Another action packed Tuesday! I didn't think I really needed to recap Abby recapping what's happened this season, so there is no episode 29 recap. But, let's focus on this Tuesday!
Let’s start it all off with a drama filled pyramid! Paige was first on the bottom row because she messed up a part in the group dance. I thought Kelly was finally chilling out, but no! She decided to yell at Abby for putting her kid on the bottom of the pyramid. She then asks why Maddie’s not on the bottom for the “apron incident” the week before. First of all, how are a costume malfunction and a mistake in choreography the same? I love Paige, but I agree that she should’ve been on the bottom because of her mistake. Kendall was also on the bottom for her mistake in her set of turns. When you’re on the top it’s because you made no mistakes and you were amazing. The apron falling was out of Maddie’s control and therefore, a mistake in the dance trumps the costume malfunction. After last week’s episode I posted about how it wasn’t fair that Maddie wasn’t yelled at for her apron falling. I’d like to retract that statement. After looking at previous episodes of Dance Moms and comparing them to this week’s episode I noticed that both girls were punished equally. Maddie was second on the pyramid because of her second place win and because of her costume malfunction. Chloe was third on the pyramid, the week after her “headpiece incident”. However, that’s only because she was part of a first place trio and Paige and Maddie didn’t make that mistake. Chloe and Maddie were not screamed at directly, by Abby. Even though Christi and Abby did go at it, it was mostly because Abby was mad that Christi went to a bar instead of helping out in the Green Room and not because of Chloe’s headpiece. I think a lot of the times the producers edit events to make it look like there’s more favoritism then there actually is. I unfortunately fell for their façade, but more importantly I realized my error. I apologize to Abby for unfairly judging her. There was some controversy on whether Asia deserved to be in the middle row on the pyramid this week. I have to side with Jill and the rest of the moms on this one. Asia wasn’t there so Asia should be on the bottom of the pyramid. Asia might have still trained, but she wasn’t there with the rest of the girls competing. I thought it was incredibly wrong for Kristie to call out the moms for bringing their children to meet and greets when they’re traveling. It’s in the girls contract that they can’t train anywhere else, like Asia can, so what else are they going to do. I’m sorry, Kristie, if your jelous that the Dance Moms girls have such a large enough fan-base that they can do meet and greets, but there’s no need to take it out on their moms during pyramid. I predicted Chloe’s spot on the pyramid. She did the 3rd best out of the solos so she should be 3rd on the pyramid. However, I didn’t like Abby’s explanation. She told Chloe that she needed to “try harder” which I was completely shocked by. I talked about Chloe’s hip hop solo in the last recap in more detail so I’ll try to be brief, but Chloe had to work really hard last week to excel in a solo that wasn’t even close to her strongest dance genre and she placed 4th! She did try hard! If Abby had just said, “Chloe your third on the pyramid because you got 4th and Maddie and Mackenzie received higher scores then you.” that would’ve been fine, but because she didn’t it upset Chloe, Christi and me. (and maybe you guys to) Maddie was 2nd, no surprise, and Mackenzie was on the top! I missed seeing Mackenzie’s sassy face on the top of that pyramid! She deserved it and I’m proud of her, but then Kristie had to go and rain on my parade by saying, “Thanks for keeping Asia’s seat warm, but we’ll be taking it from here.” How obnoxious is that! I really hope Mackenzie kicks Asia’s butt next competition just to shut Kristie up. At least with the Maddie and Chloe rivalry both “sides” respect each other. It’s the annual ALDC showcase and I always look forward to this episode. It’s just something different then the usual competitions, not that I don’t love a good competition, but it’s nice to mix it up once an awhile. All of the girls are doing old solos, except Paige. Abby assigns her a new solo and whether she is willing to admit it or not I think it’s because of last year. During the last ALDC showcase Paige was out with a broken foot. Even though Abby tried to include her in the newest group dance she still didn’t get to preform with her friends. I saw Abby’s nice gesture, but apparently others didn’t… * cough cough * KELLY. Abby continues on her I-Love-The-Hylands trip by telling Brooke that she can preform her song during the Showcase. Can I just say that I really want to see Abby choreograph a dance to Brooke’s song and have them preform it? That would be awesome! Abby also assigns a group dance called “Sugar Babies” and all I can think of is “Sugar Daddy”, the group dance from the very first showcase. It’s also revealed later on that Jill’s preforming a tango duet with one of her friends. I think Abby let her because out of all the “original moms” she’s the only one who hasn’t preformed in the showcase. Cathy’s awful Moms Dance ringing any bells?
