I got a few episodes behind on Dance Moms during my (sorta) unplugged birthday week. I’m gonna try to hit the high (or low) notes of both episodes in this post.
We start the week after Mackenzie beat Maddie in solos. The episode I am watching is the director’s cut and I am not sure what is added and left out, but I love seeing the girls warming up and talking about the previous week. Abby says she is over Jazz routines. She is going back to her usual routines. Nothing unusual about pyramid this week. Mackenzie was on top of Pyramid.
The competition is in Calabasas and their west coast nemesis MDP will be there. (WTF is the P for?) As Abby prepares to dole out solo’s Jo Jo says that her grandmother who has stage 4 colon cancer will be there and she really wants to do a solo for her. Abby says okay. Kendall, Abby’s new favorite, is going to do her solo that got scratched from two weeks ago. Abby gives the group lead she meant for Maddie to Mackenzie. Abby seems “nice” this week. Jo Jo is being taken out of the group dance to focus on her solo. Abby took the lead away from Mackenzie.
Jo Jo’s solo was good not great. My main problem is that the song she was dancing to was not the song we heard on the show. This is the first time that has been so blatantly obvious to me.
Kendall did better than Jo Jo. And then, just for devilment Abby sends Maddie to stand near MDP’s soloists to intimidate them before they go out on the stage.
The girl from MDP did a very unusual solo to an instrumental piece (at least for us) that was very similar to some body building poses. It was very technical and gymnastic. She fell out of a turn and had a few bobbles but on this directors cut they showed the whole performance which was very long, and overall it was quiet impressive.
Abby is extremely sane on this episode, I mean, for Abby. It’s kind of scarier than when she is crazy.
MDP’s group dance, Monsters Under the Bed ends with them pulling out a doll from under the bed that is supposed to represent Abby. It was very good. It was like something out of a Broadway musical. They will be tough to beat. Abby gave THEM a half-hearted HIGH clap! What is with her good sportsmanship this week?
The ADLC’s group dance was FANTASTIC. It was basically Maddie doing a duet with the four other girls. Their spacing was on point for a change, there was no Jo Jo one beat behind, Nia was particularly good. I think they should win.
In the solos Kendall came in second next to the MDP girl. Abby is not pleased with Kendall. The person who is inhabiting Abby’s body said that she wishes Jo Jo could have one, but her performance was to honor her grandmother and she did that beautifully. WHO IS THIS WOMAN?
MDP got first in their group and solo. Abby is not thrilled. But she did not scream at anyone.
OKAY NEXT EPISODE!
We finally get to see Abby’s new studio! Except it is nothing but concrete and studs. But they do the pyramid there anyway. Mackenzie is not there because she is filming a Nickelodeon show. Of cour Melissa is there with Maddie rather than going with Mackenzie. Coming off a two week losing streak the moms are asking for more dance classes and focus on technique for the girls.
Abby is back to crazy. Kendall is at the bottom followed by Jo Jo and then Mackenzie, Nia, and Kalani. Whoever could be on top? Gee.. I wonder.
Kendall, Nia and Maddie have solos this week. The group is a 50s inspired musical theater piece. What happened to Abby’s love of Kalani? I can’t believe she gave Nia a solo. Kira decides to call in Melissa, a choreographer from Abby’s Dance Competition as well as lots of other shows.
Abby screams the three soloists because they didn’t have exercise balls in the rental studio. Maddie cries and in this condition Abby makes Maddie dance. Abby tells Maddie she is doing it wrong. All of this is staged for the guest choreographer’s appearance.
Abby and Jill get into it which brings Kendall to tears. The choreographer comes in and asks Abby is she is cool with what Kira asked her to do. Abby was rude and the choreographer left. The interesting thing is that Gia was upset and offended by them bringing in another teacher, since she is the one teaching the classes. Gia cancelled the afternoon session and left in tears.
At the competition, Abby is still furious about the insult of inviting in an outside dance teacher. I sort of see Abby’s point. They kids could have at least gone to another dance class in private. Now Gia and Abby are upset and Abby rightly puts most of the blame on Kira. Abby is also picking on Maddie before she dances basically saying the other girls’ solos are better than hers and she needs to step it up.
I LOVED Nia’s performance, but I am biased because she’s my favorite. This is one of those competitions with judge feedback. Hers was to stay in he ballet and techniques classes (See I think they tape all the practice crap with the fighting AFTER the competitions, especially this week with the guest instructor) and to work on her feet and her transitions. The judge also complimented her dance saying she danced as a performer and not a student.
