Series / Dance Moms

"My world is with my girls,
living on the dancefloor!"

Dance Moms is a Reality Television series that premiered on Lifetime in 2011. The entire series, consisting of eight seasons, is available to watch for free^note barring one especially controversial episode in season 2 on Lifetime's official website. Highlights, compilations and full episodes are also available on the show's YouTube channel.

At its most basic level, the show revolves around the Junior Elite Competition Team of the Pittsburgh-originated Abby Lee Dance Company (headed by Abby Lee Miller), consisting of a group of young girls aged 6-15 who Miller is training to become professional dancers, as brought and looked after by their mothers (the titular "dance moms", similar to "soccer moms"). The main portion of the show's episodes has the team practicing for and traveling to weekly dance competitions, building up to Nationals (which is often what seasons end with).

Of course, that's not what most come to watch.

While watching the girls grow up and improve is a long-term aspect of the show's appeal, the lion's share of its success is attributed to the drama and conflict among the show's subjects (often created through less-than-ethical means on behalf of the producers), such that it's incredibly rare for an episode to go by without at least one shouting fight (or, occasionally, even a physical one). This drama comes from the combined factors of Miller's extremely strict and controversial teaching techniques, rivalries between mothers, ongoing tension with rival dance teams (namely Cathy Nesbitt-Stein and her Ohio-based Candy Apples Dance Center, who are practically presented as the show's antagonists), and personal problems. One early tagline for the show stated of Miller that "she makes stars, not friends" — and boy, was that ever true.

As the show progressed, Miller moved her operations to Los Angeles, and more emphasis was put on the girls' burgeoning careers in music and acting following the show's success — but it became quite evident that real-life issues were present as well. Miller's behavior and treatment of the girls, already concerning to many at first, grew increasingly critical and intense such that official company departures from original team members on less than amicable terms became common, with some of the girls developing serious emotional problems. Later seasons were also affected by Miller becoming prone to breakdowns and working through legal troubles^note In January 2014, dance mom Kelly Hyland was arrested on charges of assaulting Miller; her child Paige would file a separate, ultimately dismissed lawsuit towards Miller that October. In 2010, Miller filed for bankruptcy and owed more than $400,000 in taxes. In 2014, numerous lawsuits were thrown her way from former team members. In 2015, she was indicted for fraud, concealment of bankruptcy assets, and false bankruptcy declarations for making a secret bank account to hide income. She was eventually sentenced on May 9, 2017 to a year and one day in federal prison followed by two years of supervised release. which grew so severe that she reportedly abandoned the moms and the elite dancers for three weeks before resigning from the show on March 26, 2017.

However, in July 2018, despite mass rumors that the show had officially ended or that it would continue with a new head coach replacing Miller, she announced that she would be returning for an eighth season with an entirely new team of dancers now relocated to Pittsburgh, which ran from June to September 2019.

Eventually, this extensive time period of close calls regarding the show's livelihood would come to a head in June 2020, when numerous mothers came forward with allegations of Miller engaging in racist behavior towards their children. Lifetime officially severed ties with her shortly after, effectively ending Dance Moms for good, or at the very least erasing chances of Miller returning if a ninth season is ordered.

On November 1, 2023, Lifetime announced a reunion special titled Dance Moms Reunion. Scheduled to premiere on May 1, 2024, the reunion will feature original ALDC members Brooke and Paige Hyland, Chloe Lukasiak and Kendall Vertes, as well as later additions Kalani Hilliker and JoJo Siwa, alongside their respective mothers (excluding Chloe's mother Christi).

The show's popularity helped its starring girls achieve success in mainstream areas such as clothing, music, and acting, and also inspired a number of (generally short-lived) spin-off series:

• Dance Moms Miami (2012) - A series taking place in Miami, centering around a new dance studio led by two male instructors but generally following the same formula of the original series.
• Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition (2012-13) - A dance competition series where 12 girls and boys compete for $100,000 and a scholarship to Joffrey Ballet Academy.
• Abby's Studio Rescue (2014) - A Kitchen Nightmares/Extreme Makeover: Home Edition-esque series where Abby helps struggling dance studios across the country.
• Raising Asia (2014) - A reality series based on Asia Monet Ray, a contestant on the first season of AUDC who later joined the ALDC during season 3 of Dance Moms.
• Dance Mums with Jennifer Ellison (2014-15) - A British version of the show that aired for two seasons on Lifetime UK, with Abby making an appearance in the series premiere.
• The JoJo and BowBow Show Show (2018-19) - A Web Animation series created by Nickelodeon based on JoJo Siwa, a contestant on the second season of AUDC who later joined the ALDC during seasons 5-6 of Dance Moms.
• Abby's Virtual Dance-Off - A dance competition series announced in April 2020 that was cancelled following the aforementioned controversy of June 2020.

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This series provides examples of the following:

