Dance Moms Recaps/Reviews

Season 4 Episode 5

*WARNING* These chapters may contain spoilers to the episodes!!!

This episodes starts out at the Ziegler's home. It shows Maddie and Mackenzie doing school at home, and Melissa and Jill discussing Kendall possibly doing it too.

We now are back at the ALDC for pyramid. Abby congratulates the team on beating CADC the week before. She also announces that she is going to her second open call, at Atlanta. Holly offers to help with the audition, and Melissa also offers to help with her kids, and Abby accepts both of their offers.

On the bottom of the pyramid was Kendall, I guess it was because she was the only one in the group to not get first. Next was Brooke because her round-off back layout stepout was not high off the ground at all, and I thought the same thing. Right after Brooke was Paige because of her posture. Last on the bottom was Kenzie for not having her ribs closed in the group. First on the second row was Nia for having great facials and being in the moment. Next was Maddie for being good, and helping out. Last, but not least, was Chloe for winning first with her solo, "Wreck It."

Abby announces that they will be attending The Masters of Dance Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. She tells Paige that her, Chloe, and Kendall will be in a trio entitled, "Southern Belles." Maddie got a solo that is Ballet, a reward for doing well in her privates, it is called, "Ballerina." Kenzie also got a solo, entered in the lip sync category. It's a jazzy acrobatic piece named, "Love Overdose." Abby said she gave her the solo to see if she is a real entertainer.

Abby says that everyone, except Kenzie, is in the group. It's a piece that she called, "academy award-winning," about the civil rights movement. She also gave Nia the feature role as the slave. She told her to give an Oscar winning performance, and YAY NIA!!! However, Abby never fails to give pressure by adding that the win for the groups is on her shoulders.

Holly, personally, was very excited for Nia. She also kept saying that she hoped that Abby delivered the topic tastefully. Abby then goes on to say that the slave, Nia, is fighting for freedom, and eventually gets it in the end. 

Up in the viewing room, Christi was poking fun at Holly for offering to help Abby, and for Holly biting her tongue because of Nia having the typecasted role as the "slave." 

We go straight in to Maddie's solo rehearsal, and Abby kept bragging up Maddie's marvelous improvement in her ballet technique privates and that's why she was rewarded with the solo. This fueled an arguement with the moms about how homeschooling isn't right, and that it's wrong.

After the break, we go right into the trio rehearsal. Abby starts telling the girls what Southern Belles are, "The complete opposite of your mothers. No trash, no foul language, no arguing with your teachers, no talking about people behind their backs, no blatant public display of intoxication." Okay, Abby. However, once they started to practice, the moms started talking about Abby's manners at dinner. It was actually very funny to hear. 

Next up was Kenzie's solo rehearsal. Melissa looked like she was very much enjoying the dance, and was very excited about it, as well as Abby. She was very impressed that Kenzie had learned all of the words overnight. 

We are then shown Maddie's ballet private for technique. The instructor seemed very relaxed and productive, and Maddie seemed to soak up all of what the instructor was telling her. Abby was telling her that she was happy that she had the extra time to come in and rehearse. Kelly was telling the other moms that, yes it's great that she gets the time to practice, but Abby can't hold it against the mothers and the girls for not homeschooling, and she's exactly right. She can't. It's none of Abby's bussines whether or not the mothers homeschool their children. Keyword: their children. Not Abby's children.  Abby then came up to yell at Christi that she should be homeschooling Chloe, which was a very unproductive thing to do.

Next was the group rehearsal, and it looks good, from what they showed, and I'm very proud of Nia just for getting the role!

After the commercial, Chloe and Christi came into the Den before anyone else, and Christi asked Chloe about homeschooling. She told her that Abby was complaining about Chloe not doing it, but Chloe just said the she couldn't imagine her life without school, and I'm glad that Christi did want Chloe's imput without fully pushing the idea to the side. I think that's good parenting right there. 

We now go to the open call auditions in Atlanta, Georgia. Abby starts eliminating girls, and calls out a girl with short, crimped, and colored hair, and Abby was not having it, but didn't cut her. Abby eventually eliminated one girl, and it really pissed a mom off, so of course she had her daughter go back and ask for a second chance, and I'm really surprised that she did let her get a second chance. Abby then goes and lets go of a girl because she took off a mesh shirt she had been wearing all audition long, and there is some truth to what Abby said about it. The mom and her dance instructor stuck up for her, saying that they wanted Abby to see her "physique" more. Abby eventually gives in, and gives a second girl a second chance. Abby then tells the entire audience that she's given too many second chances, and that if you're cut, you're cut, and leave. 

They are now at competition. First up was Kenzie with, "Love Overdose." Her costume was adorable, and so was her performance! Her back tuck, however, wasn't tucked in very good, but she still landed it nicely. Her lip syncing was great, and really made her face light up more. I thought overall, she needed some corrections, but other than that, she did a very, very good job.

Next up was Maddie with, "Ballerina." Her costume was very simple, and I was very dissapointed to see that she wasn't wearing ballet pink tights and ballet slippers. I thought her solo was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but the choreography was a lot more lyrical than it was ballet, except to stereotypical ballet music. Yes, it had ballet technique in it, but that's what lyrical is. It's just ballet with less structred movement. However, like I said, it was beautiful.

Last before the group was the trio, "Southern Belles." Like Christi said earlier, their costumes weren't really in the theme, they just kind of looked like chickens. I think choreography wise, it was good, but no doubt that Chloe and Paige had bigger expressions than that of Kendall. I mean, she did have very good expressions, just not as big. At times, all three of them made it looked very together, but very frantic at the same time. Overall, it was a cute routine.

After a quick pep talk from Abby and Holly in the dressing room, Nia went to the stage with the rest of the girls, ready to perform, and perform they did. Nia came out, and did some body movement while Maddie came in and danced around her, and soon the rest of the girls came and filed in. It was strong, and a very sharp dance, but while it was sharp it still had meaning, and emotion to it. The performance level was so high, it gave me goosebumps. The camera panned over to Holly, and she looked so proud, and she was emotional, and it was very emotional. It was probably one of their best groups. Period.

Righ after, there are awards. We start with the Mini Solo division, and Kenzie ended up being second, and I thought she was good, and could've gotten first, but it just depends on who the judges are, I guess. The trio then got first, but Abby didn't think it was their best performance, and I think she's right. Honestly, I thought "Buckle Up" was better. Maddie ended up getting first in the Junior Solo division, and I knew she would. The group got first, and I felt a weight fall off my shoulders for Nia. I think Nia is safe now, and I'm so happy for her. She looked amazing, and she deserved that win!

Abby told the girls what she thought of the competition, and that was about it for the episode. Hope you enjoyed it!

(I'm super, super, super sorry for the long wait. A couple of days after this episode came out, I was grounded from my iPod and just got it back on Sunday night. So I'll hopefully do a double update tonight, or post the "New Chloe" episode chapter tomorrow afternoon, and the newest episode this weekend. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks and sorry, again!)