YMMV / Dance Moms

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Melissa originally pick Nia as a Pet the Dog moment to perform "Silence" in season 2 Nationals, or did she pick Nia since she knew Chloe would earn more points?
• Arc Fatigue: Let's just say the rivalry between the ALDC and Candy Apples lasted WAY longer than it originally intended to. It started as early as season 1!
• Anvilicious: "The Last Text" is essentially a "don't text and drive" PSA in the form of a dance number.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Describing the Car Crash", the ominous music used during "Last Text".
  • Speaking of nightmare-inducing music, there's Lights Fade Low's "Touch", used during "Amber Alert".
  • "The Perfect Fit", an upbeat and sassy pop song used during Mackenzie's "If the Shoe Fits" solo.
  • The music used for "The Seven Dancers". Try listening to it and not getting it stuck in your head.
  • "Electricity" by Ashley Jana. It's so upbeat and fun to listen to, and makes you want to dance.
  • The "Broken Dolls" music; an intense, dramatic orchestral piece.
• Base-Breaking Character: Christi. Either she's the funniest person in the world who can do no wrong, or she was one of the worst moms on the show. There's no in between.
• Broken Base: Brooke and Mackenzie's albums. There are those (usually those who are already fans of the show) who enjoy the songs, and those (who usually have no idea what Dance Moms is) who despise the gratuitous Auto-Tune or lack of substance in lyrics or production.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • Maddie in the "Chandelier" and "Elastic Heart" videos.
  • The Darker and Edgier dances. All of them.
• Designated Villain: Ava and her mother Jeanette can be seen as this, especially in the fifth season. Whenever Ava was going up against Abby and the ALDC, the producers made Ava look like a woobie, because of the names Abby would call her, such as Mantis.
  • Kurt, Maddie and Mackenzie's dad was this in season 1. Retroactively people have been agreeing with his points about Abby's toxic relationship with his daughters.
  • It's hard to root for Maddie since she wins everything and gets so much special treatment from Abby, but the way people (mainly Christi, who villainized and made fun of the child every chance she had) spoke about Maddie, you'd think she herself was a bully child and not just a very focused kid who loved to dance. Even some of her brattier moments were fairly understandable for a little kid (like being a sore loser), and notably, if she cried when she lost, she was regarded as bratty, whereas if other kids cried because they lost it was sympathetic.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Chloe has become an especially glaring example, attributed largely to her leaving the team in season 4.
  • Mackenzie's status has been buoyed primarily by her music career, and now Nia is in the same boat with her new single "Star In Your Own Life".
  • GiaNina and Brady from season 8 are becoming more popular.
  • Vivi-Anne is now becoming this among the fandom due to having a snarky sense of humor, and capability of laughing at her infamous comments from the show.
  • The wide majority favors the original junior elite team (Maddie, Mackenzie, Nia, Brooke, Paige, Chloe) save for Vivi-Anne.
  • People also like the first few seasons better, since the ALDC felt much more like a team and Abby was far removed from the utmost nastiness she'd step into.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Abby has called Cathy's team (the Candy Apples) a variety of names including the "Rotten Apples" and the "Crab Apples".
  • Cathy is sometimes referred to as "the wicked witch of the West".
• Fountain of Memes:
  • Abby. Her weight, certain Never Live It Down moments, and her image to the vast majority as a Sadist Teacher are all huge attributions to her memetic status.
  • Christi has become this in her own right. Especially with her Genre Savvy snark.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Christi's comment about how she didn't think that any of the girls have body image issues (said in the "Waiting For Joffrey" episode) has become this. Since the show's end, several of the cast members have come out about their issues with body dysmorphia, and her own daughter Chloe has come out about her struggles with eating disorders.
  • The controversy surrounding the film Cuties drew a lot of eyes to the show, as the poster that predominantly first sparked the outrage showed a dance team of young girls doing provocative poses in skimpy outfits that were very similar to those from the infamous "Electricity" dance — which was in the first non-pilot episode of the show.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Payton (who is 5'4") was often kicked off the team because she was too tall. She ended up being the second shortest of the girls next to Brooke.
  • Ava (who now is 6'2") got kicked off the Select Ensemble for being too tall. Cut to 2019 where Netflix released a movie aptly titled Tall Girl, starring her.
• Jerkass Woobie: Abby showed shades of this in season five, considering how almost everything she built up was collapsing before her eyes, both legally and relationally speaking.
• Memetic Badass: Holly is routinely praised by fans as the best mom for her diplomacy and sophistication.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "We're all gonna have◊ FUN." (Often used alongside a caption such as "When you force your friends to hang out with you".)
  • The Stoic expression that Brooke wears all too frequently, which has led some to jokingly portray her as a Perpetual Frowner.
  • Two gifs — one of Abby eating Sour Patch Kids, and the other of Payton with a dead-eyed, unamused look — have gained circulation on Tumblr, with the latter in particular being commonly used as a reaction gif.