• Aborted Arc:
  • In "It All Ends Here", Maddie and Mackenzie's dad threatened he'd do whatever he could to get them out of the studio. It was never mentioned again after that episode.
  • In season 4, they tried setting up a rivalry between Payton and Brooke which fizzled out after a couple episodes.
  • Another one involving Payton is in season the 5th episode of season 2, when she and Leslie "left" the studio. Leslie took her to "audition" for Candy Apples, and it was set up as if they were leaving the studio for good. A few episodes later they were brought back as a guest, as if it didn't even happen.
  • One involving Jill was that Christi and Kelly were going to investigate into Jill's background.
• The Ace: Maddie. She was unstoppable in season one, winning titles and trophies left and right and staying at the top of the pyramid for almost the entire season. She's gotten insane amounts of opportunities in the industry, she's considered to be Abby's favorite (no matter how many times Abby might object to this), and if anyone could be considered the most recognizable of the ALDC team, it's her.
  • Asia as well.
  • Sophia Lucia, in the brief time that she was on the team. And Abby made sure everyone knew it.
  • Brady in Season 8 is depicted as this.
• Action Mom: The dance moms can sometimes be this.
• Age-Inappropriate Dress: As mentioned in an episode where the girls received NO awards for their 'barely-there' costumes.
  • Arguably the outfits the girls wear to practice in as well - most of the time, they wear crop-tops and booty shorts. In the spin-off series, the girl who wears the shortest top is the oldest girl, Jessie, even though she's technically the only one of the group (except maybe Sammi) who actually needs to wear a shirt...
  • And what about the infamous "topless showgirls" dance? The clothing was picked out to give the effect that they were naked. Unsurprisingly, the episode is unavailable online and on DVD.
• Agony of the Feet: Paige suffers this as a result of getting her plantar warts removed.
  • It comes back later in the season when her doctor clears her of her broken foot and she tries to dance again.
• Alliterative Name: The room known as the "Dancers' Den".
• Almighty Mom: The trope to look under if you want to find the core of this show's insanity.
• Alpha Bitch: Abby herself. Cathy seems to be this to her, but ultimately isn't.
  • Jessalynn also fits this criteria, although she does have many redeeming qualities.
• Always Second Best: Chloe. Justified, since Maddie is constantly on the top of the pyramid and gets all of the solos. It's gotten to the point where Christi has accused Abby of giving Maddie unfair advantages to keep her on top.
• Ambiguously Gay: In the spin-off series "Dance Moms: Miami", the dance instructors, Victor and Angel.
• And I Must Scream: For most of "The Last Text", Paige is completely immobile, barely even blinking. She turns out to have been dead the whole time at the end.
• Appropriated Appellation: Played with; one of Abby's well-known catchphrases is "Everyone's replaceable" — which led to a group of original team members that had since left Abby forming their own dance team in Season 7 called "the Irreplaceables".
• Ass Shove: Kelly suggests that Abby does this with her crowns.◊
• Badass Boast: There's a sign on the door that leads into Studio A (where the girls work) that says "HERE LIES THE FUTURE OF DANCE".
• Badass Pacifist: Holly. Not once has she snapped or even swore, which is why she rarely gets into arguments with Abby.
  • But when she does, she will still take her sophisticated and use them, arguing with reason as well as reasoning.
• Berserk Button:
  • For Abby: questioning/defying her teaching, and using the F word in her vicinity.
  • For Christi: calling Chloe Always Second Best in her vicinity.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Christi.
• Big Bad / Big Good: Abby. She regularly alternates between the two, and sometimes exhibits both of them at once. Lately though she's been modelocked on the former with the junior division and tends to be the latter to the minis.
  • Cathy is seen as the main villain of the show, considering she's Abby's worst enemy.
• Blatant Lies: Melissa claiming that she does nothing to propel her kids' success in "Stealing the Show".
• *Bleep*-dammit!: Numerous examples, usually with the censors going for "God" instead of "damn" or "hole" instead of "ass".
• Bloodier and Gorier: "The Last Text" makes the other darker dances look light-hearted for this reason.
  • Jojo's "Prom Queen" solo. Then again, it was inspired by Carrie.
• Brainy Brunette: The brunettes on the team.
• Break the Cutie: Many believe that this has happened to the girls as the series progressed.
• Break Them by Talking: Rarely does an episode go by without one of these by one of the moms.
• Brick Joke: Christi's famous comment on a particularly provocative outfit ("they look like prostitots") comes back in the next season ("prostitots, the sequel").
• Bring My Red Jacket: The outfits of "The Last Text" all have a strong red theme, reasonably. Paige, Kendall, and Nia all wear red dresses.
• Brown Note: See Hell Is That Noise below.
• Butt-Monkey: Kendall, especially in season 3. She tends to get picked on by Abby a lot more than others.
  • Chloe, in a really heartbreaking example, considering she gets so much shit from Abby to the point where she and Christi left.
• Call-Back:
  • Several contestants from "Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition" (something of a Spin-Off) have appeared on the show, and two of them actually joined Abby's team: Kalani Hiliker and Asia Monet Ray. Two others from "Abby's Ultimate" joined Cathy's team, as did one of the kids from Dance Moms: Miami and one of the girls who guested on Abby's team.
  • Rachelle Rak also showed up in a few episodes, and subsequently replaced Robin Antin for season 2 of "Abby's Ultimate".
