Awesome / Dance Moms

The usual reaction elicited from these moments.

It's a reality show based around dance. There's bound to be some shining moments.

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Awesome Dances

• "Where Have All the Children Gone?", considered by Abby to be her best.
• "This Is My Beauty", which won the Season 1 Nationals.
• "The Last Text", which won the Season 2 Nationals and was so genuinely creepy that even Cathy praised it.
• "Black Swan", a Maddie-Chloe duet.
• "Angel", one of Maddie's solos done in memory of her late grandma Babcia.
• "Amber Alert", a great exercise in Adult Fears.
• "Silence", a Chloe solo that beat a Maddie solo for a Junior Miss Energy title.
• "New Day", a cancer-based number featuring a large conglomerate of dancers from several studios.
• "The Waiting Room". The ending alone is worth the watch, thanks to Maddie's amazing acting.
• "Suicide Hotline", not only is it in memory of a friend of Kalani's, but there are plenty of awesome moments within the dance, including Nia, Brynn and Kendall forming human stairs that Kalani then walks up to get onto the table, and Kalani falling backwards off of the table, being caught by the other three, and going straight back into a backwards cartwheel (this was planned), which led to applause from Abby and a judge. Made even more awesome by the fact that this was the week that JoJo didn't show up, meaning that Abby had to adapt her choreography to fit with the change.
• The Irreplaceables’ first group number together, entitled ''The Last Dance''. As controversial as it was, the dance was pretty amazing.
• "One Heart", Sarah Hunt's gorgeous lyrical solo — which she learnt in two days!!

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Awesome Moments

Season 1

• When Abby's having a fight with Minister Dawn Check (that mom who appeared in the series premiere but then got booted before the episode ended), Dawn drops this bomb:
  (Abby has just announced that she is kicking Dawn and her daughter Regan off the team since Regan wasn't dressed appropriately for acro class, very much pissing off Dawn since she had paid for class)
  Abby: Every week, we put the trash out. Go!
  Dawn: Then take yourself out, cuz you're the biggest piece of trash there is!
  • Seeing Abby at her most ruthless at both Dawn and Regan was pretty damn awesome as well.
  Abby: She's not stupid, she just can't read! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!
• Hell, seeing Abby getting pissed off to the point where with one flick of her wrist she kicks a mom-daughter pair off the team is a CMOA in every right.
• In the very first episode, Chloe's headpiece fell forward over her eyes during a trio, and the trio still won anyway.
  • It was completely over her eyes during a side aerial, and she still executed the side aerial perfectly.
• Maddie staying at the top of the pyramid for almost the entire first season.
• Defying all odds, Chloe is chosen to be the lead in the music video her and the other girls try out for.

Season 2

• After Brooke temporarily leaves the ALDC team to pursue cheerleading, Payton takes her spot. In one scenario during the Pyramid, everyone has been called except for Payton, and the only spot left is the top. Abby then reveals that the person at the top of the Pyramid is Brooke, since she has rejoined the team.
  • Turns rather quickly into a Tear Jerker with Payton's anguished reaction.
• One time, Mackenzie did her routine so well Abby actually cried. (Doubles as a CMOH for obvious reasons.)
• Despite Maddie's solo not placing and the group dance losing to the Candy Apples in "Abbygeddon", the one win that they took home was—who could've guessed it?—from Chloe's solo.
• In "Miami Heatwave", Nia forgets her solo and chokes up during the performance. Luckily, she is given the opportunity to perform it again and she ends up in the top three alongside Chloe (who came second) and Maddie (who came first).
• The Private Eyes group number. The mothers were concerned because the girls were dancing with guns, but they nailed the group number out of the park.
• In one scenario, Maddie is given the opportunity to re-perform her "In My Heart" solo after she forgot everything during the middle of the dance. While she's performing, the music begins skipping. What does she do? She keeps dancing and doesn't miss a beat. You could see how impressed the judges were.
  • The dance then got a standing ovation from the entire audience.
• Nia got a standing ovation for "Werqin' Girl", which is awesome in its own right.
• The girls having a clean sweep at the 2012 Nationals, placing at the top with every single dance. Even better? Chloe's solo beat Maddie's for first place.
• Vivi-Anne does a solo entitled "Honeybee" back in season one. It doesn't place (unsurprisingly). Mackenzie does the same dance (now called "Killer Bee") in season two, and it wins her the Petite Miss Energy 2012 National Title. While Cathy and Vivi-Anne were in the audience, no less.
• When Abby threw a chair at Paige, Kelly came down and yelled "STOP EATING! THAT'S WHY YOU'RE FAT!" during a heated argument she had with Abby.
  • It has been said by Brooke that this was embarrassing for her, and could be considered Kelly's Once Done, Never Forgotten moment.

