You were fifth in the competition you’re fifth on the pyramid sometimes you act like a 5-year-old can you put her picture back up she deserves to be on the pyramid she was in the group dance she deserves nothing i’m not putting up with this crap anymore those five kids in there put your fat name on the map she has more class in her little finger at 13 than you have in a big fat body of 45 pick on the children cuz you’re an idiot there so many things i could say to you right now really really christe yeah [music]
Okay you’re the chosen ones everything is not you’re skinny you’re pretty you’re blonde you’re telling me it’s sch hate you wake up uh things are getting kind of tricky but it doesn’t mean much to a girl like me cuz i can do things that never believe even in your wildest dreams don’t cry be smarter eight means eight not 9 and 1 half not 10 if ks won stop prob and finish [music] hi i’m jake and i’m shelby and welcome to the dance mom’s deep dive in part one we dove into just how the alc came to be and how aby’s reign of terror would land
Her behind bars but today we’re going into the cultural phenomenon that is dance moms the dreadful pyramid the rise of the mothers and the daughters of the alc their subsequent music careers and how each of them were plucked off the team one by one abby would create a team of dancers from the ground up with an of reward system that would give her complete control over the young girls and their families but what if i told you everything wasn’t what it seemed the dance competitions were faked the gag worthy moments were rehearsed and the
Dance bombs were fed lines but not just that shelby and i are exploring the dark underbelly of dance moms this is part two of a now three-part series so be sure to tune in next week for the finale of deep dive dance moms as we get into the complete and utter fall of the alc here’s on set and christy and chlo’s revenge but for now let’s take it back to 2010 where one article was making such big waves it would inspire an entire tv show in may of 2010 the dance company precision dance performed a high energy routine to beyonce’s smash hit single
Ladies which caused extreme controversy many saying the outfits and dance moves were pushing the envelope for girls who were as young as 8 years old a recording of the performance was uploaded online where the early iterations of message boards and social soci media lit on fire they’re incredible dancers but they’re eight and they’re gyrating in these provocative moves they’re wearing outfits that could be at a club in vegas dance moms of precision dance would defend their daughter’s performance stating that the video was taken
Entirely out of context these girls were performing at a dance competition and they weren’t performing this for a worldwide audience and so it’s been taken out of context and so if you keep in mind that this was at a dance competition and these are the kinds of routines that you see in that environment um then that takes away all of the the negativity that’s been surrounding us these costumes are provocative the dance moves are provocative this is inappropriate at so many levels i don’t i don’t even know how to wrap my mind around it and wasn’t
Meant to be viewed by millions of people the controversial news cycle not only captured the general public’s interest in competitive dance but it actually caught the attention of john corella a children’s dance choreographer who thought there was a void in reality television for dance but he didn’t want to just showcase dance he wanted to use the outrage baiting tactic of toddlers and tiaras while also hooking viewers with stage mom drama and storylines similar to the real housewives now john would take this concept to brian stinson
A casting agent who knew this idea could be a true hit they would then approach jeff collins the owner of a production company called collins avenue productions john brian and jeff the three dance moms mouse guers were ready to hit the ground running but first they needed to find the perfect cast they would post up casting calls auditioning mothers and daughters across america now dance moms was never supposed to be centered around one singular dance studio the original concept was supposed to follow a new mother and daughter each
Week and then end the season at nationals where all the girls would go head-to-head with each other but how did john get the dancers from the aby lee dance company’s information and how did they make it on the show well if you remember the last video abby lee was staying at jon’s house after competing with her dance company in los angeles this is where she told him all the intense stories of the dance competitions they were attending and how an 8-year-old dancer named maddie zler was wiping the floor with her
Competition so john would actually put a casting call for dance moms in aby’s pittsburgh studio for his docu series titled just dance now after posting this flyer in aby’s studio dr holly christy minister dawn melissa jone kelly highland and even cathy from the candy apples would all see the audition kathy would contact her at the time friend abby and ask if the audition was legit abby encouraged her to go for it as they were longtime friends who both owns their own studios in the two audition the mothers would need to send in photos
Of themselves and their daughters and also answer several interview questions now the details of this story differ somewhat depending on if you ask aby lee or internet royalty christy lucasia christy explains that the cast auditions for the show just like any other contestant and that the dance mom’s producers realized after they selected the cast that nearly everyone they picked was from the same dance studio now abby lee seems to contest this detail and claim that the photos of the girls were actually on her website and
The three musketeers of the dance mom’s production actually approached her i had spoken to christe and kelly and melissa and um and how did you get their information uh they emailed the information i talked to them on the phone cuz it was on my website i didn’t i don’t know about that it was on my website that’s how they would have known about it yeah i this prior to casting this is prior to any of the casting at your studio um but once i saw i was like these are you i really like these moms i really like the pictures of these kids
Um and had s they had sent me some video of the kids dancing the pictures of the kids came from me maybe a copy copy um so that’s when i called john and i said i think we can do a whole you know show at this one studio in pittsburgh these women are great these kids look amazing so i said look we’re veloping this project would you be interested you were like yeah you know it was great and that’s how it all started little did i know little you know you um and you guys had a flip camera and um i would ask questions and you know christy would go
Around with a flip camera and ask the questions that i asked her to ask you guys she interviewed you she interviewed moms um see that i remember later cuz she always tries to take credit for that that that remember that later on i was sitting in the den working on interview skills with the kid and saying this guy needs me to get you on camera i got a urgent ph to overnight 12 program books to some meeting or whatever so we had your program book impressive you can make anybody look good in a picture they’re amazing
Pictures yes you know can’t look away from these pictures in this book so that was used to help sell the show along with this little 3 and 1/2 minute sizzle just from the flip camera footage and not only was it abby not only was it you know the mom but it was like the kids they all you know i’ve said this a million times but they all had these perfect faces these perfect little faces mhm and out of this tiny studio you know wasn’t that tiny right in pittsburgh you know lot of comes these all these stars we’re born it was