  • A rather epic example; for the 2012 nationals, Mackenzie performs a solo called "Killer Bee" that's a semi-replica of a solo that Vivi-Anne did back in season one called "Honeybee". While Vivi's dance didn't even place, Mackenzie's dance got first and won her the Petite Miss Energy title.
  • The Maddie-Gino duet "That Girl's Just Gotta Be Kissed" uses the same music as the moms' group dance back in season 1.
• The Cameo: Maddie was the sole winner of a series of auditions to have an appearance (albeit a small one) on Drop Dead Diva. Bonus points for said show airing on the same channel. Her fellow teammates made a cameo in a short video starring "the Pyramid".
  • Maddie and Mackenzie also appeared briefly in a season two episode of AUDC.
• Canine Companion: Abby was very attached to her dog Broadway Baby, so when she died, it was nothing less than a tragedy for her.
• Canon Immigrant: Asia and Kalani both joined Abby's team after having been on AUDC.
• Catchphrase:
  • "Save the tears for your pillow!" (Abby)
  • "Everyone's replaceable!" (Abby)
  • "We came, we saw, we kicked apples." (Cathy)
• Caustic Critic: Abby when reviewing the Candy Apples' performances, if not the lowlights of hers.
• Character Development: Has been seen ten-fold throughout the show with not just the dancers, but almost everyone.
• Characters Dropping Like Flies: Between the end of season 4 and through season 6, we have lost every single member of the original team except for Nia.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Kelly's certainly no slouch.◊ Borders on Slasher Smile.
  • Christi has called out Jill for having one of these since Kendall got off probation, even mentioning the Cheshire Cat.
• Child Popstar: Brooke, Nia, Kendall, and Mackenzie have all released music. Brooke and Kenzie are the only ones to have released full albums.
• Christmas Special: "'Twas the Fight Before Christmas", in 2013.
• Confession Cam: Though most people tend to use the word "interviews" when it comes to them.
• Cool Big Sis: Brooke and Payton both, as they were both the oldest on the team when they were on.
• Creepy Monotone: The "author" of Where Have All the Children Gone? and I See the Kite Flying.
• Crossover: Abby appeared in an episode of fellow Lifetime series Double Divas, a bra-fitting reality show with a Buxom Beauty Standard.
  • She also starred in a special episode of Dance Mums, the British counterpart of the show.
• Darker and Edgier: Many of the dances are fun and cute, but Abby can veer into very dark territory. Notable examples are:
  • Where Have All the Children Gone - A spoken word piece where the dancers disappear from stage one by one.
  • The Last Text - All but one of the dancers die in a car accident.
  • I See the Kite Flying - The sequel to Where Have All the Children Gone?. In the number, all the dancers are mental patients.
  • Runaways - A routine about children and guns in which one of the dancers is accidentally shot and killed.
  • Disappear - A solo that Maddie performed when she was just 8 years old in which an abused little girl commits suicide by drowning herself in a river.
  • Taken - A routine about a special girl (Maddie) that the other girls want to be like, but when they realize they can't be like her, they try to bring her down to their level. They succeed in the end. Even though the dance isn't all that explicitly dark, it's the story that it conveys that creates its grim edge.
  • Amber Alert - A routine based around child abduction, as the name implies. It ends with Maddie finding Mackenzie dead, killed by her abductors.
• Darkest Hour: Season 5 is really shaping up to be this, considering in the previous season two families of the junior elite team left, and Abby's getting extremely burned out and broken trying to keep the team balanced while dealing with the moms as well as the legal matter from her scuffle with Kelly, and has started taking this built-up anger out on the girls more. Hell, the promos even had "Abby's empire is falling" as a slogan.
• Deadpan Snarker: Christi has it in her DNA.
  • Abby, from time to time.
• Despair Event Horizon: Season 4's ending. The Hylands get expelled following Kelly and Abby's infamous violent scuffle, and Chloe and Christi straight up walk out on the team after being fed up with Abby.
  • Season 5 is seeming to be one in and of itself due to the repercussions of the aforementioned ending.
• Different in Every Season: The Pyramid pictures.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Season 5 was somewhat like this, as the moms started rebelling more.
  • In season three, the students of two mothers that Abby kicked out eventually resurfaced on a team that the ALDC was competing against. Their group dance won, as well as one of their solos.
• Double Standard: When the girls forget or even choke on their solos, Abby yells at them. But when Maddie runs off mid-solo in "Abbygeddon", Abby breaks down crying.
• Downer Ending: Many episodes end with the girls failing to win the competition, but "Abbygeddon" cranked things up to eleven. Their group lost to Cathy, and Maddie ran off stage mid-solo. They only get one win.
  • Some of the stories of the performances end on sour notes as well. Examples include "Runaways", "Disappear", and "The Last Text".
  • Season 4 ends with both the Hylands and the Lukasiaks, which were both some of the most favored of the members, leaving the team due to being unable to cope with Abby anymore.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • The ultimate fate of the girl in "Disappear".
  • Almost everyone in "Where Have All the Children Gone?". Or not.
• Dropped a Bridge on Her: There are tons of dance moms and dancers who leave ALDC and are never seen again. Minister Dawn and Jackie are the two big examples, and Leslie is an on/off member.
• Dumb Blonde: Averted with Chloe and Paige. All of the girls get straight A's in school.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: More of an Expelling Moment of Awesome; Kelly attacking Abby before she and her kids got expelled from the team.