  • Jill's constant opportunism regarding Kendall, and how chances to make opportunities for her seemed to come before basic empathy (ex: her immediate reaction to Payton being kicked off the team being excitement that Kendall now has a spot), particularly using the phrase "Now my little Kendall".
  • People often make jokes about Melissa "forgetting" that Mackenzie exists.
  • Vivi-Anne's "I cut my finger on my mom's ring. I hope I can still dance."
  • Holly's "You're entitled to your wrong opinion."
  • Mackenzie's constant one-liners such as "I just cry sometimes. It's no big deal," have been getting mileage lately.
  • "KENDALL YOU'RE CHASING HER!" has become a popular quote lately.
  • Kelly's line of "I'll slam whatever I want!" is becoming more popular lately.
  • "And then there were two" is becoming a trend on TikTok.
  • "Empty chair, do a solo!"
• Narm:
  • Maddie's facial expressions during "Broken Dolls". There are few shots, and they're not onscreen for long, but they do show Maddie showing a facial expression so overly stoic that it's impossible not to smirk at.
  • Maddie's acting in Drop Dead Diva. Not the "I can't do it" scene, but rather the scene in which she falls mid-solo. Not only is the fall sort of forced (and this is even without knowing Maddie's jumping capability), but Maddie calling out her dance instructor afterwards is way too wooden to be emotional.
  • Whenever Melissa starts to cry during Maddie's solos, constantly saying "I just love watching my daughter dance so much." Every. Single. Time.
  • The fake applause in the earlier seasons whenever the girls did something amazing on stage.
  • The Abby/Kelly fight in Season 4 is actually rather humorous, especially to those who haven’t seen Dance Moms.
• Replacement Scrappy: There has been many a complaint on the new moms and dancers that have come in, saying that the original junior elite team is still the best.
• Retroactive Recognition: Many people now know JoJo Siwa as a child star on YouTube and Nickelodeon, for better or worse.
• The Scrappy:
  • Abby, ironically.
  • There is a huge hatedom for the Siwas due to their bratty behavior. JoJo in particular has garnered a retroactive hatedom after making it big on YouTube, with many people finding her videos grating.
  • The Verteses are also gaining quite the hatedom as of season 6, mostly due to Jill's new position as "face of the moms."
• Seasonal Rot: The show has gotten worse as the seasons passed (reflected in its ratings), attributed to Abby's increased insanity towards the girls and drastic changes to the team. The final nails in the show's coffin came with the Zieglers leaving the team at the end of season 6 and subsequently Abby announcing that she'd be leaving the show after season 7.
• She Really Can Act: Lots of people are marveling at Maddie's acting abilities in her dances, such as in "The Last Text", "Amber Alert", and "The Waiting Room".
• Squick: Abby having Kenzie massage her foot. We're even treated to a lovely close-up of Abby's bare foot.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Almost all the songs in the dance routines are variants of popular songs due to copyright issues.
  • For example, "Candy Apple Style," which even includes PSY's horse riding dance in the routine.
  • There's also a song that uses the same beat as "Royals" but with different lyrics.
  • The zombie group dance from season 2, "Swagger", is a ripoff of "Glam" by Christina Aguilera.
  • Kalani's solo "Say Something, Say Anything" is an obvious ripoff of "Say Something" by A Great Big World.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: How wonderful it feeeels to be beauutifull...
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The entirety of the Select Ensemble story line in season 4. It was originally brought up as each girl going against their counterpart when that didn't happen.
  • They also could've done something with Maddie being counted as a "professional dancer", as most real competitions don't let professional dancers compete.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Christi. We were clearly meant to feel bad for her situation most of the time. Though, she knew how Abby worked and that she wasn't going to change, but always chose to fight with her, ultimately making things worse for herself and Chloe.
  • Then there was her situation with Melissa. Christi always tried to be the victim in any altercations she had with her.
• The Woobie: Let's face it: everyone on the show has been a woobie at some point.
  • Especially Chloe, considering she's almost Always Second Best and Abby takes pleasure out of using her as a Butt-Monkey.
  • Abby pretty much becomes a Jerkass Woobie from the fifth season (because of Paige’s lawsuit), the sixth season (due to her legal issues) and the seventh season (because of her on her way to prison).
  • Ava, who was repeatedly bullied by Abby and eventually kicked off the show just because she was taller than average. She would eventually go on to star in the movie Tall Girl... and the film promptly faced criticism because people believed that there was no way anyone could be bullied for being tall in real life.
  • Sarah, Christy's daughter. She was one of the more sensitive girls and was berated by Abby all the time for her constant crying. Not to mention that her mother was one of the mouthiest ones on the show, and frequently got on Abby's bad side, causing Sarah to miss out on many chances to perform.

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