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Did anyone else watch this new show last night on Lifetime? Yowza! The moms were nutty, the teacher was brutally ruthless but a few of those girls seemed pretty talented.

We've seen cheer moms, pageant moms and dance moms... I am just waiting for some gym to allow in camera to film gymnastics moms :p
 
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LOOOVED it!

And yes, I see many many gym moms that are just like those dance moms. I think the drive of some moms to need their child to be talented and recognized is amazing- it happens in all sports and all forms of competition.

My DD's friend is a competitive dancer and we have gone to see her compete. To be honest with the the scoring and awards is a convoluted mess. Sometimes a group is competing as the only group in their division- despite sitting through a 3+ hour competition. So, for this woman to say her daughter always gets first or second- well, sometimes there is only two teams or individuals competing in the same category. It's very hard to tell at the awards ceremony what is going on. It's a HUGE money maker for the people putting on the competition. I guess I am used to USAG where all Level 3 girls all over the nation compete the same routine or have the same standards for their routines. It appears highly subjective and open to judges whims when it comes to dance competitons and awards.

That said- those girls are talented- and have beautiful split jumps and pirouettes and other dance moves.
 
I saw it and this is going to be my "guilty pleasure" show I am sure LOL. Some of those moms were insane, but the teacher was worse in some ways. You have to wonder how much of that was "for the cameras" and made to be more dramatic than it really is. What dance teacher and owner would want to put themselves in that kind of light??? A lot of the girls were very talented, I do have to say.

I agree that the judging for competitions can be very confusing. I watched a competition that my friends daughter was in and was so confused at awards. It seemed like you had to score a certain amount to get a "Gold", "Silver" or "Platinum" award and some routines in the same category would all receive the same award ie. Gold or Platinum. And some routines that competed all by themselves came away with just a Bronze or a Silver. It definitely had my head spinning!! Some of these competitions seem to be just money makers.

But, the show was certainly entertaining!!
 
Like MdGymMom, I'm a gym and a dance mom (I'm a hiker, mountain biker, skier and rafter... how my girls ended up exclusively these sports I'll never know! ;-) ) I haven't seen the show but I'll have to check it out. I could never figure out what was worse, gym or cheer or dance moms. Luckily DD only did HS cheer but they did go to state and nationals and wow did the crazies come out. My youngest DD only did a few competitions and I never figured out the scoring. She mostly stuck to training then doing two big recitals or shows a year. Even without "competition" per se the dance moms came out crazy. Wanting their girls to get certain parts and move up class levels like they thought they were all going to go to Julliard!
 
I didn't even mention the crazy instructor- I don't know if she's trying to get more students but I for one found her very off-putting. DD's coaches coach top level gymnasts and never speak to the girls that way. I don't think you have to be rude, overbearing, or crazy in order to have successful clients regardless of what you coach or instruct.

I do have to agree with her on some points though- it is OK to expect girls in your classes to dress a certain way and refuse to instruct them if they do not follow your rules, and I think that the moms leaving their daughters to go have a drink was inappropriate-- not because I am some sort of prohibitionist but because-- hello-- you are in a hotel with your kid at a dance competition-- you the parent are responsible for YOUR CHILD!

But the way both incidents were handled was wrong IMO. Very unprofessional on behalf of the owner and I hope that it was made more sensational for the sake of TV ratings not because she is that crazy..... although I suspect it's a combo of the two ;)
 
The pyramid thing! How nice is that? I am praying that was a stunt put on for the sake of the show! Can you imagine you go into gym practice and the coach has head shots of your girls on a board and places them in a pyramid based on how much he or she likes your dd that week or to show how talented the best one is and the game is to try and beat her. Just wicked!
 
Oh that part seemed so wrong 10.0... Talk about lousy ways to foster a team attitude. If she keeps that up and these girls will be pushing each other off stage in a few years.