  • An example played straight; at the time of Mrs. Miller's death, Abby said that she had "defied all medical textbooks".
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first season, for a variety of reasons.
  • In the earliest episodes, the Pyramid was presented with the pictures pasted on a chalkboard instead of the mirror wall, and was in the middle of the room. The girls were also seated on the floor instead of standing.
  • Pyramid also wasn't as suspenseful or important in the first season. Starting in the second season it became a crucial part of the show, and Maddie was slightly less likely to be on top.
  • Sometimes the girls would have their mothers or sisters accompany them for the interviews, even if they didn't say or really do anything.
  • The girls were a lot more conceited-sounding as well.
  • In the early seasons, there was obvious fake applause during the dances.
  • They also showed the girls doing activities like going out for ice cream, in breaks between their busy rehearsal schedules. They didn't show anything like that again until the middle of season 3, when they went ice skating.
  • Abby even sided with the mothers in some cases in season 1, most notably when Cathy left a competition early and they had to wait a few more hours for the group dance. And another time Abby and Christi of all people agreed that Cathy using the same solo music Chloe was, was wrong.
• Education Mama: Holly to Nia, since she's a school principal.
• Epic Fail: In one episode, Abby is so afraid of losing to studio Bleu that she decides to take Mackenzie out of the team and enter into higher age divension (expecting Studio Bleu to compete in the Junior division). Minutes before the competition, she learns that studio Bleu also moved into higher age division. If Abby left Mackenzie in the team, the girls would be safe in Junior division instead of losing to studio Bleu. Moms are understandably furious while Abby blames...Mackenzie (claiming she took out Mackenzie because of her crying during the lessons.)
  • Season 5 kicked off with Abby being pressured down by the weight of mama drama, shaping up the dance team, and dealing with the legal matter from her scuffle with Kelly in the previous season. So what should she do? Why, go to Los Angeles, of course, where the competition is much fiercer and requires even more work to compete against!
• Establishing Character Moment: Abby got hers when she kicked Minister Dawn and Regan off the team over the slightest nuance and showed everyone that Abby Lee Miller was no one to mess with. This was in the series premiere, no less.
• Et Tu, Brute?: The ALDC's reaction when it's revealed that Jill and Kendall went to the Candy Apple's.
• Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: Abby had a very deep connection with her mother Maryen Lorrain Miller, who essentially sparked Abby's love for dance. Then she came down with cancer and died in season 4.
• Evil Former Friend: Cathy used to be part of Abby's team, but she quit. She went back to her studio, and the two have been worst enemies ever since.
  • Kelly is also an example. She used to dance for Abby and Mrs. Miller and later had her kids dance under the ALDC name, but she eventually became Abby's second-worst enemy.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: The "evil" part is debatable, but Abby's voice is very much raspy after a long time of straining it out.
• Extreme Doormat: Melissa. It's even Lampshaded a few times by the other mothers. She will do almost anything to stay in Abby's good favor.
  • She's even called herself a doormat.
• Everyone Has Standards: After Kelly attacks Abby, Jill is quick to note that the umpteen arguments that have sparked in the past have never escalated to physical contact.
  • Christi states that while she and Abby don't get along, she would never with for the death of Broadway Baby (Abby's dog), or Mrs. Miller.
• Face–Heel Turn: Abby's nastier side is really unraveling more and more as the seasons go by, but she's really starting to experiment with this trope in season five. She's exhibiting much more of a villainous persona, but it could be attributed to the various mental and emotional breakdowns that she's been having trying to keep the ALDC afloat.
  • Cathy officially becomes rivals to the ALCD mid season 1, starting the seasons long rivalry between them.
• Face Palm: Maddie does one at the end of this video.
• Fat Bastard: Leslie.
  • The argument can be made for Christy as well.
• Fate Worse than Death: Whenever a mom has to sit in the audience and watch their kid forgot their solo. When Chloe forgot her "Another Season" solo at the season one nationals, Christi summed it up quite well.
  Christi: She was frozen onstage, and Chloe reads like a book. She can't cover that up, and I'm sitting there and I just wanted to run up and grab her and give her a hug and run her offstage, but..you can't do that.
• Final-Exam Boss: Non-video game example; the nationals, which come at the end of each season and are usually seen as assessments of everything the girls have learned throughout the dance season.
• Flanderization: Abby's bombastic natures worsened, the girls have become more withdrawn, the list goes on.
• Flipping the Bird: Kelly gives out a couple of these on rare occasions, but her hand is blurred out.
• Foregone Conclusion: When Abby's mom came down with cancer in season 4, it was heartrendingly evident that she wasn't going to get better any time soon. And sure enough, she eventually died.
  • Case in point, this clip.
• Freudian Excuse: Christi had a turbulent relationship with her mother, made even more saddening (or more creepy) in the fact that Christi doesn't really go in depth about it, for obvious reasons. It leaves one to wonder what her mother did to her...
• From Bad to Worse: If Abby's group dance placing tenth in "Abbygeddon" wasn't bad enough, Cathy's placed ninth.
  • As if Paige breaking her foot wasn't bad enough, she was scheduled to do a duet with Chloe that same week. (The two have really wanted to perform together.)