Season 3

• The girls placing first with a part improv group dance. And it was dedicated to Broadway Baby, no less.
• A CMOA for Paige; when at-the-time Candy Apples choreographer Anthony Burrell mercilessly bashes her dancing technique, she calls him out on it.
• When a drunken Christi and Leslie started randomly swinging at each other in the middle of a street in New Orleans, a guy quickly rushed in to intervene and withstand Leslie's blows. Gotta give the guy props for acting so quickly to neutralize the brawl.

Season 4

• In the episode of the last replacement audition and of Paige and Brooke's last day on the team, one of the moms of a cut dancer insists that her daughter's a-la-secondes are ten times better than Paige's (causing Paige to start crying). What does Abby do? Call the girl back up and have her go against Paige. Paige wins, and the girl and mom are sent away in disgrace. Christi says that only Abby is allowed to say bad things about her dancers. Paige and Chloe also had a contemporary duet, and it was pretty awesome. Negated, of course, by the fact that this is the episode where Paige and Brooke are kicked off the team.
• In "Big Trouble in the Big Apple", Kelly attacking Abby is considered by many to be her finally getting justice done. Too bad it resulted in her and her kids getting expelled from the team. A Dying Moment of Awesome, of sorts.
  • After Kelly attacks Abby, one of the moms' first instinct is to get the kids out of the room. And it was Holly, no less.
  • In the next episode, Abby recognizes Holly being an upstander and gives Nia a solo.
• Later in that season, it seems like Nia is starting to take after her mom even more, by going calmly up against Abby instead of getting upset and crying like many of the other girls do/used to do when Abby starts yelling.
• After three seasons, the show finally got a new intro. Is it better? Hell to the yeah. Unfortunately, it was quickly replaced with a new, shorter one for the next season since Brooke, Paige, and Chloe had all left.
• When Kim^* the mother of Chloe Nguyen, who was very briefly on the team for one single episode of season four (it was only a trial run, anyway) bashes the moms, their kids, and the whole city of Pittsburgh, it feels good to see Abby shut her down.
• It also feels pretty good to see Abby completely SNAP at Christy when she's trying to talk to her while she's busy on the phone.
  Abby: I'm busy, you're babbling. Shut up.
• How about when Cathy decided to pull her group dance because she knew that it couldn't beat Abby's?
• In one episode, the crowd's cheering so loudly before the girls' group dance that they miss their musical cue and as a result the dance starts on an incredibly rocky note. However, the girls continued with the dance without any errors, and they still won.
• Nia finally winning first place in a solo competition for her "Goodbye Maya" solo.
• While Mrs. Miller's death was a big Tear Jerker, Abby did state that she "defied all medical textbooks", which is pretty cool in and of itself.
• In the 2014 nationals episode, we see that the Candy Apples are planning to do a routine set to Sia's "Chandelier", pissing off the ALDC team since, y'know, Maddie danced in the song's music video. To twist the knife a bit more, one of the moms from the Apples showed up and decided to start playing "Chandelier" to piss everyone off more. What does Maddie do? She starts dancing to tell that mom that no one can do "Chandelier" like she did.
  • Maddie turning down a nationals solo.
• Holly's appearance in the "Playing Favorites" special. Her argument against Abby could easily be an Establishing Character Moment; she shoots Abby down, but starts backing herself up with good reasoning instead of aiming for the jugular. All topped off by the audience applauding her at the end.
• Christi's remark to Abby is a nice callback to another awesome moment in season 1.
  Christi: You don't know what goes in my house because you're not invited over, 'cause we don't let trash through the door.
• Christi's parting words to Abby.
  Christi: Those five kids in there put your fat name on the map... You were no-one before these kids... You think putting a few kids on Broadway makes you someone? Guess who made you a household name? Them.