Not to mention the one girl and her mom's attitude (the winning one who's name is escaping me). Talent aside, because she was amazing, no doubt about it. But how about teaching the kid a little humility... lol

Psycho coach and parents aside, this has totally replaced Toddlers and Tiaras as my Wednesday night guilty pleasure. Just a train wreck I can't manage to turn my head away from.
 
I am also a member of a dance website and the Studio Owners board on that site. Several SOs said they attended the comps that were recorded and the girls were prompted when to cry and a lot of it was scripted for drama/ratings :/
 
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AerialsCoach said:
I am also a member of a dance website and the Studio Owners board on that site. Several SOs said they attended the comps that were recorded and the girls were prompted when to cry and a lot of it was scripted for drama/ratings :/
Click to expand...

I think every single "reality" show out there is scripted! Probably some more than others!

One of my best friends has two daughters in competitive dance and boy it is a completely different world than gymnastics!!! One of her daughters may dance in 17 dances in ONE competition weekend, the other may dance in ONLY 7.... totally different world than gymnastics.....B U T ....

I have to say, we do share our CRAZY MOM stories from both sports! As others have said, I don't think it matters what sport/activities (Toddlers and Tiara's anyone?) your child is in, if there's competition, some parents can't seem to separate their own egos from their child!
 
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Sharks3376 said:
Did anyone else watch this new show last night on Lifetime? Yowza! The moms were nutty, the teacher was brutally ruthless but a few of those girls seemed pretty talented.

We've seen cheer moms, pageant moms and dance moms... I am just waiting for some gym to allow in camera to film gymnastics moms :p
Click to expand...

I did see it and was going to post the same thing. The moms and the owners are wacked in this show. Its like watching a train wreck. It's so terrible but you can't help but watch. I can honestly say I've never seen coaches like this and have only see one mom in 15 years go crazy like the one they called the cops on.
 
I found it by accident and couldn't change the channel. I don't know what to think. I know a lot of it is all in the editing and is overly dramatized, but wow, I hope that I am never perceived that way. The one mom (her name escapes me right now) at least looks like she is fairly normal if the previews for future shows are too be believed (it looks like she protests what she believes is an inappropriate dance move for her daughter's age).
 
I saw the previews for next week and it looks like they are going to dramatize the "innappropriate dance moves and costumes" that some girls do and wear at some dance moves. It reminded me of that youtube video of those young 6/7 YO's who did the dance to "Boyfriends Back" and "Single Ladies". There moves were so raunchy that it created a huge media stir. Those girls are no longer at the studio that made them so infamous. Hopefully their parents wised up because the girls had a lot of natural talent that was hidden behind the innappropriate costumes and suggestive dance moves.
 
I watched it last night on Hula.com, and I have to agree with MDgymmom, it may be my new guilty pleasure! I know nothing about the dance world, but that was crazy drama! Those girls have beautiful leaps and jumps (may have to send my DD there to work on hers for gymnastics, LOL) but the teacher and those moms were so off the wall from what I have ever seen it was addicting. I felt so bad for the one little girl that got burned with the curling iron right before she had to go on stage. That mom should NOT have been in the bar, but I can see with that Abbey lady yelling 24/7 how that would drive most moms to drink!
 
I agree about the girl who got burned. What I don't get was why someone didn't rush her to the bathroom to run cool water on that burn. They should have held the burned area under cool (not cold) running water for 10 or 15 minutes or until the pain subsides. If this is impractical Which at a hotel it shouldn't have been, then they should have immerse the burn in cool water or cool it with cold compresses. Cooling the burn reduces swelling by conducting heat away from the skin. Never put ice on the burn.Ice is never the correct treatment. After it should have been covered with a clean gauze. Bandaging keeps air off the burn, reduces pain and protects blistered skin. Latly they should h ave given her some type of pain reliever. None of that seemed to be done. And to me the burn looked really bad. I did see someone with ICE though totally the wrong treatment.
 
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Abby Lee also reminds me of John Travolta's character Edna Turnblad in "Hairspray" LMAO!!!!!!!!!

0655_edna_turnblad_John_Travolta.jpg
 
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