Nonetheless picking the aby lee dance company as the location and subject for this new show instead of following a new girl every week would not only save the production company millions of dollars but it would also create multiple new layers of story lines see toddlers and tiaras often focused on the outrageous antics of the parents in the children’s pageantry world but the show was missing a major element of interpersonal conflict failing to really show the full underbelly behind the curtain of child stardom but because dance moms would
Only follow one group of girls aka the junior elite team at the alc the show was actually able to document not only the ridicul ulous work conditions and stress these children were put through but also the long-standing dynamics chemistry and drama already brewing amongst the team and their parents producers were sure they had a smash hit on their hands but when they learned of aby lee miller and asked the various mothers to send in videos of her that’s when they knew they had struck a reality tv gold mine not only would there be the
Typical real housewives toddlers and tiara drama but abby added a simon cowl essence to the show generating animosity between her and her dance troop as well as the mothers lifetime was now looking at a storyline with over four different perspectives and that could truly be taken in any direction if a viewer wasn’t outraged that the children had to go through this they were outraged by abby if you weren’t outraged by abby you were outraged by the children’s mothers and somehow if you weren’t outraged by any of it the dance moms and abby would
Be outraged for you jeff collins and brian spinson had stumbled upon the most intense dramatic and strenuous dynamic of any reality tv show all hidden away in a small pittsburgh dance studio now at the time the alc was known on the east coast for creating some of the best dancers the world has ever seen but jeff collins and brian sson were about to create an entire phenomenon out of the suburban these children were living through and the dance mom’s contracts would be making a deal with the devil now that collins avenue
Productions had found their starcast they needed to lock them into a contract so they could start shopping the show to various networks first the moms would sign an attachment agreement which basically means that they agreed to do a certain amount of episodes as a trial run if the show does well and the network picks it up for additional seasons they would then be attached to both the production company and the network until the length of their contract is completed now you would think this all sounds very standard
However for the dance bombs and the kids this is where the exploitation first started usually when a contract is presented both parties would have legal counsel who would review it to ensure no one is getting taken advantage of but according to the moms right after being cast they were immediately presented with a contract giving them no time to have an attorney look it over it was six episodes and they’re like if you don’t sign this paperwork right now you’re not going to be on it and we’re like i remember calling cy i’m like are we
Signing this well jess it no one knew it was gonna be such a phenom each season really we never really knew how how many episodes they were going to shoot at least early on like it just kept going and going and going and that you know we you’d sign on for six episodes we would shoot up to 36 episodes a season you must have been exhausted yes well that’s why we were crazy now at the time the moms didn’t really think this was a big deal as the show originally was supposed to be a docu series and they didn’t think anyone
Would watch it past the six episode trial run so they signed the contracts what they didn’t fully comprehend was that they were signing on to a lot more than just a trial period if the the show was successful and renewed they were now contractually obligated to complete six full seasons which is just about 7 years worth of filming the original girls who were cast on the show ranged in age from 6 years old to 10 years old their moms had basically just signed away their entire childhoods to a production company keeping them stuck in a toxic
And environment that they would be unable to escape from for years everybody who signs on to att television show signs a contract you do you know and you can’t just come and go whenever you choose so that’s always a big deal when someone wants to leave um so yes they were under contract you would think child labor laws would have protected the girls from such an extreme contract that binds them to a tv show for 7 years but unfortunately shows like dance moms fall into a gray area when it comes to child performers plus the show was
Filmed in pennsylvania which has much loser laws compared to states like california or new york now the show was picked up by lifetime network where the season 1 trial run began airing in 2011 the show was an instant smash hit so lifetime would immediately order additional seasons and just like that the dance moms and their daughters were officially stuck aside from how the contracts were signed and the long length of time being obligated to film the salary the cast was paid was absolutely abysmal compared to the
Success of the show christy claims she only made $600 for the entirety of season 1 why did you want to join danom for the mone much money i made in season one of dance moms yeah you will you will $6 yeah and the kids didn’t get a paycheck we got one paycheck and had to split it $600 like think about that no um we kardashian according to multiple reports the girls were each paid only $1,000 an episode and according to multiple cast members in the beginning the moms and daughters would have to split the earnings i can tell you what i first
Started getting paid so we signed a 7-year contract with lifetime television and my mom and i split a contract of $500 a week for maybe two and a half seasons it seems like robbery to me no it really is reality tv is so like they i don’t even want to get into it but reality tv is not what you guys think it is it is not lavish whatsoever we got treated like animals we obviously didn’t really get paid enough we were filming 60 hours a week for a 45-minute episode like wa from
8:00 a.m. To like 10:30 at night we were at the dance studio filming by the time the show really got started and was in like 150 different countries our moms are like okay we need child labor laws our children need to be in school they need time to eat they need time to sleep and they need to get paid for the work that they’re doing the show also made loads of money off merchandise that use the cast images and likeness but the actual cast was only entitled to a measly 1% of those earnings now eventually it looks like there were some contract
Negotiations where the amount the girls were paid jumped to $2,000 an episode and the moms seemed to make somewhere between $4 and $5,000 an episode production in the network would also start paying out bonuses for every completed season and when the cast participated in reunion or holiday specials but keep in mind these negotiations were years into the show airing after millions upon millions of dollars had already been raked in the cast was able to utilize their newfound stardom to make money outside of the
Show but this too was impacted by the dance bomb’s contracts does their contract require you guys to have a say in the things they do outside it it doesn’t requ yes it does it requires them to have for us to have a say in anything that they would do that might be televised or put on the internet because not so much us meaning me but the network because you know these are young people and we wouldn’t want them to be doing or being associated with with someone that um might portray them in a in a light that could be very