Season 5

• Even though they only had five girls on the team, the ALDC was still able to win the overall title for the first competition of the season.
• For those who view Jojo as a scrappy, this moment would be an extreme Take That, Scrappy! moment, considering it's Abby yelling at Jojo about she deserves nothing and isn't entitled to anything in this world.
• During Kendall's "Welcome to a New World" Bollywood solo, the music suddenly stops. Not only does she keep going, but the crowd assists in clapping to set a proper tempo for her. Then she places second.
• The girls getting to meet Matty B and potentially acting in his music video. Kendall even described him as one of her favorite pop stars. Then, Abby pulls the girls from the video.
• Lucas telling his mom how he really feels about Cathy.
• When one of Cathy's "Abby rejects" starts ripping on Maddie's "Elastic Heart" video (the episode was presumably filmed back when the video came out), the moms immediately shoot her down and come to Melissa's defense, even polling the audience and getting cheers from those who enjoyed Maddie's video. Even Jessalynn got in on the action, and was in fact one of the frontrunners in defending Melissa.
  Kira: Ripping on Maddie for Sia's video? No, each and every one of you would absolutely 110% let your child do that music video. But, oh wait, they didn't get asked, so..you can say whatever you want.
  • This is immediately juxtaposed with Abby's group dance taking first.
• Three words: Mackenzie beats Maddie.
  • You wanna know how unlikely such an event is? When Maddie placed second, everyone (including Kenzie) thought that Kenzie straight up didn't even place. The looks of shock on Kenzie's, Abby's, and Melissa's faces just say it all.
• During a dance rehearsal, Abby gets a call from someone with Good News, Bad News. The bad news is that they'll be undergoing a lot of construction...because the good news is that Abby managed to secure her ALDC building in LA. Her triumphant reaction is the page image.

Season 6

• Melissa, after being a doormat, for so many years FINALLY stands up to Abby after harshly critiquing Mackenzie. Moments after, Abby calls Mackenzie a smartass because she was correcting Abby the name of her solo, Melissa confronts Abby, and Melissa then says that Abby shouldn’t push her too far because she knows a lot of stuff.
• Straight Outta Pittsburgh for the season 6 team, since everyone was worried they wouldn't win with hip hop without Maddie, and they did.
• Jojo has taken a few levels in badass this season and come a really long way in a short time. She even got into an airtight bubble for the first group number of the season.
  • Special mention to her solo, I'll Show You The Dark Side.
• Nia had one day to learn the "Grifters" duet in episode 9, and she and Kendall still won their division.
• Mackenzie went back to Pittsburgh for a competition and beat out 200 people for a scholarship.
• Nia was in the Syncopated Ladies's Formation tap dance video and was fantastic. Clearly Maddie's not the only one who can tap.
• During the Pyramid in Episode 13, after Ashlee says that Brynn has had a better season than Kendall in front of everyone, an argument between her and Jill ensues. Kendall tries defending her mother, only for Ashlee to talk rudely to her again, and she finally snaps, going up to Ashlee and screaming, "WHY ARE YOU SO MEAN?" before leaving.

Season 7

• Chloe and Christi’s return at the end of Season 7A. Chloe then announces that she’s going to be competing again.
• Holly, Kira, Camille, Ashlee (even though she returned to the ALDC afterwards) and Jill, along with their daughters deciding to walk out of the ALDC when Abby decides to return after abandoning the team for two weeks, and immediately saying that "she doesn’t want to be here", a week later.
• Nia, Kendall, Kalani and Camryn decide to form a new competition team by themselves, calling themselves 'The Irreplaceables', even better? Chloe and Christi join the The Irreplaceables.
• Christi verbally taking down (although it got a little bit physical towards the end) Yolanda after she insults Chloe. Christi pretty much doesn’t acknowledge Yolanda and makes it clear that she isn’t afraid of her
  Christi: (to the Confession Cam) Yolanda, I would tread very lightly, I’ve dealt with bigger, badder, meaner, drunker...
• Cheryl Burke replacing Abby as the dance choreographer for the The Irreplaceables.
• The Nationals episode at the end of Season 7 sees Nia finally come first overall in a nationals competition on the show, even beating the likes of Chloe and Kendall.