Kendall did Kendall. She’s good but her face was terrible. She looked like she was concentrating on the dance too much. She got positive reviews from the judges.
Maddie’s dance was really good. Her face really helps her dance, her face is just so expressive. Abby gave her the way up high over the head clap and a Woo Hoo! The judges told her to work on deepening her plies as her body grows. The mothers confront Abby about having more classes. They are only pissing Abby off more. Abby says she doesn’t want to Dance Moms acting like Dance Teachers. Kira says she has always been a dance teacher and that is why her kid is where she is right now. Abby has a breakdown and starts to ball and Kendall is the one shoved out of the herd as the sacrificial lamb to go give her a hug. Jill tells her to do it because “she’s hurting right now.” The other girls, falsely believing they are safe all line up to hug her too. She hugs Mackenzie and Maddie and tells Kira and Jo Jo to get away from her. Kira looks mortified. Nia hears this and does a 180 before she gets close enough for Abby to bite.
Kira calls Abby out for being so hurtful to Kalani. Gia is a little cuntsicle Abby Jr at this point. Kira and Abby get into it an Kira goes ballistic and yanks Kalani out of the group dance saying she will not allow Abby to talk to her kid like that.
Um I cannot explain what is happening now. This most be the scene where the producers told Abby to leave because as Kira is going off on all the other Dance Moms after the team has gone backstage, Abby comes back in on camera IN HER BRA and says she is LEAVING. This shit is crazy. Last episode Abby is nice and normal and saying sweet things about Jo Jo and this week she is screaming at Jo Jo and Kalani and Nia to get away from her. I just back it up and there is a producer that is coming after Abby (with his face blurred out) she is being thrown out, she is not leaving. Also not leaving is Kalani who wants to do the group number.
Kendall took 5th in solo, Nia took 4th, Maddie took 3rd. Maddie has NEVER gotten 3rd before.
The group number was cute and they came in 3rd.
Despite my DVR shutting off after a full 62 minutes it cut off the previews of next week. Did anyone see them? I think we are going to have a new choreographer for the next few episodes. Abby said we would not be seeing her as much. It you missed that read it here. or Click Here for all my Dance Moms posts.
What is with the weird mouth licking Abby does with her tongue at the corners of her mouth. That usually comes before the crazy. Is there a drug that has this side effect?
Stimulants such as Adderall can cause side effects similar to this. Could also explain some of Abby’s obvious weight loss and manic behavior.
This current episode was so strange to me. Tessandra, the guest choreographer was retweeting -nasty tweets about abby which seemed weird.
kira seemed pretty DONE on Twitter too that night. Abby is positive on Twitter the day of the airing but horrible on the episode. Gia has never been this evolved in the story line. And Abby dissing the girls was baffling. So confused.
Coincidentally, as you posted this El Esposo, a friend, and I went and saw the touring production of Annie. Halfway through “Little Girls,” my friend leaned over and said one word: “Abby.” The actress playing Miss Hannigan is an Abby clone. Truly a weird metatextual layer to her performance.
Diet pills make your mouth dry. As do some variations of antidepressants.
Nia and Jojo’s responses to Abby are worth watching the show for. At this point they are more mature than their teacher, and they know that by NOT reacting to Abby in either positive or negative ways is the best thing to do. Show up, learn your dance, practice, do the competition and tv show AND tune out Abby’s white noise of negativism.
Abby in a bra. No snark needed, as the producers and editors let the moment speak for itself.
The episode before was super good and I can see why Abby got upset. It was super rude to do that and I would feel hurt too. Still, I would never have responded that way. I do like that she is being harder on Maddie though.
MDP = Murrieta Dance Project
Project? Really? Whatevia…
On Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 1:00 AM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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I was pissed at this episode. Abby’s usual nasty attitude was taken to a level 10. To tell little girls who are just trying to console you in your pain to get away from you, children that love and look up to coincidentally while you continually berate them is to much. I can understand when teaching being tough. I grasp the fact this show is scripted and manipulated by production but it is slated as reality show and tons of little girls watch as shown by the competitions. Little girls are impressionable. Abby is no role model and so many of them are screaming for her and dying for a shot on this show to be famous right along with the moms who I almost think it’s more importantly for.
