Summary
This episode of Back to the Barre features hosts Christy and Kelly recapping Season 5, Episode 15 of Dance Moms ('Maddie vs. Kalani'), which documents the ALDC competing against Marietta Dance Project (MDP) at a California competition while internal team conflict escalates over Kendall's music video opportunity and Nia's exclusion from team activities.
Insights
- Favoritism-driven team dynamics create lasting resentment: When studio owners visibly prioritize certain students, other team members and parents feel systematically devalued, leading to fractured relationships that persist across seasons.
- Competitive pressure between independent music projects and group training creates artificial divisions: Positioning student music videos as competing opportunities rather than complementary achievements weaponizes them as status symbols.
- West Coast studio culture differs fundamentally from East Coast: Regional choreography styles, coaching philosophies, and competitive etiquette vary significantly, creating culture clash when established studios expand geographically.
- Parent complicity in exclusion undermines team unity claims: When parents benefit from favoritism, they become reluctant to advocate for equitable treatment, making team cohesion impossible despite stated commitment to unity.
- Coaching behavior sets tone for peer dynamics: When authority figures model dismissiveness toward certain students, peers internalize and replicate that treatment, normalizing exclusion among children.
Trends
Influencer-adjacent youth training: Dance studios leveraging music video production and social media presence as primary marketing and student recruitment tools rather than competition results.Competitive coaching as entertainment product: Studios optimizing for television drama and viewership over athlete development, with conflict deliberately manufactured or amplified for narrative purposes.Regional coaching philosophy divergence: Emerging distinction between East Coast technical rigor focus versus West Coast image/marketability focus in youth dance training.Parent-driven team fragmentation: Parental investment in individual child success overriding commitment to team cohesion, creating zero-sum competitive dynamics within single studios.Social media as competitive weapon: Studios and coaches using public social platforms to trash-talk competitors and build narrative dominance, blurring lines between friendly competition and hostile behavior.Music video production as status currency: Independent music projects becoming primary measure of student value and studio prestige, superseding traditional competition metrics.Coaching favoritism as business strategy: Visible preference for certain students used to attract ambitious families and justify premium pricing, creating intentional tier systems within studios.Intergenerational conflict in youth sports: Younger coaches (like Erin) challenging established authority figures (like Abby) on values, ethics, and treatment of minors.
Topics
Team dynamics and favoritism in youth dance trainingMusic video production as student development toolCompetitive coaching ethics and player treatmentParent involvement in youth sports team cohesionRegional differences in dance training philosophySocial media's role in youth competition cultureExclusion and inclusion practices in group activitiesStudent mental health impacts of coaching behaviorBusiness expansion strategy for dance studiosConflict resolution in multi-family team environmentsTelevision production influence on coaching decisionsGenerational coaching philosophy differencesStudent independence and music career developmentCostume and presentation standards in competitionJudge interaction and competitive fairness
Companies
Backmarket
Refurbished tech retailer featured in pre-roll advertisement with warranty and return guarantees.
Aldc (Abby Lee Dance Company)
Primary dance studio featured throughout episode, competing against MDP and managing internal team conflicts.
Marietta Dance Project (MDP)
Rival West Coast dance studio competing against ALDC, coached by Erin, representing alternative coaching philosophy.
Third Street Dance
Venue hosting the World Class Talent Experience competition in Riverside, California where episode's main competition...
People
Abby Lee Miller
Primary subject of episode; demonstrates favoritism toward Kendall and Maddie while excluding Nia from opportunities.
Christy
Co-host analyzing and recapping the Dance Moms episode with personal perspective as former cast member.
Kelly
Co-host providing analysis and commentary on Dance Moms episode dynamics and coaching behavior.
Erin
Rival coach representing West Coast coaching philosophy; challenges Abby's behavior and promotes team-first values.
Holly
Mother of Nia; actively confronts team favoritism and exclusion practices, advocates for daughter's equal treatment.
Jill
Mother of Kendall; benefits from Abby's favoritism, becomes target of Holly's criticism for complicity in exclusion.
Maddie Ziegler
Primary favored student; performs solo 'Dreams Come True' and appears on Ellen Show during competition week.
Kendall Vertes
Receives Abby's support for upcoming music video; becomes focal point of team conflict and favoritism discussion.
Nia Sioux
Excluded from Kendall's video shoot and team activities; developing independent music career with external support.
Kalani Hilliker
Performs solo 'Innocent'; viewers believe she outdanced Maddie despite placing second in overall scoring.
Melissa Gisoni
Mother of Maddie and Mackenzie; absent during conflict due to Ellen appearance; defends Abby's favoritism.
Kira Girard
Mother of Kalani; plays both sides of team conflict; prioritizes daughter's opportunities over team unity.
