TINY DANCER: Mackenzie and “Dance Mom” Melissa are featured in new Lifetime series.
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You know what you’re going to get when you tune into a reality series called “Dance Moms” — right? “Toddlers & Tiaras” meets “Real Housewives,” complete with hideous moms, fake arguments and untalented children in inappropriate showgirl outfits doing their mothers’ bidding.
So, I was pleasantly surprised to see a reality series that follows a tough-as-nails dance teacher, Abby Lee Miller, who owns a dance school in Pittsburgh, as she instructs kids who end up winning a lot of competitions. Hers is the kind of school that produces the kinds of dance troops that are so shockingly good on “America’s Got Talent.”
Miller is a giant woman who don’t take no crap from nobody. She’s the old-school kind of dance teacher who is one step away from being abusive in order to get the most from her students. Since some of the kids are as young as 8, it seems at first over-the-top, but she’s of the mind that if you’re going to teach kids anything, you either do it right to get it right or end up with mediocre.
The reason the show is called “Dance Moms” is because the series focuses on several of the students’ moms — who at first seem to be standard-issue stage mothers pushing their kids to fulfill their dreams. But once you get past the reality-TV grabbers, you realize that while there is some of that, more importantly there’s a lot of Miller. It is great to watch her work.
The moms are, of course, desperate for their kids to be the best, and they try to be pushy. But Abby is the boss and would sooner throw them all out than compromise.
The moms include Melissa, whose marriage fell apart because her soon-to-be-ex thought she was too involved with her daughter’s dance life, while her current boyfriend, “knows how much I spend on dance — he signs the checks!” Yikes.
There’s Christie, who has a 9-year-old daughter and says, “I do find myself putting dance before school.” Good thing she doesn’t say that in front of “Dance Mom” Holly, a school principal and probably the most reasonable of the moms.
We travel with them to the first competition in Phoenix, and watch as Miller nearly takes the heads off of two of the moms when they get out of line.
In Miller’s world, everybody follows the rules — her rules. It’s Miller’s way to the Great White Way. She is a great, genuine TV personality — and, with any luck, she’ll stay that way and not become a caricature of herself.