Dance Moms

[Jen]

Is it bad I keep wanting to see Abby dance? lol.

[carnation]

Can she? Who's teaching the girls the routines?

[Jen]

I'm pretty sure she said she was a dancer herself when she was younger. I've only seen a few episodes though.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by BetteDavisEyes

I want to one day put my little girl in dance but I would NEVER allow someone to be so cruel and hurtful to my daughter. There will be hell to pay if someone said such nasty things to my child.

My 11-year-old daughter loves to dance. She has been taking dance (at her request) in one form or another since she was 2. Since she was about 4 or 5, she has told us she wants to be a dance teacher when she grows up. She never waivers from that, and she may well be one of those people who always has known what she wants to do in life.

And my daughter adores her dance teacher. Ask her the person she most admires, and she answers her dance teacher.

Somewhat to my horror, she discovered Dance Moms during the marathon and became glued to it. Mom and I both said something about not liking how Abby talks to the girls and not liking how the moms allow it. Daughter said "Hmph! If my dance teacher ever talked to me anything like that, I'd be out of there so fast she wouldn't know what happened."

[KillarneyRose]

My kids love this show for some reason but I can't stomach it. Maybe because it's filmed in my hometown of Pittsburgh and it makes my homies look like sadistic idiots.

I do know of one successful dancer spawned by Abby Lee; her name is Miranda Maleski and she made the top 20 in last year's "So You Think You Can Dance".

http://www.fox.com/dance/bios/contes...iranda-maleski

[ColdInCanada11]

I've read several interviews with Abby. From what I can recall, she formed her own dance company at 14, because she knew that while she was a good dancer, she was a stronger choreographer. This may have been true in the past, but it appears like Gianna (or whatever her assistant's name is) does most of it, at least for the girls that we see. My issue with studios like this (especially now that they have a new dance each week), there are about 15 "staple" movements that are in every single dance and it's kind of a mix-n-match, with little else in it. You shouldn't recognise a studio because each dance is the same.

[Always AlphaGam]

Anyone else get a headache from visiting this?

http://www.abbyleedancecompany.com/

[thetalady]

Guilty pleasure.... kind of like gawking at an ongoing car crash, where another car piles on every week. I cannot believe that Abby gets away with her behavior, no matter how many dancers might go on to dance on Broadway or in videos. WHY do these mothers allow her to berate their children like this?

Only one as bad as Abby is that Candy Apple Cathy bitch. At least she seems to focus her conniving more on hurting the adults.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

I love the show.

I do too!

But, while I do think kids need to stop being so babied these days, she's a bit much. Some of the stuff she says to them make me cringe.

[groovypq]

I hear her screechy voice in the commercials and can barely stomach even that.

[ellebud]

Actually, she had gastric bypass...but she bypassed it.

[carnation]

Who's Candy Apple Cathy? I got sort of a vague idea that she was a former Abby mother.

[Always AlphaGam]

Originally Posted by carnation

Who's Candy Apple Cathy? I got sort of a vague idea that she was a former Abby mother.

She was a former Abby mom who runs her own dance studio in Ohio. She brought her daughter Vivi (did that girl ever SPEAK?) to Abby Lee's studio because of its reputation as being one of the best.

I'm pretty sure she was manufactured drama brought in by the producers. She never rode in the competition bus with the other moms.

She was briefly in the episode last night, making her own pyramid with her own dancers.

[GammaPhi88]

I grew up dancing, and I thought I'd like it since I love trashy reality TV, but I couldn't make it past one episode. I've had many dance teachers, and the one who taught me the most was really tough, but she did it in a motivating way, to the point where I am in my twenties and still look to her for guidance. While I think dancers should be taught hard work and the ability to handle criticism at a young age, there is a line between the teacher who is tough on their students, and the teacher like that who uses intimidation and fear. Abby is a psycho bitch, and I would never send a child into that environment. I'd rather be screamed at by my scariest law professor than take a class from her.

I have had one of those borderline abusive teachers; if anyone has seen the MTV True Life episode where the cover theatre camp, he was the tough dance teacher. They gave him a good edit...while MTV shows him as tough but fair, they didn't show him cursing and throwing chairs at his students. Some dancers are of the school that, "it's tough out there, but that kind of motivation is good". I disagree. If I'm terrified of my instructor, I'm not going to learn better...I'm going to be miserable through class in fear of messing up. Since you have to make mistakes and mess up in order to perform better, what good is that?

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by carnation

Who's Candy Apple Cathy? I got sort of a vague idea that she was a former Abby mother.

Cathy is the one with the very short, two toned awful looking hair. She was only technically a former "Abby mom". She owns a dance studio for kids and competes them against Abby at a lot of the dance competitions.

As Always Alpha Gam said, it is pretty clear that Cathy & her daughter Vivi were brought into the ALDC only for drama & TV ratings. She was there to do nothing but stir the pot and be nasty. Poor little Vivi couldn't dance for squat.