Negative so yeah we’re we’re involved we have a say in that yeah in this video we are going to get into some of the extreme abuses of the girls on dance moms but many have asked through the years why they didn’t just leave well aside from being contractually obligated to stay in the agreement it states that the girls are barred from dancing at other competing studios until the six seasons are completed this was just another way to keep the girls locked in because if they did leave they would have to completely quit their passion
For competitive dance dance teachers all over the country are thanking me for saying everything they wish they could say and they can’t in their own studios cuz they would lose their business see that’s kind of what happened one of the students i tried to expel the mother i tried to expel i had just had it up to here and you could probably guess which one it was but anyway lifetime called me and said you have a contract she has a contract you cannot throw her out of the studio you have to let the kid back in so then a
Bell went off and i thought if they can’t quit or i mean if they can’t if i can’t throw them out they can’t quit right so no matter what i say to them they can’t quit so i just go for it are you talking about there’s a real place it’s coming from a real place there was also an entirely different contract that the mom signed with abby lee miller herself this was apparently a contract for the elite dancing team dance now because the dance mom’s contracts were so airtight abby lee felt like she could do and say whatever she
Wanted can’t stand that i have to sit here and wait for this woman to come in here and berate us abby’s going to come in here it’s going to be awful nice job chloe huh i’m done this is not what i signed up for humiliation for my daughter i didn’t humiliate humiliated shut up just say girl she doesn’t even say my name and she’s being really mean to her during rehearsal m happy really isn’t acknowledging me and like saying my name and that kind of really hurts my feelings because i’m still a person do you want me to
Remember your name then you need to prove it to me make me remember and because the dance moms would do anything to get their daughters opportunities it created a game of chicken on national television abby encouraging the mothers to leave if they didn’t like her abusive teaching methods knowing full well they are locked into that contract with cins avenue each episode of dance bombs would begin with a pyramid of the girls head shot the beginning of each week i have kind of like a pyramid thing everybody wants to be on top of course but you
Have to work for it it is a nightmare for a child and an adult because we have to stand by and take it usually if you’re on the top of the pyramid you’re in the front line now at first glance many may think this was just to measure skill and talent and that was a factor it goes on behavior work ethic attendance as well as have they followed all the rules you know all of that goes into who’s going to be at the top of the pyramid and who’s going to get to compete the next weekend but the higher abby put your head shot the more she
Liked you the more the girls and their mothers would blindly obey abby the higher their pictures would rise if your mother asked a question or abby just wasn’t feeling you that day even if you got first place in a competition the day before you would be at the bottom of the pyramid there are very few consistencies to the pyramid and how abby ranked each girl week after week the pyramid what we never before had a pyramid actually in the studio but i think it represented the idea in her mind of who was on top
And who was on bottom as arbitrary as it could be i think the pyramid always existed but it wasn’t in a visual format after season two they were like oh this pyramid is just for the show so but i think in the beginning it did bother them and then they figured out that the producers were the one that actually made the pyramid and sometimes we would wait for hours to go into pyramid because abby would be fighting with the producers and then you know the pyramid i mean then we’d st there for 5 hours literally i mean that was the
Worst day of the week for the girls and for us and i yeah all the fights happened on pyramid day you’re exactly right but it always started with abby being angry with the producers because she didn’t like either a storyline or the title of because that’s when she would give out you have a solo you have a duet these people are in the group and she and the producers would determine that and abby never never agreed to it she always wanted to change their plans their pyramid their solos so we would wait we would come sit
Ready to film and sit there sometimes for hours waiting for abby and the and the producers to quit their fighting and arguing and how many times guys did she storm out get in her car pull away and we’re we’re sitting there there was a disagreement about who would be placed or who would get a certain assignment more so because if it wasn’t a directive then some kids would never dance and would never see other spot on the pyramid except for the bottom so i think there had to be someone else looking out sometimes because otherwise some people
Would be absolutely neglected be h yeah you’re right agre very much agreed on that but there was one very common theme for 64 out of the 126 total pyramids she was a part of maddie zigler aka abby’s favorite was given the highest rank see unlike maddie the other girls were still getting their education at a normal school but to get maddie further ahead melissa took aby’s advice and homeschooled her daughters that way maddie and mackenzie could spend day in and day out training at aby’s dance studio you’re going to love me you’re
Going to tell me that you’re ready to go i’m already there up in the air cuz i’m the star of the show i’m number one baby always number one baby don’t forget what you heard this is my world [applause] all to become the very best this not only caused maddie to fly leaps in bounds ahead of her teammates but it also caused aby lee to create a very close family-like relationship with the zers now i brushed on this in part one but the mothers who did favors for abby and didn’t talk back to her were rewarded with solos and opportunities
For their daughters in exchange for major discounts on their sometimes daily lessons melissa zigler madd’s mother would become abby lee miller’s personal assistant and receptionist doing odd jobs in exchange for preferential treatment and dance education for her daughters everyone would say if you don’t like it why don’t you get more privates we tried yeah we couldn’t get them we couldn’t get them because melissa was the one scheduling them yes chloe had a standing by one teacher for years even when you had a standing by
They they like elin she would take it melissa and i i just wish melissa would be honest with the whole competition thing she always says oh it doesn’t me but as soon as the cameras are off she is a totally different kind of her dance mom she’s a stage mom she do anything to get her kids ahead but when the cameras are on she always plays the oh i’m really nice and i just want the nice dan for the kid so that is what makes me angry with melissa because you don’t get to be on natural television and your daughter be the star when we
All know what you’re really like and then play this i’m so sweet face i try to call her out on that and as soon as the camera dr is she not she’s she’s the worst one they made me look a lot different than i really was in real life well you know this person pretended to be so sweet and be so kind my little pigy just love it and help me out at the front desk and then hold my mother’s hand she’s dying and i find out later that she went bankrupt for $3.