Season 8

• Hannah's solo "The Last Unicorn" in Episode 3, "The Broadway Brat," is considered this.
• Brady's solo "PTSD" in Episode 3,"The Broadway Brat," is ALSO considered this by many fans, especially since it won first place that same episode (it was cut from the episode but posted online after it aired, which irked numerous fans).
• Eliana's "The Strangler" solo from Episode 7, "Yolanda's Back," gets a special nod here because she had to learn it in literally an hour and a half before competing it. And she won first place.
• Episode 9 has the group dance, "Bermuda Triangle," involve all the team members dancing in trays filled with water. And they only had one time to rehearse this with the trays filled with water at all. Though the group didn't win, it was still rather awesome to watch (and no one got injured, thankfully).
  • Also from the same episode: Lilianna's solo "Straight Escape," inspired by Jojo Siwa's past solo involving a straitjacket, had Lilianna performing all her acrobatic tricks with absolutely no use of her arms due to her being in a straitjacket for the whole dance. She came in first place, and with a perfect score.
• The mothers all uniting in Episode 10 to let Sarah be part of the group dance. After drama earlier in the episode resulted in Sarah being banned from dancing in the group dance, all of the mothers banded together to help Sarah be prepared in the dressing room; they got her hair done for the number and even tried to ask Abby to change her mind. Abby counters by asking Sarah if she knows the group dance and forces her to do the whole dance then and there in front of everyone. Sarah's response is to do the entire dance without missing a beat and Abby ends up letting her dance. Considering how much drama the mothers usually go through during this season, it was nice to see them stick together and work together.
• Episode 13's Bob Fosse-inspired group dance, "The Fruge." Not only was it fun to watch, but it also won first place overall!

Other

• Brooke and Mackenzie releasing albums.
  • Mackenzie's song "It's a Girl Party" hitting #1 in the American iTunes pop charts! AND SHE'S NINE YEARS OLD!
• Maddie's in a Sia music video! No, really!
  • And she performed on Jimmy Kimmel!
  • Twice!
  • And she taught Jimmy and Guillermo her routine!
  • And she returned for the "Elastic Heart" video, starring alongside Shia LaBeouf!
  • The fact that Maddie not only appeared on The Ellen Show and Saturday Night Live, but she even performed at the Grammys.
• "I'm Abby, I can do whatever I want." Either makes her look pretty damn cool or look like a complete douche.
• "Here's tall blonde."◊^note What makes it awesome is the context; in the episode "You've Been Unfriended", Christi and Chloe have just returned from their suspension and Abby now considers Chloe to be "she whose name cannot be spoken", calling her names like "blondie" and "girl in the front" with the feeble excuse that she needs to make Abby remember her name, ultimately coming off as being a big jerk. The girls' retaliation is a nice big Shut Up, Hannibal!
• Holly in general is basically made of concentrated awesome. If anyone on the show can put someone in their place, it's her. She's called the "voice of reason" on the show for a reason.
• Maddie and Mackenzie doing the Nae Nae. Need we say more?
• Mackenzie getting verified at the age of 10.
• Ever since leaving the team, Chloe has found new success at another, much more friendly dance studio, continually receives support from her ever-growing fanbase on social media. The whole of this is just a great big proud middle finger to Abby. Chloe's Dark Horse Victory at the Teen Choice Awards over Maddie firmly solidified that.
• Their win at the 2015 KCA's for Favorite Reality Show. Many people were moderately shocked at the win because Wipeout was expected to reign for the fourth year in a row.

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