• Golden Ending: Season 2 ends with Abby's team getting a clean sweep at nationals and curbstomping Cathy.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Even if she doesn't admit it, there's no doubt that Christi is envious that Maddie's always The Ace and Chloe is almost Always Second Best. To her credit though, she doesn't seem to hold it against Maddie personally (holding it against Abby and Melissa is something else entirely).
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Chloe and Paige. Melissa as well.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: When Maddie forgets her solo (starting at 1:37), you can hear a repeating sound similar to a heartbeat.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Abby was firmly stuck on 'heel' before she left.
• Helium Speech: Sophia Lucia's voice is extremely high. Abby even criticized her for it.
• Hell Is That Noise: The scratching distortion in the "Amber Alert" music overlaps this with Brown Note. Made even creepier by the fact that it starts sounding right when Mackenzie gets "kidnapped".
• Heroic BSoD: "Abbygeddon" was this for Maddie and Abby, if not the whole team.
  • In Abby's case, "heroic" is debatable.
• Heroic RRoD: Season five seems to be a long, stretched out, and semi-convoluted one for Abby.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Abby and her assistant Gianna.
  • Christi and Kelly. Overlaps frequently with Vitriolic Best Buds.
• Humble Hero: Maddie. She's rarely not at the top of the pyramid, she's won crowns and trophies alike, but she consists of staying modest and not letting her success get to her head.
  • She dedicated a solo to a girl who was inspired by her, and even gave her trophy to said girl.
  • She's this most of the time, unless Mackenzie beats her. Then she becomes a Sore Loser.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: All of the moms and Abby are known to criticize one another and the girls but when someone outside the group does it they will all rally and defend one another. In one noticeable example a mother at an open call audition criticizes Paige's a la seconde turns. Abby immediately gets angry and tells Paige to go up against the girl. Paige wins and the girl and her mom leave in disgrace. Christi hits the point home by telling the mother, "Abby can talk about her dancers but no one else can."
• I Just Want to Be Normal: The girls' dance schedules have restrained them from doing normal things for girls their age, like hanging out with friends or going to parties.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: The moms have a penchant for meeting up at bars or restaurants to down a glass of alcohol to vent themselves out.
• Insult Backfire: At the end of this run-in between Christi, Jill, Melissa, Holly, and Cathy, Cathy storms out saying that Christi's butt is "lookin' like a $40 cow". Christi then replies with "What's a $40 cow?"
• Jerkass: Abby herself. She used to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold but it had disappeared during the end of season 4 and gradually this became the default in further seasons to the point where it is firmly cemented on her with no chance of erosion. While the heart's still there, time will tell whether she'll regain that.
  • In one example, someone drops by the ALDC's competition room to give Abby a fruit bouquet, which she carelessly and purposely drops on the ground, causing fruits to spill.
  • Jessalynn, the mother of Jojo. Not only is she one of the most manipulative of all of the moms, but she deliberately steals Kalani's script to use with Jojo and then lies to Kira's face when confronted about it, and a certain shot shows her smiling while Kendall suffers a panic attack.
  • Most of the moms can also be embarrassing, insulting and sometimes down right nasty, but they do love their kids.
• Karma Houdini: Abby, in a more tragic real life example. She manages to get away with a lot of crap considering the footage is either edited out or manipulated to her advantage.
  • Averted with the Hylands' expulsion, in which she was unable to escape the mess and got into a lot of trouble herself.
• Kaybefabe: The cast members weren't allowed to Break the Fourth Wall. They had to act like the girls were famous because of being national champions instead of being on a TV show.
• Kick the Dog: And it only got worse as the show went on.
• Lady Drunk: Both Christi and Kelly seem to enjoy their alcohol. For example, in the very first episode, they both went out to a bar, and Chloe's headpiece fell forward over her eyes during her trio.
• Large Ham: Abby.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • In one episode, Christy gets into an argument with Abby and it escalates to the point where Christy insults the studio and calls Abby garbage. Abby kicks Sarah off the team immediately afterwards.
  • The trope gets briefly discussed by Christi when she talks about how Jill arrives late to the competition after being on Christi's ass all week. "Karma's a bitch, Jill."
  • From what we've seen of season 5 so far, it seems like everything Abby has built up is beginning to crash down. Her team is rebelling against her, people are leaving the team for good, not to mention that she still has to keep the company (or what's left of it) afloat.
• Leotard of Power: Many of the girls wear leotards in various degrees of spangliness for both practice and competitions. Justified since most of them have experience in either ballet, gymnastics, or both, and it's important for the girls to wear clothing that's both stretchy enough to move around freely in and tight-fitting enough so that the instructors and judges can see the lines of their bodies to tell if something is correct or not.
• Light Is Not Good: In the creepy number "Where Have All the Children Gone?", all the girls wear white dresses.
• Male Gaze: One of the cameramen does it. It's a Freeze-Frame Bonus, but not as hard to find. In one episode, the cameraman actually focuses the camera on Kelly's breasts for less than a second. The best part? No one seemed to notice.
• Mama Bear: Any of the moms, whenever they feel like their child is insulted.
  • Abby occasionally shows a protectiveness over her students as well, such as when she kicked out two moms (and their kids) in season three for making the team's star dancer leave due to unfair scapegoating and accusation.
• Manipulative Editing:
  • According to the Star Quest dance competition, the show edited the competition to give the impression that certain acts were competing against each other when they weren't, and also edited the award announcements to make certain acts place higher or lower than they actually did.
  • There are some cases of awful audio editing on the show that blatantly splice different sentences together.
• Mauve Shirt: Many examples, considering there are many girls who have had temporary spots on the team.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Abby has a lot of these in season five.
  • Getting in a heated argument with other people in the street over a parking spot.
  • Abby getting riled up and upset at Chloe for accidentally hitting Maddie in the face, even though it wasn't that big of a deal.