2 million had i not had fsic accountant i wouldn’t know that somebody was nipping off the top you know you tell people oh so it’s so tap shoes didn’t come in and and the tap teacher getting really upset so so i just bought i just bought her tap shoes you’ll see the receipt in the book i i paid for the tap like receipts but you look in the book and there’s a receipt written out but when the credit card cashes out it’s way off i paid their tuition cuz they were behind so i just paid it she clean to my house i just paid her
Tuition yeah you wrote yourself a receipt out but you never put your credit card through the machine a that’s w so and that went on and on and on and on she would even allegedly get abby and her assistant choreographer giana extravagant gifts like louis vuitton bags maddie zigler was in a different league than her fellow teammates and abby wouldn’t let them forget it constantly comparing her young students to that of her perfectly trained dancer maddie just delirious by that point and and if i would have committed right
After m m would have one the woman all she wants to do is knock you people down because she doesn’t like me and your mom she says we’re jealous of maddie she’s jealous of us because we don’t need her approval maddie was still only 8 years old in the responsibility of having to be perfect at all times and being compared to her fellow teammates would definitely take its toll doesn’t feel well at all if she pukes i’m not cleaning it i know you’re not feeling well but suck it up we got to get through this okay she looks green
Practically and pale she looks horrible she’s crying sweetie why why the tears because my stomach start see that picture that’s the position you need to be in i have to go check on maddie it looks like she’s going to throw up go stop crying stop acting like this okay stop crying it’s making it worse what do you mean you never leave dance that now because maddie was on top of the pyramid a majority of the time she would also be given the most opportunities by abby out of anyone if there was a casting agent calling abby
From nickelodeon looking for a kid to put in a show aby lee was quick to give it to maddie the other girls and their mothers all saw this happening and were admittedly jealous and envious of maddie and her opportunities this would cause them to follow melissa’s method do anything they could to either get points with abby or to throw their fellow dance moms and their daughters under the bus you know i love you and when those women say bad things about you it hurts my heart and it hurts maddie’s heart too and i just walked right out of the room
I was like i’m embarrassed so i need to leave how these kids disrespect you to chloe rolls her eyes in class all the time i know what i’m upset about is that chloe leaves class early all the time on monday she went to the doctor’s and kelly christe’s so-called best friend which they’re not called me and said oh christe’s taking chloe out of school early today take her to the doctors and then she’s taken her to the movies melissa who cares what they think they’re just jealous of our relationship and they got to get over it they i have
Her best interest you always have my daughter where did she this created a toxic pressure cooker that few adults could withstand much less a child but because of their contracts they couldn’t leave even if they wanted to this couldn’t be more true for a 9-year-old dancer named chloe and her 34-year-old mother internet royalty christy lucasia aby lee miller would mentally torture a 9-year-old chloe all in the name of her mother across nearly five seasons of dance moms always pitting maddie her star student against the quiet and vulnerable chloe
Who was always just trying to do her best abby sent chloe for a title at a competition and didn’t have maddie entered while melissa heard about it and went down and did it chloe has nothing for her solo and maddie solo is done we talk about the kids getting very little time and attention compared to maddie i say i feel defeated then we talk about how melissa’s role like how she contributes to the favoritism what kills me is melissa plays that i’m so nice part and i say when she’s the sneakiest most underhanded person of all of us she
Takes music producers out for coffee she takes judges to lunch she sends gifts to the competitions in america and everybody is you guys are nodding along cuz i’m not saying anything that we don’t all know um she was not in the freaks like me video because abby said if that you put chloe in it he wasn’t allowed to have any of the other girls in it a competition after competition chloe would get second place to maddie always being told second is what the first to lose and if chloe dared showed an emotion or get upset about it abby would
Retort for her to save her tears for the pillowcase this was for all the young girls at the aby lee dance company with the exception of maddie who was nearly never corrected when she cried and was at times allowed to do whatever she wanted let go in the hallway i’m not going anywh my daughter’s happy let’s go in the hall do you want to talk about all the things that need to be talked about not here not now this is you talk about it you won’t talk about itter cry talk about and how many times does my daughter beat your daughter this
Year weight was stacked against everybody this weekend because you this dynamic was openly recognized on the show by abby lee the mothers and most tragically the young girls who never felt they could live up to the greatness of maddie out of the 85 episodes she was featured in chloe was on top of the pyramid nine times but just cuz you made it to the top did not mean you were safe abby would ensure that their week was extremely difficult giving them the true m treatment i know you all were wondering how could she be on top of the
Pyramid not only is she going to do a solo this week and not only should she win i demand that you win payton we all know everyone is replaceable you were not the right replacement for this group even going as far as to sabotage their routine so they would make a fool of themselves at the top of the pyramid thus giving aby a reason to never put them at the top again or even worse put them on probation now abby putting a girl and her mother on probation is pretty much self-explanatory labeled on the pyramid that would make your week a
Social nightmare abby and the mom she was linked up with would often shun the mothers and daughters on probation aby’s excuse for this was to test if after being benched and mistreated for weeks if the mothers and daughters would stay or quit this often ended in the daughter quitting the team some to return others to never come back again isn’t that crazy that children look like children she’s dressed appropriately you’re the minister out of the room out out rean goodbye out out am i throwing her out oh yes i am and you with her go no you’re
