even homeschooled so they can dedicate more time to working at the studio. 

Each episode starts off with a review of the week before in a critical session called "pyramid" where director Abby Lee Miller ranks the moms and dancers based on their performance the past week. The girls then  move on and stretch and the moms sit in a viewing room to watch their daughters rehearse, more often then not resulting in catty fights and disagreements. The girls learn routines for a few days before heading to a competition somewhere in the states in hopes of winning first place, which they often do! 

The picture above is the cast of the Abby Lee Dance Company.

From left: 

Chloe - her long limbs look beautiful on stage, and she is strongest in lyrical and contemporary genres. She gets a lot of solos and is one of Abby's favorite dancers. 

Nia - very dedicated to the team. Abby constantly critiques Nia's technique but she takes the feedback well and strives to improve.

Kendall - Strong Jazz dancer and also receives a lot of solos. Abby's comments usually make Kendall cry which causes drama between her mother and Abby.

Mackenzie - Youngest member of the team whose strength is acrobatics. She is quite the cutie!

Maddie - Mackenzie's older sister. By far Abby's favorite dancer and the strongest dancer on the team. Though she receives a lot of attention, she is still humble!

Brooke - The oldest member of the team with a strength in acrobatics. Abby is the hardest on Brooke because Brooke is starting to lose interest in dancing.

Paige - Brooke's younger sister. Another emotional member of the team that doesn't do well with the tough love that Abby constantly gives her. 

Above: The infamous Abby Lee Miller

I will describe the moms' levels of drama on a scale of 1-10!

From Left:

Jill  - Kendall's mom - 6. Jill will do anything to get Kendall ahead which causes controversy between her and the other moms sometimes.

Christi - Chloe's mom  - 9. By far the most outspoken mother on the show and her brawls with Abby leave viewers in shock!

Kelly - Brooke & Paige's mom - 8. Christi's right hand woman, being a former Abby Lee dancer, she has no problem telling it how it is.

Melissa - Maddie & Mackenzie's mom - 4. Melissa sucks up to Abby like it's her job, so the only drama she gets in is with the other moms.

Holly - Nia's mom - 2. Known as Dr. Holly because of her high level of education, this dance mom is most levelheaded and calm.

Well that's all for now! Hopefully future posts won't be this lengthy, I got way too excited to share this info :)