I’d be shocked if Abby is back for another season. The producers are clearly done with her. Showing all her bad moments (or maybe she’s just always nasty) and then to show her in her bra. I think she took her top off thinking they wouldn’t film her in her bra. Think again, Abby.
What baffled me in this latest episode is Abby insisting the girls don’t need class. All dancers need class. They spend most of their day in class. So..Abby’s either a total idiot or the producers convinced her to go with that storyline. I think it’s the latter because she’s been in dance long enough to know better and that’s the reason she broke down at the competition. She realized she made a huge mistake (taking the no class position is really detrimental to her reputation) and just lost it. She should, however, have saved her tears for her pillow.
On a side note, Gia’s sister is a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance.
It’s definitely story line because she always pushed classes in the earlier seasons and was on Christie and Kelly a lot but that
Abby was horribly ride to Tessandrra . I understand being pissed at Kira and the Moms for inviting her without consulting her first. But her reaction when Tessandrra walked in was ridiculous. She acted like she had never before seen her while she was hired for her competition show. She knows who she is and her credentials.
I don’t like to disagree with you TT,but I think Maddie’s expressions are limited and boring. There is the aim ful grimace, the over the top smile and the over used staring at her hand with longing at the end of a routine.
I don think Abby will be on next week. Like you said,I think she was suspended for the week. The fight with Kira involved much more according to Kira’s tweets.
The pressure of opening on the west coast must be getting to her. We’ve been hearing about this new studio for weeks , months even. Maybe she has to pay for the construction herself without any financial backing from Lifetime?.
OH Lifetime ain’t buying her a studio. What is Kira’s nic on Twitter?
On Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 6:44 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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@kiragirard
Hey TT..late to reply, apologies. Kira Girard is
Aw shit. What I was attempting to say is Kira uses her full name as her handle. I’m late replying so you mos
I agree whole heartedly about Maddies face! BORING! Limited! Overused! But then it seems like she does the same dance routine over and over with a few minor changes. Maddie gets all of the attention and seems to have stagnated, while the other girls get half hearted attention and are trying to outshine the maddietrain. I can’t even start on Melissa! Duck lipped beyotch! Poor Mackenzie who has more personality than maddie has in her little finger! Surprised we havent seen Mackenzie sherpa-ing maddies Louis Vuitton collection in and out of locations. Pah!
TT, I’ve been trying to reply through he notification box and having some difficulty lol. The two replies above are an indication of that.
What I was attempting to say is Kira uses her full name, @ kiraGirard on twitter.
I looked through her timeline today and the posts about theAbby fight were about 5-6 days ago. I think she deleted some.
My fingers are spazzing out more than usual today. (neuropathy ) and hitting wrong letters. Question..are,you limited to number of characters in that box? It cuts me off after a line and a half.
Now, time to get to Big Brother.
Thanks Deco!
On Tue, Jul 7, 2015 at 10:46 AM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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Flipping while waiting for RHONY, I caught the Abby bra scene again – the male producer guy clearly says ™No cameras on her!”
I wonder if she went back in the room in her bra thinking they wouldn’t show it, but the producers are so clearly sick of her, everything she does is fodder. And rightly so.
X, try to see if you can find Super Fan Takeove, But I’m a National Champion. It started here at 10 it’s a pop video thingy of something from season…three? TOTALLY worth the watch. I just had the channel come on while I am working because I was DVRing the new ep I haven’t seen yet. GO NOW and DVR it.
On Tue, Jul 7, 2015 at 9:02 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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I did not see all of this particular episode. I also loved Nia’s solo; I thought she showed the most technical improvement i have seen in any of her numbers. I thought Kendall’s solo was the most interesting solo any of Abby’s students have had in a while. I thought the Monster under the Bed was much more entertaining than Abby’s group number. You and I evidently have similar opinions of Maddie’s expressions.
I am glad I am not the only one noticing Gia taking over Abby’s role. I did not see her break down over the guest teacher coming in. I did not know she taught the technique classes; did that comment only refer to this time in LA? I have always wondered whether the girls are in a lot of class. Seems Abby has them in so many projects that there may not be time for focusing on class. Surely she would make that a priority. If the parents really want more classes though, they should take their kids elsewhere. Bringing in a outsider though makes for better television!
Your post is a lot more interesting than my response; I love your format! It is nice to find some kindred spirits in the Dance moms fandom (are we fans?)