Not yes every week we put the trash out go does it not hit in your head that maybe you’re wrong no aby’s favorite saying during the pyramid was it’s difficult to get to the top of the pyramid it’s even harder to stay there after the pyramid the girls would be thrown directly into rehearsal where they would be given only 2 days to learn their routine now this wasn’t always the case as the girls abby liked often performed routines they had already practiced for months before but the girls who abby didn’t care about or who
Fell by the wayside they’d be thrown into a routine have to learn rehearse and clean it up in a week to two days all while abby was verbally tearing them to shreds the show would document the behind the scene’s drama interview the moms with pointed questions about each other and stitch together an interweaving storyline that was more times than not somewhat contrived all of this drama leading up to the showcase at the end of each episode then they’d have to compete with these inadequately rehearsed routines against girls who’d
Been training for months all in front of the entire world on national television executives looked over the first season of footage as soon as it was done filming and immediately wanted more before it even aired the cast of dance mom’s interpersonal drama that spanned years was intoxicatingly addictive and felt truly authentic christy explaining receive a call from a lifetime executive ordering a season 2 from collins avenue entertainment so by the time we got to whatever the episode was that the agent from new york came to the dance recital
That we did the awful mom dance the producer came to us and they were like listen the network wants more episodes and we were like like wait it was supposed to be six and they’re like yeah no they think this is going to be a great show and we’re like it’s not even air jet and they’re like it doesn’t matter they think it’s great they want more episodes so we’re going on the road this summer and i was like i can’t go and he’s like what do you mean you can’t go and i said i have a one-year-old i had clara and i said i can’t leave clara
And he said oh no no no no he’s like we will hire you and nanny to come with us he was like pack your bags we’re going on the road so we did we had a couple of weeks break after we found out that we were going to film more episodes came back in june literally packed 155 suitcases that’s what it felt like cuz we were going on the road for 6 weeks drove to the studio parking lot got on a bus and started like our cross country trk christy recalls being bewildered the mom’s daughters nor abby had any idea how huge the show would become what was
Initially a two episode appearance for the moms had turned into a multi-season reality tv show and season 2 would begin filming before season 1 even had the chance to air the first episode of dance moms would premier on july 13th 2011 to over 1 million viewers bringing a renaissance to the lifetime network and by the next season the viewership would double dance moms was a certifiable smash hit with the removal of minister dawn and the addition of jill and kendall in season 2 dance moms would truly find its footing as one of the
Greatest reality tv shows ever created the dance mom’s producers aby lee the dance moms and subsequently their daughters would fall into the hollywood machine each emerging as a star in their own right or in mia’s case her own life music career after music career would spawn from the show mckenzie zigler being aby’s project being transformed into a female rapper much like maddie b named max z abby would produced music videos and even an entire album for mckenzie but the dance mom’s record deals were seemingly predatory now if
You’re a deep diver you already know me and shelby have extensively documented the various predatory music producers labels and contracts that innodate your favorite stars and sadly 6-year-old maxie was no different mckenzie alleges that abby lee miller pressured her into signing with kismet music in exchange for quote technically and commercially satisfactory records k music guaranteed mckenzie that they would secure her a recording contract according to mckenzie and kismet neither of them followed through with their ends of the deal but
Kismet grossly underpaid mckenzie the record company said mckenzie was label hopping while violating the exclusivity deal in her contract needless to say abby had gotten mckenzie in a mess one that mackenzie would have to deal with through her teen years all while abby was in prison if you ask abby she has a different story about melissa and maxie entirely and then you have your kids sign a 360 deal with me to produce their music they go to number one in three countries and then and then just leave well i don’t know i haven’t seen a penny
No not one penny i i just i was reimbursed for my expenses for a video it’s still making money today who’s getting that where is it going nonetheless maxi was a project abby was truly inspired by whereas her second project with kendall veres otherwise known as kendall kay was more so because jill started doing more favors for abby i am for the whole team i am not just for maddie they call me and they want maddie they don’t want me at now this caused dr holly to go behind abby le’s back and recruit deity kane legend
Aubrey o day aubrey is a singer songwriter she was part of a girl group called danny de kane and she was also part of making the band with p diddy gy up gy now up up up to produce her daughter nia’s music career instead of aby lee this poisoned abby against nia abby often encouraging the other girls and their mothers to leave nia out and not participate in her musical projects for kindle is easier for her to be happy because abby she’s promoting it she’s excited about it why is that there’s no need to be on a mission to make kindle’s
Video better than theas the only girl who supported nia through thick and thin was jojo siwa who would appear alongside her in multiple music videos and performances nia’s music career lit a fire under abby as she began to push kendall k’s music career paully and nia and the little kind of backstabbing for her to do her own project on her own it’s kind of like i’m out for avengeance i’m out to compete i’m out to be better than that if nia recorded a new song abby would record an album with kendall if nia was doing a music video with
Aubrey od day kendall k would do one with abby this back and forth would all come to a head when dr holly abby and jill would plan live performances on the same day forcing all the dance moms girls and their mothers to pick aide pick a side pick a side the only girl siding with nia again being jojo siwa while wear him out kendall’s first single was a success in the dance mom’s world kendall would actually be shelved by abby for over a here completely killing any momentum her first single had this even played out on the show
Jill intensely questioning abby about when her daughter’s next single would be released and abby putting it off until she literally couldn’t any longer after 2 years of sitting on an entire album of kendall’s music jill alerted lifetime producers that she had sent abby a legal letter completely severing ties professionally pertaining to kendall’s music career you’ve held her up for 2 years she’s had a whole album has been sitting on so abby what’s going on with kindall and all that music i don’t know it’s my attorney got to figure out what
