For those of you that don't know (i.e. you've been living under a rock), Lifetime has a show called "Dance Moms" that *claims* to chronicle the lives of modern competitive dancers and their moms in the Abby Lee Dance Company. However, many real dancers and their dance moms (or dads/aunts/grandmas, etc) have pointed out the crazy amount of things "Dance Moms" gets wrong about dance. Each perspective is different, so I am here to share mine!
1. No one does a new dance every week.
I mean no one. No one could! Most studios start routines in late spring/early summer and start performing in November at absolute earliest. My studio in particular started routines in late August but did not start performing until early March. So how do the girls on the show pull it off? It was revealed during one of the early seasons that the girls attend summer day camps to learn all of their choreography for the year and then review the specific dances prior to the competition.
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Cell Block Tango, 2013
2. They go overboard on the competitions.
My studio only did four competitions a season. Four. On "Dance Moms," they travel all over the country and compete "every" weekend (or at least that's how it's portrayed). And they were all within a one and a half hour commute of our studio, because they were the "St. Louis" stop on the competitions tours (although one was in Collinsville, IL for some reason). Most studios don't travel to Los Angeles or New Jersey or Texas or wherever unless they're from near those cities, especially not for regionals - and every competition has a large number of regionals and then a few nationals. Which leads me to...
3. Winning "nationals" isn't as great as it seems.
Winning nationals is amazing, of course, but every competition has a nationals. There isn't one culminating national competition for dance (at least not the kind of dance they do on "Dance Moms"). You could probably go to five-to-six nationals a year, provided the dates don't overlap (and you had the money).
The current "Dance Moms" girls and their infamous coach, Abby Lee Miller
4. Not all dance moms are like that.
My mom was so not a dance mom. In her defense, I was fully capable to taking care of myself when I started competing. She stayed clear of the dressing room and did not involve herself in any drama. This is not to say my mom wasn't a good mom - dance just was not her thing, but she was supportive of me, and that was all I wanted from her.
5. A group of five-to-seven girls would never get their own dressing room.
The girls on "Dance Moms" got their own dressing room because filming in a full dressing room would be impossible (not all girls have time in between routines to be modest). The only reason a studio as a whole would even get their own dressing room would be if they were a huge studio. I only ever saw that happen once, though.
6. Most competitions take place over several days, not only one.
I danced at an incredibly small studio - during my last year, there were three girls on my team, eight on the junior team, and two on the mini team. We (especially the juniors and minis) often competed over the course of two-to-three days because competitions are so big. One competition became so large that some of the junior girls had to skip school to compete their solos on Wednesday and Thursday (the competition did not forsee this and gave them the option of getting a refund and not having to skip school, which some of our moms chose to do)
Of course, "Dance Moms" didn't get it all wrong - somethings about the world of dance are hard to hide!
On stage during awards at Edge: The Competition. Not sure what the first place was for, but our Chicago routine placed 2nd and our Fall Out Boy routine placed 3rd.
7. Some dance moms are like that
Some dance moms are really that out there. There are moms that will spend hundreds of dollars and/or hours on costumes or do whatever it takes to make sure they have the best of everything - the best solo, the best dressing room spot, the best spot in the convention hall to rehearse their daughters routine, etc.
8. Some girls really are that good
The girls on the show aren't anomalies in the world of dance. Some girls are extremely talented from a young age. I was so not one of those kids - the girls on that show were ten times better than anyone in my studio - but that did not stop us from watching and discussing the show during our snack/shoe change break every week.
Recital solo 2014 - Kingdom Come (don't worry, the bruise is makeup)
9. Dancers really do become family
Sure, our moms fight with us and each other, we fight with each other, and we bicker with our coaches. The world of dance is full of high-pressure situations. You practice routines over and over and over and just hope that when the lights hit and the music starts that your muscles will do what you've taught them to do. Afterwards, you hear a million opinions about what happened while you were on stage from your parents, friends, coaches, fellow dancers, and even other moms. And - despite what your coach says - the judges opinions are important. They're the ones with the trophies and scholarships in their clutches. But at the end of the day - you're a family. You love each other. The hours spent in the studio rehearsing and rhinestoning costumes has brought you all together into a friendship that is truly one of a kind.
