Dance Moms

Do you watch the TV show, Dance Moms?  The TV show that is about the Abby Lee Dance Studio?  I admit that I do, for several reasons.  Sad, but I get a bit of a kick out of that show.  First, I love to watch the girls dance.  Wow, they really do an awesome job.  It’s very amazing what they can do and at their ages as well.  They run from fourteen all the way down to eight.  Not one of them is a shlump either.  They are all very good.  The second reason I like the show, is the drama of the moms.  Are dance moms really that vicious and jealous?  Yes, yes they are.  No, not really.  Well, not all of them anyway.  Most of us are your normal every day people.  We laugh, we cry, we have good days and we have really bad days, but even our most awful days we are not like the moms on this show.  They are so jealous of each other and each other’s children it is almost sad to watch and yet its like a train wreck, in that you have to watch!  Then you have Abby Lee herself.  Wow, she is hard to please.  Then if you do please her, don’t fail her the next time, as that is even worse than not pleasing her at all.  (Did you get that?  A bit confusing, yes?)

So, one of the drama inducing characters in this reality show is Candy Apples Dance Studio and their “leader” “owner” “whatever” Cathy.  This is a dance studio from my neck of the world, (aka Ohio), so I enjoy getting a taste of home.  Except…Cathy does not show our people off in the greatest light on the show.  She comes across as mean spirited, a bit crazy now and then, and very jealous.  She will use children just to show up the Abby Lee Dance Studio in any way she can. Not a very elegant woman if you watch the show.   

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to attend the Kids Artistic Revue Dance Competition in Columbus, Ohio (Go Straub Dancers!)  As I was getting a certain ballerina ready to compete, low and behold, standing not five feet away was the aforementioned Cathy of Candy Apples!  Now the star struck me, wanted a photo, but the mom in me, wanted to BEAT THEM.  I opted out of sneaking a quick photo op, simply because it was a dressing area after all and I didn’t really want to waste my time on something as silly as that when I had other things to do, like lipstick and barrettes. 

I did however watch her whenever I had the opportunity (we writers are good at the quiet watchfulness) and I did watch her dancers.  I am a bit surprised to say, she was nothing like what you see on TV.  She was quiet, reserved, and very attentive to her own daughter and the dancers of her studio.  Where was the whack job from the TV?  Now, don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t the nicest women at the event. She tended to frown and make this pinched face while starring at other dancers and people (it kinda wigged me out actually).  I couldn’t tell if it was a calculation look or the look someone gets when they just drink bad milk.  Regardless, she was very off putting to everyone.  Even when winning an event she didn’t hug her dancers (as all the others did), she just walked up, smiled at the camera, and left.  Even so saying she was not as portrayed on TV. 

I was a bit annoyed with this evidence. Does that mean the entire Dance Moms show is fabricated for ratings?  All of it?  I am not naive enough to think it is all 100% true and accurate at all times, but I at least thought the personalities were correct.  Does that mean the moms are not as freako as they appear?  Are they actually really good friends and it’s all for ratings and money?  Is Abby Lee Miller actually a lovely lady that is only portrayed as a screaming harsh taskmaster?  Please, don’t say it’s so. 

What say you?