He’s what we’re doing that’s why my attorney contacted your attorney to get it taken care of you’re nobody and you’re nothing she’s not nobody she has now she isn’t four years ago before i put your ass in a chair so were you abby you were nobody too when i met you your car was impounded my dad died and he did my billing chill to use these k to put you where you are now my music video is this weekend and i haven’t shot a music video in like 2 years you know this one’s obviously going to be different because one aby’s not managing
Me it’s kind like it’s my song now abby doesn’t own it if abby says anything mean towards you guys it’s probably just because i have a music video this week i don’t care i don’t manage kendall’s music anymore but this wasn’t the only situation the dance moms and their daughters would find themselves entrapped in on the dance the set of dance moms was at best emotionally abusive and at worst physically hazardous over the course of dance mom’s success multiple members of the alc have expressed negative self-image on and off the show a study
Conducted in 2015 showed that the largest contributing factor to a child’s negative self-body image is their parents own negative self-body image and the dance bombs back in 2011 to 2017 well they were pretty ruthless towards themselves and each other i keep hearing the moms talk about work they’d like to have done you know to retain their youth well i thought of an idea nip and top you know a little here a little there i never worry that my kids can’t handle a dance or a concept that abby has to show them my girls totally
Know what lipos suction is cuz i always talk about it i would love to get it well i’m getting a boob job well good i thought you wanted to do it for i was going to do it for my 40th birthday and then if i like them then i’ll get my maybe i’m being naive but i don’t think anybody struggles with body image i think they all kind of like own it i was built like that you know like that was super skinny sadly what the alc members have said about themselves is nothing in comparison to what abby told them on a daily basis did you even see
Meia that doesn’t mean she wasn’t working stop lying about my kids i can see by the size of the thigh bot munting in the air hush your mouth i’ll tell you what i saw when i walked into the bathroom was my daughter crying going like this to her thigh crying my body is my body there’s nothing i can do since i got here and so is she her feet her her knees her thighs her rib cage her shoulders her elbows her hands her hair her neck’s not long enough ch ch you got it so when i started on dance mom’s i had a lot of exposure very quickly and
That led to a lot of body shaming my camera she’s like you suck you’re freaking terrible your feet are absolutely horrible one time she told me that the bottom of my feet looked weird because like the top of my feet were brown and the bottom were white and none of the other peoples were like that and she was like it looks weird on the barley and i’m just like i’m sorry i’m black she has names with her stomach like bbe any skinny and and she’ll be like suck in your stomach and she paused a name yeah bob she didn’t want to teach us she
Was over us she called us old and washed up slugs and fat this is the dark reality of what the abby dance company had to face day in and day out but somehow the show gets even darker behind the scenes through various podcast clips and interviews the cast of dance moms have revealed that the young girls of the alc would often be locked in the bathroom for extended periods of time this was due to the production team needing to capture some of aby’s most explosive moments with the moms according to a talent manager the alc kids were not
Allowed to leave the bathroom stalls until the arguments calm down and if you’ve watched dance moms you know how frequently those arguments happened the girls would also often be forced to be on camera cera in kelly’s lawsuit that we’re going to get into a little bit later she alleges that the producers knew how anxious the show was making a young page feel p i think you’re having like anxiety and she gets you so nervous that you can’t function like this is not right over dance class we have to get out of here we have to get out of here look
Here i just like c many of the moms have also said that the girls would regularly hide away from the cameras just to get a moment of privacy but the producers would invade that privacy by hiding microphones in places they knew the kids tried to hide out in this includes the bathrooms nowhere was off limits for filming these young girls every bit of their life from rehearsals private lessons and competitions were all captured by collins avenue production cameras the production team also loved to stir the pot to create more more
Drama than there already was if a producer heard a dance bomb or daughter saying something that would rile abby up they would immediately alert abby of what was said and the child’s location in hopes that she would go running over there to yell at them if a producer caught a flaw in a child’s performance that abby didn’t catch they would alert abby of that as well and send her storming after either the child or in some cases even the judges dance as the story goes at the beginning of dance moms the competitive dance
World had already ravaged the zagler household causing melissa to separate from her husband and father to her children kurt zigler while she was doing this she actually caught feelings for her boss greg jon even allegedly introducing some of the dance moms to him in a super secret car trip now after the first season of dance mom’s premiered the mother of greg’s children and now his ex-wife allegedly had no idea that melissa and him were together and even allegedly made a huge storm on social media now this is contested as
The original social media post from greg’s ex-wife is unfound but it makes logical sense due to the subsequent lawsuit threats that were to come as when melissa started wearing a big ring on her finger all the dance moms questioned what was going on melissa has a big rock on her finger and i don’t know why she’s being so secretive about it it’s like i mean every time i ask her about it she’s just like oh it’s no big deal when production asked asked melissa about it she refused to answer she knew her love life could be reality tv gold
And she’d already seen what dance moms had done to her friendships producers pushed this boundary by asking all the other dance moms what melissa had told them i heard engagement so are you going to be in the wedding you think i’m going to be in the wedding my mom is engaged but she wants to keep it quiet can’t believe you’re not more excited about the wedding you think of the ring beautiful i love the story no st don’t say it what story mckenzie shh tell me the story come here i don’t know what story you li we’re not supposed to tell