  • Abby yelling at JoJo for not formally addressing Gia. Even Kira says that she thought that this was out of line, despite her not being the most favorable of JoJo.
• Mood Whiplash: In the "topless showgirls" episode, the girls show excitement when Abby tells them that they are going to be showgirls in the group dance...but then Abby tells them that they are going to be "naked" in the dance. Every bit of that excitement is killed immediately and replaced with shock.
  • Jojo's prom queen solo music starts with an innocent piano song, then suddenly cuts to "Psycho" Strings, then turns into a disturbing orchestral piece of madness. Not to mention that the strings come in less than 10 seconds into the performance.
• Ms. Fanservice: Kristie Ray.
• Nice Guy: The dancers, natch.
• Nightmare Face: Abby's been getting really burned out as of season five.◊
• Nothing Is Scarier: The Nightmare Fuel-rific "Where Have All the Children Gone?" incorporates this in spades. There are the girls disappearing offstage while giving subtle hints as to what happened to them (Nia clutches her throat, Paige jumps offstage, Maddie slits her wrist, etc.), and there's the very end with the abandoned but still moving swing.
• Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: Most of the moms have shades of this, but particularly grievous offenders include Jill, Christy (with a Y), and Ashlee.
• Once an Episode: Arguments. Not a single episode goes by without one, and we mean not a SINGLE episode.
• One-Liner: Almost every word that comes out of Christi's mouth.
• Only Sane Woman: Holly, especially in comparison to the other moms. She never snaps, and this in turn never gets her into arguments, but when she does argue she still manages to effortlessly keep herself under control.
  • Christi, occasionally.
  • Holly's status as this has become a YMMV situation at best once they beginning competing in L.A. as she starts focusing on Nia's attempt at a music career and appears to undergo some Sanity Slippage...
• Ordinary High-School Student: Now that Brooke is getting older, she wants to be this.
• Out of Focus: As of season 3, Paige, Nia, and Brooke are all this (though Brooke doesn't seem to mind). Chloe was for a little while, but now she is back in Abby's good graces.
• Piano Drop: Referenced by Christi when talking about how silent Cathy was when the ALDC and Candy Apples ran into one another.
• Playing Sick: It is strongly suspected that Mackenzie faked her injured foot, or at least played up how much it was hurting, so she could avoid competing against Asia.
• Post-Script Season: It was assumed the seventh season would be its last, due to Abby being sentenced to prison for a year, Abby announced on Instagram at some point in 2018 that Dance Moms will return for an eighth season.
• Product Placement: While the show does blur out visible brands, the only brand non-blurred is of Abby's merchandise lying around the main office of the studio.
• "Psycho" Strings: They come up out of nowhere in the music for Jojo's prom queen solo, causing an abrupt segue from an innocent piano song to an intense, nightmarish orchestral piece.
• Put on the Bus: Jill put herself and Kendall on the bus in season two (they come back eventually).
• Rearrange the Song: The season four theme implements vocals from the original over a new song.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Once an Episode, usually by the moms to Abby.
• Red Shirt:
  • Regan Check (the daughter of Minister Dawn) never made it past the first episode.^{for context...}Regan got kicked out of acro class for wearing improper clothing (a T-shirt and socks), pissing off her mom since she had paid for the class. A long argument between Abby and Dawn ended with Abby calling 911 and the mother-daughter duo leaving the studio.
  • Similarly, Chloe Nguyen (the daughter of Kim) was only on the show for a single episode (justified, as it was simply a "trial run").
• Revolving Door Team: YES. Made even more heinous with the numerous characters.
• Rule of Seven: "The Seven Dancers".
  • Chloe (pink): Shady
  • Kaleigh (dark blue): Smiley
  • Kendall (green): Slouchy
  • Mackenzie (red): Silly
  • Maddie (light blue): Snobby
  • Nia (orange): Sassy
  • Sarah R. (purple): Stretchy
  • This also goes for both times the group did a dance based off the "Seven Deadly Sins".
• Running Gag:
  • Jill's hair color changing from season to season.
  • Straightening your knees and pointing your feet.
  • Instagram hackers really like targeting Maddie and Kenzie. Hell, someone even hacked Maliboo's account! Twice!
• Rule of Symbolism: A group dance about cancer has the girls dancing with a long pink ribbon.
• Sacrificial Lamb: The trope gets name-dropped by Christi in this video.
• Sadist Show: As one would expect from one that mostly centers around the below trope.
• Sadist Teacher: Abby is strict, but mostly reserves her screaming for the mothers, and isn't in fact especially harsh as dance (gymnastics, skating, etc) coaches go. The mothers, on the other hand, tend to overreact just a bit to any implication their daughter is not a star....
  • Of course, some of her Villain Protagonist actions (as written below) definitely show this. She yells at Chloe and Nia for choking on their routines, but as soon as Maddie forgets her routine, Abby runs out of the room crying.
• Safe Driving Aesop: The show features a routine called "The Last Text" that simulates six girls dying in a car accident due to distracted driving, ending with the Sole Survivor running off-stage in horror and grief. Can be watched here.
• Sanity Slippage: Maddie shows excellently subtle hints of this in "The Last Text". Then again, if you were seeing what she was seeing, you'd be going crazy too.
  • All of the girls in "I See the Kite Flying" are portraying mental patients that crawl around on stage, hitting themselves in the head and rocking back and forth.
• Scare Chord: Whenever a dancer forgets her number or something equally bad occurs.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the "Playing Favorites" special, Christi leaves immediately after realizing that she's going to be left alone with Melissa and Abby.
  • Season 6.5 was this for both the dancers and the moms in the junior division as a bigger rift formed between Abby and the moms, to the point where they take the girls to Erin Babbs. It took them 8 months and some space, but the junior moms and the dancers returned to the ALDC in Season 7.
  • As of March 2017, Abby herself has left, to be replaced in the now last four episodes of Season 7 by Cheryl Burke of Dancing With The Stars fame. Abby has blamed a certain producer (whom she nicknamed Satan) for her Sanity Slippage, but it's more a case of Blatant Lies.
  • The team did eventually walk out on Abby during her short return (with the exception of four other girls).
• Second Place Is for Losers: Abby likes reminding her dancers that second place is the first loser.
  • In a season 7 episode Ashlee acted this way as well when a Producer pointed out that they took second place in that weeks competition, beating the other team.
