Dance Moms is Lifetime’s newest runaway hit, but it’s also very controversial. At the center of the buzz is Abby Lee Miller, the outrageously outspoken dance teacher with a strict, no-nonsense approach. So, to give viewers an insight into the over-the-top behavior of Abby Lee Miller, below are ten things fans of the show should know about her.
Just yesterday, Miller appeared on The View to defend her controversial teaching methods. “You of all people here, know about reality television,” Miller directed at host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who competed many moons ago on Survivor. The dance instructor went on to explain that the cameras capture an exaggerated view of her seemingly harsh behavior. "If the nightgown or whatever is laying on the bedroom floor, you say pick that up. The first time, you're nice, you just say, 'Pick that up.' The 20th time, you're like, 'Would you just pick that up right now?!' And then the 50th time, you want them to eat the nightgown. That's what you're seeing," she said.
Hasselbeck, who is a mother of young children pushed back and said assertively, “"But Abby, there's a difference. You're not their mom, let's separate that. They actually have parents, right, so you're not their parent.” Rather than argue the point, Abby Lee moved on to tout her credentials and stated, “I'm not some fly-by-night teacher. The dance supervisor for 'Wicked' is my student. I have a kid in 'Book Of Mormon' right now."
So, who exactly is Abby Lee Miller from Dance Moms? Here are the top ten things you should know about her, some of which are posted on My Lifetime.
- Childhood: Abby was born in Pittsburgh and got her love of dance from her mother, who is a 50-year-old member of Dance Masters of America. Miller took classes at her mother’s studio for many years.
- Abby Lee Dance Company: At just 14, Miller started the Abby Lee Dance Company. In 1980, she opened her dance studio in Pittsburgh and has taught 3,000-4,000 students throughout her career.
- Dislikes being on stage: Surprisingly, Miller hates to be on stage and never enjoyed performing. She says, “That’s one reason why I am a great teacher. I don’t envy or compete with my students. My dreams for them are sometimes greater than their own, but never confused with mine."
- Career highlights: Miller says one of her best days ever is when she snuck into Footloose to watch one of her students rehearse and was asked by the choreographer what she thought of the play’s choreography. “That was a moment.” She also says that attending the Tony Awards was a very big day. “All the awards and titles my students have won over the years are very important to me.”
- Students move on to professional careers: Many of Abby Lee Miller’s students have moved on to perform professionally. Her students have appeared in productions of Footloose, Wicked, Come Fly with Me, West Side Story, Spamalot, Lion King, Aida, In the Heights, Legally Blonde and Book of Mormom. For the past 26 years, she’s also had dancers in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
- Staying in touch with former students: Abby Lee Miller says that she goes out to dinner with her former students all the time. She jokes, “They don’t send me any percentage of their earnings - I’ve wised up!” On a serious note, she states, “I know that I am with them in spirit every single time they step on a stage or into a class.”
- Well traveled. The Abby Lee Dance Academy has traveled to Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, the Bahamas, Illinois, Nevada, Michigan, Louisiana, Virginia, California, Canada and monthly to New York City.
- Scholarships and prizes: Many of Miller’s dancers win scholarships to major events. At Hollywood Vibe in November of 2011, Maddie Ziegler, Nia Frazier, Kendall Vertes, and Mackenzie Ziegler won full tuition scholarships to national and regional conventions.
- The pyramid. Every week, Abby Lee Miller assesses her dancers and puts those who performed the best at the top and those who need improvement at the bottom. The dreaded pyramid changes weekly and was suggested by the producers of Dance Moms.
- Thoughts on meddling mothers. Abby Lee Miller is very outspoken when it comes to the meddling mothers on Dance Moms and recently told MTV, “They're just not very grateful. You would think that the mothers would see things a little clearer now, now that they're on a television show and now that they do have fans, that they [would] be a little more respectful of me. I just think that they don't want to recognize the fact [that] if it wasn't for Abby Lee Miller and the Abby Lee Dance Company and having their children enrolled in my studio that they would be on a show."
Dance Moms is a big hit that’s getting bigger every week. According to TV By the Numbers, the series pulled in an all time record audience of 1.3 million viewers and was the #1 original series in its time slot.
However, not everyone is a fan of Abby Lee Miller. In fact, a Facebook page called “Dance Moms Against Dance Moms” has recently sprung up. On the flip side of the coin, Abby Lee Miller was recently included on the list of “Top 50 TV Characters of 2011” by MTV.
Derek Hough, professional dancer from Dancing with the Stars is definitely not a fan and tweeted yesterday...
I'm sorry but this Dance mom show is straight up abusive. Kids run!!! Child abuse isn't right. I'm livid right now.
Nothing productive about screaming and making little girls cry over being on the wrong foot.
There's a dirrefence between being strict and being abusive.
Love her or hate her, there’s no denying that Abby Lee Miller is a new force to be reckoned with in TV land. As Abby Lee herself would say (and has said), “Suck it up, I don’t want to see those tears.”
New episodes of Dance Moms air every Tuesday night at 9/8c on Lifetime.
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