What happened to the plan to have Cheryl Ann Burke replace Abby? Is she coming after Laurieann Gibson? I thought Laurieann was just there for one episode. Meanwhile, with Abby completely missing in action, Laurieann is back for at least another week. This week, she has a pyramid that is shaped like a capital “A” she calls it her “A” list. Brynn is on the bottom and so is Kendall. Because, losers. Ditto Cameryn and Maesi and Kalani. The minis were on the second tier with Nia on to the top. Nia is thrilled as Abby rarely let her off the bottom tier.
This week we are going to Fresno. The moms explain the “Fresno Curse” to Laurieann. Nothing good has ever happened in Fresno. Kalani and Brynn are the only two solos. I’m sure Nia was expecting a solo after being on top. Then Laurieann says the group dance is going to be called “Q” and it is going to be about being transgender. Frankly, I don’t think that is an appropriate topic for some of the younger dancers. In fact, I don’t think it should be a dance theme at all for any of them. But more importantly, it’s the “T” in LGBTQ that stands for transgender. Nonetheless, we shall forge ahead. The minis and Maesi’s are kicked out of the group dance.
Kalani’s solo is very difficult and she’s exhausted in rehearsal. Brynn’s choreography is also hard and not the usual cutesy stuff that Abby gave her. In the group dance, Camryn has her first lead as a male to female transexual boy.

Yolanda is pissed that Eliana is not in the dance. Ellie tried to keep her from confronting Laurieann, but she did anyway. That got her nowhere, now Yolanda wants Ellie to go to Laurieann and give her the some of my best friends are trans speech. Ellie doesn’t want to but Yolanda tells her that her trans friend will be disappointed if she doesn’t. So Ellie asks her what to say, and she nervously does what she is told. Laurieann puts her in the dance. When Lauriann tells the moms, Lily’s mom, Stacey, says that she heard Yolanda telling Ellie exactly what to say. Laurieann is pissed but had to go to a video shoot. Yolanda and Stacey get into it. Yolanda says something about her psychiatric therapy and Stacey shoots back that she does treat dissociative identity disorder in her practice. Camryn’s mom who is sitting sort of between the two says in her Phaedra Parks voice, “Oh…we just got diagnosed…” It was hysterical. I need a gif. Yolanda calls Stacey a bitch. She retorts, “At least I am only one bitch, you’re like three bitches.” Everyone cracks up loudly. All of them except for the target, Yolanda. Who walks out the door. Everyone else is still laughing their asses off.
Yolanda goes to get Ellie who at that moment in time is a couple of feet away from the other two girls. Yolanda starts telling the girls to stop bullying Ellie because she has feelings. Once again, Ellie has no idea what is going on and starts crying and telling her they are not bullying her and telling the girls not to listen to her. Part of me thinks this is Ellie auditioning for acting jobs. But you never know. I don’t think Yolanda can play crazy this well. It’s Academy Award worthy if that is the case. Yolanda goes outside. Lily comes to tell Stacey that Yolanda was yelling in her face tell her she’s a bully. Stacey leaps up to go outside after Yolanda. Camryn’s mom is all….I’ll just stay here and watch the kids.
Stacey confronts Yolanda by yelling at her and Yolanda goes straight for Stacey’s throat trying to choke her out. Security breaks things up and Stacey is screaming for the police. AND SCENE….
The next day Yolanda is still there at rehearsal and so is Stacey. The moms force Stacey to accept a half-assed apology from Yolanda because Laurieann is threatening to walk out. Laurieann says the minis will not be in the group dance. Her friend Rocko speaks to the team about his transition.
Brynn’s solo was great and totally out of the box. Is it too “music video” for the dance competition circuit? We’ll have to see. But I loved it.
Kalani killed her solo. The choreography might have been a bit more difficult than Brynn’s. It was definitely out of the box and stretched her comfort zone. It’s just a matter of what the judges thought.
Laurieann points out that both girl had some stamina issues at the end where they got tired.
The group dance was AMAZING. Camryn was AMAZING. I’ve never seen her featured before and we finally get to see why she is on the team. Also, the whole transgender theme I was leery of at first mad perfect sense in the dance. I’m so used to Abby Lee’s weird political dances that I just couldn’t visualize what I just saw. They should win. Especially since there appears to be no competition there at all. Where do all those fans outside the venue go when the competition starts?
In the solos, Kalani took second place. Brynn did not place. The group came in second. Laurieann says that they lost because of the mothers. Yolanda plays the victim. Laurieann cries tears of anger. She is frustrated with the mothers. Next week, Laurieann takes the gloves off and her inner Abby Lee comes out.
Speaking of Abby Lee, every time I watch this I wonder if she is watching from prison.
I know LarieAnnne works with a lot of pop stars, I’m just wondering if these dances are to MTV video for these competitions. I feel like a really solid and pretty lyrical routine would beat these solo’s any day of the week just due to the competition standards. It’s not that they are better. They are just what they are used to. It’s like that Toddlers and Tierra’s show an extremely pretty girl without the 10 pounds of hair and makeup never wins because that’s not the standard. They prefer the fake made up Barbie dolls to a true natural beauty with a bit less of the bells and whistles.
Laurieann doesn’t do lyrical. She’s trying to get them away from all of that stuff. They may be losing but it is great experience for some of the more accomplished girls who are aging out.
Kind of threw me when Kalani said “I’m 16 so now I go professional”
I have no doubt her dreams will come true, but it would be nice to have her mom thank AbbyLeeMiller.
(They are going to realize a lot I think when they are on their own)
Two thoughts:
1. These girls never really dance anymore except for the show. There is no way that girls who are training everyday in the gym would have stamina problems over a 3 minute routine.
2. Did Kendall have a solo they pretended didn’t happen? At one point she appeared to be on a gold costume.
I watch this show every week with my daughter and we laugh at how fake it is every week. Well I laugh, my daughter gets annoyed at me.
It kinda threw me when Kalani said “I’m 16 so now I go professional”.
I’m sure she will be a great dancer but kind of would like her mom to acknowledge some of the training she received from Abby. It would just be nice.
Sorry, didn’t realize a duplicate.
These competitions appear to be staged for the show. Who wins and looses is all scripted. That is why there are no real people in the audience. Just fans of the show who show up when they are in town and some dance teams who get paid to be there with a chance to be seen on tv.
I just wonder why all the people that show up outside don’t come inside and watch the competition. Some of the competitions are real. Abby was supposedly barred from some of the real ones and that is when they started faking them. Also during the real ones they would dance once for the real comp and then shoot again for TV.
I was under the impression that the outside people were the other competitors, dancers, teachers, and family. I thought they asked them to participate, and it can show their studio, also. (Jackets, colors, whatever).
I like the pretty dances much better than those jerky weird movements that are not graceful. That is just me. It won’t be long before Laurieanne is going to have to use Abby’s tactics to control those horrible Moms. I watch the dances and fast forward thru most of the screeching. Please don’t take the nice floating costumes and pretty lyricals away. New dancers would be great. Time for the same old dancers to move on. I agree with Laurieanne. They have no fire this year.
Brynn’s dance was INCREDIBLE. My all time favorite ALDC dance.