• She's Back: Jill is fed up with the moms and Abby and decides to betray Abby by taking Kendall to Cathy's team; she then returns back to ALDC. All of this happened in one season.
  • Kelly eventually does the same too.
    • Christi and Chloe do this in Season 7, three seasons after their first departure due to the latter's Heroic BSoD.
• Shout-Out:
  • You might be able to notice an Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition poster in select episodes.
  • In season two, there was a dance with three girls^note Brooke, Chloe, Maddie and a cute vampire boy. Take a WILD guess what this is a shout-out to.
    • The dance is even called "Twilight", no less.
  • When the moms were having a sit-in for Kelly^*refusing to leave the spot that they were in (by all of their cars), and even refusing to talk to Abby or look her in the eye when she talked to them, Christi compares it to the T-rex scene from Jurassic Park.
  • Cathy once said "Whoville called, they want their nose back" to insult Christi.
  • In season two, there was a group dance called "The Huntress" inspired by The Hunger Games.
  • If you play The Sims 3, you might be able to recognize the music used in this number.
  • The season 3 trailer was made as a shoutout to Flashdance, even using "She's a Maniac" as BGM and ending with Abby reenacting the famous water scene...only to have the moms get the water dumped on them.
  • In similar roots, the promo for the next season was made as a reference to a-Ha's "Take on Me" video.
  • One season 4 episode is called "Another One Bites the Dust".
    • One season 5 episode is called "99 Problems But A Mom Ain't One".
  • From that same episode, the group dance was titled "The Seven Dancers" and had each girl play a different dwarf/dancer. See Rule of Seven above.
  • A two-parter episode in season 5 was named "Wild Wild West Coast, Parts 1 and 2".
  • Jojo did a solo in season 5 called "Prom Queen" that was a reference to Carrie (1976); she was even doused from head to toe in blood, although it wasn't nearly as much as Carrie.
  • At one point in this video, Christi says that every Friday night, Abby hands the moms a roll of toilet paper, a square tissue, and a sequin, and requests that they MacGyver up a costume for their kids.
• The Show Goes Hollywood: The team travels to LA in season 5 and it's been the single most highly billed aspect by advertising.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: From Paige and Chloe◊. The context here is that in the episode "You've Been Unfriended" Christi and Chloe had just come off their suspension from ALDC, and Abby took the opportunity to really let poor Chloe have it, calling her generic names like "blondie" and "girl in the front". Then the girls retaliated.
• Sickening "Crunch!": When Paige breaks her foot on the landing of her standing back tuck, a very loud (and likely edited-in) snapping sound is heard.
• Sixth Ranger: Kalani eventually joins the team in season 4.
• The Smurfette Principle: Inverted. Justice (in the original series) and Lucas (in the spin-off series) are both treated as "special" because they are both male competitive dancers.
  • In season 3, Cathy replaces her team with a new team, made entirely of males. (Though in episode 18, she does use a girl, however briefly). So far, they have gone against Abby's girls four times, and won against them three of those times.
• Soapbox Sadie: Abby has expressed her political views in the choreography a few times.
• Sole Survivor: During a group dance, a fake car crash occurs and after a matter of time kills everyone but—you guessed it—Maddie.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: The moms' arguments are full of them.
• Splash of Color: In the "Taken" group dance, Maddie's pink dress acts like this against the mundane grey dresses that the other girls are wearing. It's actually a key part of the dance's story.
  • Same goes for "Black and Blue", with Maddie now wearing a blue dress against black dresses.
• Spoken Word in Music: Nia's solo "Goodbye Maya" has several bits in which she stops dancing and says a couple sentences from Maya Angelou's poetry.
• Stage Mom: All the moms! Especially Cathy, who seems to have no realistic take on her daughter's ability (or lack thereof).
  • Though, to be fair Vivi was only 6. Now, she has blossomed into a ''much'' better dancer and has taken quite well to tap.
• Stereotype: Discussed In-Universe; in season 2, Abby makes a group dance based around bullying which originally has Nia cast as the bully. Holly was reasonably quick to react due to the offense she took from the character her daughter was made to portray, what with the stereotype-led image of her race. The role is then given to Payton.
• Straw Hypocrite: Prior to season four, Abby regularly bashed Cathy for not training her own dancers, but bringing in outside dancers from other studios and "slapping her logo on them." Cut to Abby recruiting Asia and Kalani from AUDC and bragging about their talents. She also recruited Sophia Lucia, who was already relatively well known in the dance world before Dance Moms even began airing.
• Stripperiffic: The costumes for "Electricity" and possibly "Fantastic" (the naked dance), to an extent.
• Take That!: Abby has called out Honey Boo Boo mainly on her, ahem, physique. Abby's the last person you'd expect to judge someone on their weight.
• Tears of Joy: Mackenzie's Christmas present really touched her, and even Abby pointed out that she "Made Mackenzie cry in a good way".
• Technician Versus Performer: Possibly between Maddie and Chloe. Chloe is often seen as superior technically, but Maddie tends to get more solos because she is able to use her face (a.k.a, perform) better onstage. People have also said that Maddie dances like she attacks the music, while Chloe dances like the music's inside of her, and she's able to feel it better.
  • Also can be seen in the case of Nia and Mackenzie - neither one is the best in the group, but it's obvious that they both love dancing, and are known for their hammy performances. Averted with Brooke - she's one of the strongest technically, but her lack of expression is what keeps her from getting solos often.
  • Later girls on the team were Kendall Vertes, Sophia Lucia, Brynn Rumfallo (Technicians) vs. Jojo Siwa and Asia Monet Ray (Performers). Kalani Hiliker was both.
• Tempting Fate:
  • When Paige keeps insisting that she shows everyone her standing back tuck, Abby finally obliges...only for Paige to break her foot on the landing.
    • The fact that the floor she broke her foot on was of solid concrete probably had something to do with it.
  • In one episode in season five, Holly notes that Abby's been gone for quite some time and hopes that she's gotten herself together by the time she returns. Cut to Abby walking in with no makeup and undone hair while holding a Burger King soda cup.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: In "45 Second Solos", Nia says she is sad after reading Abby's many critiques on her dance.
• Those Two Girls: Christi and Kelly, as well as Chloe and Paige (forming the "twinnies").