Abby anything she’s a blabber mouth what no seriously i don’t know the story you don’t know the story what’s chloe she’s a weirdo what she making up i don’t know what story they’re talking about why aren’t you wearing your ring i’m not wearing it anymore melissa still won’t talk about her engagement and now she’s not wearing her ring what is going on here doesn’t that hurt greg’s feelings though it’s just how we’re doing it did a girl say anything about it you don’t wear it did they notice it abby i’m sorry to interrupt you but these people
Are starting this again so my kids and i are leaving and we’re not going this weekend come on maddie maddie can go without me if you’re going to take care of her will greg please call your attorney these are doing this again this caused melissa and greg’s attorney to serve the production company that made dance moms and the fellow mothers with cease and assists on the actual show can can we discuss about beinga around the bush i’m not going to beat around the bush i’m going to ask you flat out did you people get a letter too okay i was
Waiting for someone to bring up the letter all of the moms received a letter from an attorney saying to cease and desist discussion of melissa’s personal life i can’t believe that she sent a letter to all of us from an attorney that was hired what friend sends you a letter from attorney we have to bring up an awkward subject melissa why the letter the attorney that we all got it wasn’t from me it’s from his attorney not my attorney i even felt s betray i just to be honest because i’m like i can’t believe most of you are that upset
That you that i would get something from an attorney but like i said i didn’t send it who lies all the time you who had anair with her boss who who’s living with a man who’s still married i did not have an affair with my boss yes you did no i did not there i said it there’s a new word we haven’t used that one yet so she knows exactly what she’s doing as you are more worried about your friendships with all of these women than your own kids and you know it the same thing about worrying about a guy instead of your own kids yes my kids going from
One husband to another instead of just worrying about your kids please we have a happy household well your kid doesn’t look very happy to me really absolutely i think sopio rock her world now in an interview with et melissa actually said this entire story line was concocted by dance mom’s producers like they gave all the moms a letter from me i think it was a invoice or something they created situations to get us all wound up right they’re to get the group no one knew the truth no one knew i would never sue my
Friends just saying did you not talk about that during the time of filming of course but they cut they can edit you any way they want to edit you yeah there were a lot of things said not in the context where they had us saying them sending the mother’s letters to make it look like they came from melissa’s attorney melissa revealed this is why she maintains that she never actually sent the letters but like i said i didn’t send it this was a major turning point for the production of the show as it was the first time the dance mom’s
Producers had tried to exploit someone’s personal life and the moms seemingly sighted with production doing whatever they asked i mean it was a tv show it was reality we fought because the producers really put a lot of things on our plate to fight about give me a break if you could sleep with abby you would know oh yeah well that’s how you tend to get ahead in life melissa oh yeah i sleep with everybody you do boss i’ never slept with my boss yes you did you married him yes i married after you slept with him and had an affair he had
A wife and you had a husband guess what i didn’t sleep with him and don’t start with me again you know what i know storm out we oh i am storming out because this is not being b up she didn’t make it easy on any of those six little girls like what the producers give you a specific thing to fight about or like oh my gosh well they’re texting you while you’re sitting there oh i forgot about that they would text you guys and prompt and prompt and prom imagine you’ve been watching people on tv for 5 years like people to to actually walk into a room
With those people and then be told you have to say mean things about their kids or about them to them yeah and then i think the producers they would get mad when you wouldn’t like go with what well i mean they’re just doing a job too like everybody’s just trying to make a good tv show i mean i actually like the producers i’m still friends with a lot of them on soci media this created an entirely new show one with puppet masters crafting every single argument through their puppets aka the dance moms melissa and ashley thoroughly explained
The producers antics on social media long after the show aired whenever they did new auditions for n kids for the show it was all made up they never added kids it was just to help with like an episode or to make something more exciting and we would tell the moms this is not real your kids are really not going to be on dance moms but they still act crazy and try to get on the show i think what surprised me the most about doing dance ms i was like i’m kind of a good actress like i can kind of play a part so i was hired to come in and shake
Things up like that was my job without the mom’s causing drama there was no show like if everybody sat on the steps and was like oh my daughter’s so good she’s so pretty there would be no show and if we wanted a contract i had to do i mean i’d walk in in the morning and the producers would like ambush me like three of them we need this and we need this and we and we need need to have a good week this weekend the the hard thing is is like you don’t really understand how things are going to play back on tv cuz you’ve never done it
Before and they edit the crap out of the episodes yes things will happen that never happened and then you watch it back and you’re like wait they just made me look like the bad guy but that literally never happened oh you go send an interview and they would literally feed you lines and you would have to just repeat it no idea where they’re going to insert it in the episode jill and kendall had an an audition to go to and their deal with the producers was if you start a fight with ashley and walk out will let you go so literally that
Was what happen and the and i did nothing i said nothing to make kendall yell at me woman to talk to my child so when she yelled at me and it didn’t make any sense they had to insert something yeah in the interview they made her say like jill’s just upset that binn had a better season than kendall you’re just jealous that binn has had a better season than kendall and then they inserted it in the episode so it made it sound like she said it during pyramid but she never did like literally never yeah you got to if you if that bothered
You you got to go back and watch it and realize that they never they didn’t show your face they just like insert the voice and like are not showing your face yeah hands back to me know there are reality shows which are are loosely scripted ours was we never got a script we never got a script but they knew what they wanted every week set you up i mean and that’s what real reality shows did you know the producers would have three story lines that they really manipulated us to get to they would create these story lines just from listening to us