Rehearsal time! Now I didn’t think Asia was going to be in the showcase until I saw her in the group rehearsal. Last time I checked this is the ALDC Annual Dance Showcase. Asia may be on Dance Moms, and occasionally go to competitions with Abby’s elite team but, that doesn’t make her a part of Abby’s studio and, in my opinion, doesn’t give her the right to preform in the showcase. I’m not even going to discuss Kelly not wanting Paige to preform her new solo because at this point I am almost 100% positive that Kelly is in some state of hysterical delusion and is not aware of her actions. Later on, Abby is talking to the other moms about Kelly and Christi’s behavior during pyramid. Hold the phone, Christi’s behavior? If I’m not mistaken I believe it was Kelly doing all the screaming and Christi being the one hiding her face and trying not to get involved. Abby then says that the other moms must “choose a side”. It’s either Abby’s side or Kelly and Christi’s side. The quote of the day goes to Melissa who said something that I thought was very sweet and genuine: “The only side I’m on is Maddie and Mackenzie’s side.” You go Melissa you go! Paige reveals to Abby that she doesn’t want to do a new solo. I can’t tell if this is actually Paige speaking or her mother, either way I feel like Paige is taking away her own opportunity. Her learning a new solo this week is the same thing as her learning a new solo any other competition week. It’s times like these where I want to teleport into the TV screen and shake Paige until she understands what I’m getting at. Since Paige refused her solo, during a dress rehearsal Abby tries to give someone else the solo, except no one wants it. They know that once they take it they will receive the wrath of Kelly. With no other option Abby assigns it to Maddie. This is, again, another ploy created by the producers because if you pay close enough attention you’ll notice the moms quickly talking about how Maddie was already taught a solo a while ago that she was never able to preform. This created a perfect opportunity. Now Kelly’s upset that Maddie took Paige’s solo and that Melissa didn’t stop her, but I’m pretty sure Melissa’s smart enough to know that the wrath of Abby is way more scarier and dangerous then the wrath of Kelly. Totally on team Melissa! Not only does Dance Moms show the Annual ALDC Showcase, but it also shows the Annual Kelly Storming Out Showcase. Kristie explains it perfectly when she relates it to “getting your tires rotated”. Back in the studio, Abby hands out new ALDC warm-up gear to the girls and may I say that they are super cute! I want one of those sweatshirts! After Kelly left the episode only went uphill. The producers actually decided to show Abby giving Chloe a complement, as if it were the very first time. All the girls are praised by Abby during rehearsal if they so something superb, but we only get to see the screaming and mean comments. It’s nice to see Abby bark something nice once and awhile.
The girls take a break from dancing to go to a photo shoot for a dance magazine. It’s to bad that the Hyland kids were still AWOL because we all know that Paige would’ve smashed it. Being in true Dance Moms spirit the photo shoot was (you guessed it) a competition, the prize being their picture on the cover. It was shot in a school and Abby had each kid impersonate a different “clique”, which I thought was really neat.
Mackenzie – The Nerd
Maddie- The Preppy Teacher’s Pet (who saw that coming)
Chloe – The Rocker
Kendall – The Mean Girl
Nia – The Athlete
Asia – The Popular Girl - I would just like to address now a topic that’s been bothering me for quite a long time. Is Asia an official member of Dance Moms? I’m hoping not. Asia’s an amazing dancer and a nice little girl, but I don’t like how Asia was just slipped onto the team. That might’ve been ok earlier in the series (i.e. Kendall) but now anyone else is an outsider. There is a Sacred Seven and you can’t just make it eight when you feel like it! Asia, it’s been a nice visit but I don’t want you as a permanent member, so you can go off to L.A. now.
It’s the day of the showcase and Abby said that there was “electricity in the air” and all I could think about was: BRING BACK ELECTRICITY (one of my favorite Christi quotes) Before the show starts Abby brings in the lady who was in charge of the photo shoot to announce the winner and it’s………… KENDALL! I am so excited x10 for her. I’m one of the first to say that Kendall doesn’t get as much credit as she deserves and this just proves my point. I call her the underdog of the underdog I found it funny that since Paige was out of the picture Abby thought Maddie got the magazine cover in the bag. She even assigned Maddie with the cutest, cover ready outfit, but guess who proved her wrong, once again? No one ever expects Kendall to come out on top, but if you pay close enough attention you’ll notice that she usually does, when given the opportunity. GO KENDALL!!!!!!!
The preformance starts off with a montage of Kendall, Nia and Chloe’s old solos and then shows Maddie’s new solo, that didn’t wow me as much as I’d hoped. They also show Asia’s solo, which is spicy and Spanish, but everyone knows that when someone does a Latin inspired dance on Dance Moms something goes wrong. Asia’s costume was on backwards, but to be honest if they didn’t tell me I wouldn’t have noticed. Before Mackenzie went onstage she told Abby that she forgot her dance and she was in panic mode, but when she stepped onto the stage she was as calm as a cucumber and her dance was close to perfection. I’ve seen Mackenzie’s “Boys Like You” solo before and I love it! *Interesting Fact: Her solo placed 1st at JUMP dance competition in Orlando. * It was way better then Asia’s, in my opinion. Mackenzie just has better technique, better feet, and better turns. The group dance was super cute! I love when they do Broadway/Character pieces, such as Reputation or Goldigga. They’re always fun and even if they don’t always place the highest they’re always entertaining. Jill does her tango and it’s slightly awkward/uncomfortable, but her “crowning” afterwards makes up for it. After her dance Christi and Melissa came out with a crown and flowers as a joke, but Abby didn’t take it very lightly. Abby was just stressed so I’m not going to stress the situation. (see what I did there!)
After the showcase there was a tiny outburst backstage between the moms, over whether or not it was fair for Abby to make Maddie volunteer herself for the extra solo. However, I was happy to report that, although Kelly’s still mad at Melissa, none of the other moms blame Melissa for the whole “Maddie new solo” incident. It really was out of Melissa’s hands and I’m glad that the moms realized that and didn’t try to blame her for anything. Abby tried to yell at Asia for her costume being messed up, but Asia apologized and took full responsibility, which Abby appreciated. (As did I)
I’d give this episode 4 out of 5 stars. **** I feel like this episode was a lot more real and reminded me of what an amazing show Dance Moms is! If Kelly hadn’t gone psycho for the first third of the show I might’ve given it 5.
You want to know what else is a Dance Moms season tradition? It’s having Leslie and Payton appear in at least one episode, when the Hylands go missing for a week! Oh what fun! Who can't wait for next week's episode?
* What did you think about Kelly’s crazy-fest? Did you like the showcase? Do you agree with me about Asia? Do you agree with me about Kendall? Comment below!
* The photo is of Kendall's magazine cover and the video is of Mackenzie's 1st place solo: "Boys Like You" from JUMP Dance Competition. I DO NOT OWN the picture or the video