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Chloe, known for being Abby's Butt-Monkey for quite some time, single handedly provided the one win that they could take home with her solo in "Abbygeddon".
  • The first time Paige won first place with her solo in "Jill On The Rampage" and when she was at the top of the pyramid in the next episode.
  • The season 7 finale (which was thought to be the end of the show), ended with Nia's solo winning first place at nationals.
• Token Evil Teammate: Cathy was originally part of Abby's team back when the show began, but she left, modified her dance studio, and they've been bitter rivals ever since.
• Token Minority: According to her mom, Nia, especially since she's been put in a lot of ethnic dances.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Abby in the later seasons compared to the earlier.
• Toplessness from the Back: There's a particular shot in the infamous "topless showgirls" episode that displays Brooke and Paige shirtless from the back.
• Trailers Always Spoil: At the end of the season three recap, a "trailer" showing what's to come in the season is shown, revealing tons of seemingly important parts of the plot, including Kelly leaving the team. Again.
  • At the 2012 nationals, her solo beat Maddie's for first place.
• Transatlantic Equivalent: In October 2014, Dance Moms received a British counterpart called Dance Mums. Abby even appeared in the show's first episode.
• T-Word Euphemism: Abby refers to "cheerleading" as "the C word". Not to be confused with the OTHER C word...
• The Unfavorite: In comparison to Maddie, Kenzie is.
  • And by team dynamics, this position is shared by everyone who isn't Maddie and now Mackenzie and Kalani.
• Un-person: After the mass controversy that the "Topless Showgirls" episode received, it was subsequently never given reruns and was also removed from the online collection of the series as well as the DVD.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Usually pertinent to Chloe, who's always under Abby's radar but still has gotten mercy from her or by sheer chance.
  • Her receiving the chance to star as young Lux in the "It's Like Summer" video.
• Villain Protagonist: Abby, at times.
  • For instance, when she pulls out all of Maddie's recent crowns (there are a lot of them), and shows them to the other girls. Of course, seeing as Maddie gets a solo virtually Once an Episode, and the other girls are lucky to get one a month, it becomes insulting. Melissa then comes down, and Abby brutally insults her and the moms for not wanting the girls to get big-headed.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Christi and Kelly.
  • All of the moms, really.
  • Maddie and Mackenzie, considering Maddie can really prove her status as the upper sibling.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Most of the moms towards their kids.
  • If this picture◊ is anything to go by...
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Lucas. In just about every single episode, he wears no shirt during the competitions.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: All the girls have had their moments.
• Weirdness Magnet: "What is it about me? Why do I attract all the crazy ones?" - Abby
• Wham Episode:
  • "Big Trouble in the Big Apple", due to the violent skirmish between Kelly and Abby that resulted in the Hylands being permanently kicked off of the team.
  • Another one that counts is Season 8, Episode 5 "Queen of the ALDC." Abby threatened to take someone off the team for approximately the past two weeks. Everyone thinks that Brady is safe due to him being The Ace of the team. They were very wrong.
• Wham Shot:
  • Jill walking into the room during the pyramid after having abandoned ship on the team earlier.
  • In one episode, Abby has gone through everyone at Pyramid except for the top, and there's no left but Payton. (She and Leslie look pretty smug, reasonably.) Abby then reveals who it is...and it's Brooke, who just got back from cheerleading.
  • In episode 6 of season 2, Cathy is holding an audition for new CADC members, and as we see all of the kids walking in...Payton is among them.
• What the Hell, Hero?: "You've Been Unfriended" sees a level of jerkassery never before seen in Abby. To one of the dancers, no less. (Chloe, to be exact.)
  • The main public reaction to Maddie recoiling in disgust and running out of the room after kissing Gino.
• What Were You Thinking?: When Jill takes the stage in a tango, Christi and Melissa show up to present her with a crown and a bouquet. Abby doesn't take the situation very lightly, as she describes her feelings for the situation in one word: "Idiots."
  • Another example, to a lesser extent, is in season one when ALL of the dance moms (including Cathy) take the stage with a dance number, and Cathy decides to give herself an on-the-spot solo part. Abby also doesn't take it too lightly from backstage.
  • In one instance, Melissa ends up running across the stage in front of the audience and even addressing the audience. Abby doesn't find it amusing.
• White Dress of Death: Used several times where death is a strong theme in the dances:
  • Mackenzie in "The Last Text".
  • All of the girls in "Where Have All The Children Gone".
  • Kalani wears one in "Suicide Hotline".
  • Used in "Your Dream Will Be My Dream", though only Brooke's character is the one who dies.
  • All the girls wear different white outfits in "Gone Too Soon".
  • Brooke wore one for her "Anne Frank" solo.
  • Maddie wears several for her solos such as "Disappear" (her character commits suicide), in "Angel" (to honor her late grandmother), in "Showing You My Heart" (to honor Abby's late dog, Broadway Baby) and again in "Lizzie Borden" (self explanatory)
  • Subverted in "Amber Alert" where the girls wear white and blue dresses, but only Mackenzie's character dies.
• Wink "Ding!": At the end of the season 3 promo trailer, Abby turns towards the camera and does one of these.
• With Friends Like These...: All of the moms except Holly with one another.
• Would Hurt a Child: Abby exhibits this in the verbal sense but according to lore has also done it physically.
  • In Paige's lawsuit against Abby, Paige says that Abby once pinched another girl on the team (not named, but not Paige) hard enough that she started bleeding.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • There's a scenario where everyone except Payton is shown on the pyramid, and the only spot left is the top. Then it turns out that Brooke's at the top, having returned from cheerleading. Leslie even gives a pretty good summary of the trope when arguing against Abby.
  Leslie: You dangled a carrot in front of her, and you just ripped it away!
  • Another scenario in which Chloe and Maddie are given identical solos, and at the awards ceremony Chloe is shown victorious. However, it turns out that there was an error in the scoring and Maddie truly won.
• Youngest Child Wins: Mackenzie is the youngest of the ALDC roster and wins frequently.
  • Asia, to that effect.
  • If you want to include Maddie, then this trope gets extremely amplified.

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