Talking we had those mics on could you not talk about that during the time of filming of course but they cut they can edit you any way they want to edit you yeah there were a lot of things said not in the context where they had us saying them kira for instance threw a bottle at a at a camera person or a producer it made it look like she was throwing it at one of us and she really well but she was mad she was mad at the producer she whipped the bottle and they made it look like she was throwing it at jess walk
Your happy ass that way back straight thank you wow you’re trying to make up to cause drama so walk that way i’m sick of her they were also involved in the dance competitions the children competed at now remember this is competitive dance and the competition is fierce it’s just like any other sport but with even more politics from preemptively pulling numbers to bribing the judges the dance teachers would stop at nothing to not only win but bring their competition down for instance don’t get me wrong like i think
The altc is full of very talented dancers obviously but for abby to have an over 13 competition first place winning streak it seems like there could be some reality tv magic at play and according to kira and kanani there definitely was during a live event in 2018 they explained that because of child labor laws many of the dance competitions were actually invitationals on dance boms a song competition okay they’re not fake but they are like i mean yeah actually yeah well okay yeah i mean yeah they kind of are because we there’s child
Labor laws so they can’t go to a real dance competition because no they can’t go to a real dance competition because they can’t con anybody just switch scores okay well that’s true too but the other reason is because whenever we go to dance competitions with child labor laws we can’t work more than 10 hours so if we were at a real dance competition there’s times where you perform at 8:00 in the morning and then you don’t perform until 11:30 at night and that would that would not be good it would be breaking the law which they did before
But we don’t do it anymore chang the scores see many existing dance competitions wouldn’t allow the show dance moms to film with an invitational the producers could be in charge of the judges panel and switch the scores if they didn’t fit their storyline as well as to allow abby to argue with a panel of judges without harming her dance after chloe won mhm abby pulled the judges into a production room cuz she completely disagreed with their decision oh w that chloe won she was not having it he pulled the judges into the room
And gave this long sob story about how chloe has fans and instagram fans and she’s never in class and this is why she doesn’t deserve to win and i don’t understand how you guys scored her like that right what does that they’re only judging on what they see right and jud one of the judges was like i don’t watch dance moms i don’t care how many instagram fans she has or whatever i judged her on her dancing and the rest of the judges followed and i went in there and i was like okay guys it’s time to go like this is enough it
Was funny cuz she was like i’m a good actress i can go in there and be happy for her and say all this to her face but i don’t think she should have won man she really has it out for that poor kid the production team behind dance moms would invite various dance teams to come compete on tv against the alc inviting the general public to come watch and challenging their local dance troops this explains some of the more exuberant and boisterous fights that otherwise would have gotten the alc removed from any normal dance competition now don’t
Get me wrong this wasn’t every single competition by any means some of them were actually real competitions were not fake they were not set up or anything i mean we did have different types of competitions that we went to like the competition that we went to sometimes were small and sometimes barely any people were there but the competitions weren’t fake which explains some of the nationally renowned competitions they competed at but this is why abby was seemingly in with a lot of the competition judges she had created some
Relationships at the real competitions they went to but she had major influence at the invitational shows put on by production and still this wasn’t the only thing fabricated on dance moms here’s a secret that you guys don’t know performed all of our dances twice so one’s for the judges is so that was the time where they uh could actually judge you that was like for real and then the second time was kind of like the do over so that they get the shots for camera so that they can play the whole solo instead of just snippets and they get
Different angles many shocking moments were later revealed to be completely rehearsed or created entirely by the producers cage forgot her dan like they on purpose didn’t give her for music so it was like the night before and she hadn’t practiced with her music and the next morning at 8:00 she had to get up on stage and perform so they’ll make things happen but we don’t know you stepped out on stage you started your routine and your music skipped so i don’t know what happened with the cd she just scratched abby has
Been in the dance world long enough to know that when that happens you win so the second madd’s music stopped i knew what was going on i think that that cd was scratched on purpose i would argue with me but i tell her i’m like no kelly said she cheated i said that she told me she cheated oh remember she called me on the phone and was saying that abby had her practice it without the music while dance moms was highly manipulated by producers it made for some of the most entertaining reality television to come out of the 2010s the dance moms were on
A rocket ride of of success that was praying on non-media trained suburban mothers and the hunger for their child to be a star but not all the mothers could take the heat of aby lee or the producers nothing could be more true for reality tv queen and internet royalty kelly highland abby had trained kelly since she was only 8 years old and when kelly had kids of her own she brought them to none other than the alc aby’s lifelong relationships actually didn’t affect the way she treated ed kelly’s children paig and brooke and this would
Boil over into the first physical fight that ever aired on dance moms and it was arguably the most memorable moment from the franchise as a whole aby lee would make the choice to form a new junior elite team to compete against her existing one and the entire situation would end in hair being pulled faces being slapped and fingers being bitten now me and shelby will be covering that in the finale of our three-part dance mom’s deep dive and you don’t want to miss it we’ll be getting into the various convicted predators working on
Set as well as abby kelly and christy’s ultimate smackdown how jojo would defend abby to the bitter end and how the reunion would shake up dance moms forever