Quotes
"Jill's an idiot"
Holly•Mid-episode discussion of team favoritism
"If you heard then tell your ears to pass along the message to your brain"
Abby Lee Miller•During costume rehearsal correction to Kendall
"I am not interested in a competition with the teammate I'm focused on making sure Nia has a positive experience in creating her video"
Holly•Post-episode tweet response to criticism
"We want her to bring it we want her to compete against the best we are hands down a force to be reckoned with"
Erin•MDP team pep talk before competition
"Every rose has its thorn"
Abby Lee Miller•Describing group routine concept
Full Transcript
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Search, get into teaching. Hello little bitchettes, welcome back to the bar. This is bitch number one, Christy. Hey, bitch number two, Kelly. Look at us, we are together. Yeah. We have pretty light, and I think, I think our microphones are working. That's what we hope. We hope it's a podcast after all. And, you know, microphones are helpful, dear. They're helpful. So we are in Texas. Yeah, I saw Kelly. I saw Kelly's boots today. They know be quiet. They're cute. They're generic. They're cute though. Let me go like this. Okay, there I leave it. I've been trying for an hour. Yeah, I damn found a turn off. Hold on. Let me be Kelly. If you're watching this on Patreon, here's Kelly. Turn off. She does everything screenshot. She has to like tell her folks. Well, screenshot. Well, Siri told me, sorry, I can't do that. She said it's above my pay grade. Yeah. She said no, thank you. I'm like, I just want my phone to turn off. Yes, she does. And it won't. And all of your texts are coming in green. We don't know what's going on. We are technologically challenged at best, which we try to explain to people and then they're like, but you have a podcast. Right. Yeah, we also understand that I'm just making sure it's recording. We all. Well, here we are. We are. We are big. Well, we're big here. You can lean in now, like move your chair. So you should have seen us setting up. It took us eight hours to set up. We had to get an umbrella. This is the whole thing. We're at the pool. I hope you can hear us and all the traffic. We were going to do it in our room, but our room was terrible lighting. And we couldn't get the blinds to open. Yeah. Meanwhile, I thought it was you. The guy had to come and do it. Yeah, they needed reset. It wasn't me. I knew how to do it. Yeah, it just was unfortunate. So we are in Texas on our tour. So this is our last, our last three before we have a couple of week break before we are then in what? Hold on. I have a list. Then we go to. Oh, no, we're not going there. Oh God. Okay. It's telling me to sign in. Okay. Our second leg. We're going to Phoenix, San Francisco, LA, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Houston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Denver, Seattle and Portland. Hi. Hi. You're retired. Look at me. I mean, you're a 3D person. I'm used to people behind a screen. I just find coming out and you're easy to travel with because I know how to travel with you. Yeah, you know, like you're not a pain in the ass. You don't. Hog up the bathroom. Is that me? No. Oh, I don't need the bathroom. Do I hog up the bathroom? No, I said, we have like extra washcloths. I think that's the only thing that we, you know, yeah, no, like you're a quiet sleeper. I am. I think I snore. Well, usually if you're soaring, I'm soaring because I were both passed out. So you're fine. You are fine. But yeah, so if you guys have not bought your tickets yet for the tour, you definitely need to come because every city gets better and better. I know. And they're also different to you. Yeah. Like, I feel different. It depends on the audience, you know. I would say that my favorite thing about going is first of all, seeing all of your like old meet and greet photos, which I did ask for everybody to send us like meet and greet stories. And I have to admit, I've been so worried about all of the pieces to make the tech work on this trip. I forgot to pull them. I really literally, I'm sitting here thinking like, I forgot to pull those. But we do want to hear from you if we did meet you when you were, when you were young, what we were young to. Yeah. We were nice and young back then. I know. It is really that one picture that we put up. We spent like five minutes staring at it. I like, they look really much better. We are young. Look, that's before life beat our asses. I had. Oh, I look bad back then. I'm like, Oh God, we're like, Oh, right now. Well, it's because I dance ones didn't take our like the emotional and mental toll on us. Plus, you know, what 14 years later, cancer, a couple of strokes, heart surgery. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's nice because we're sitting outside. You guys heard the birds. We'll be like, we heard the birds. We know. Look, but we have microphones on. So there's the working. Yeah. I think so. Okay. Working. And so we need to see you guys on tour and anything else. No, I don't think so. You just want to get right into the episode, huh? Yeah. I will say I'm a shit kickers. You're for those your boots. Yeah. Okay. Are we going to Billy Bob's tonight? Remember when we went to Billy Bob's, the world's biggest honky tonk. 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voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice voice tell you their menu look it is a really good we're gonna have to go over there yeah and there's spicy margues or no spicy bloody marys for this good we stopped we made a pit stop um okay so a couple of things oh calling broke don't call broke um we want to hear more of your stories of when we met met you so go over to patreon.com slash back to the bar and join our patreon channel you can do three or a subscribed member if you do a subscribed member you get ad ad free which is so nice because you guys all are mad about the ads so if you want them ad free go to patreon and you get ad free at five dollars like the five dollars here yeah you also get ad free video and then at the next tier you're going to get our after party seven dollars you get the audio after party um as well as audio bonus episodes and then if you do the ten dollars here you get video you get the after party video audio all of the things you get video for the bonus episodes which if you're watching the bonus episodes you need the video because we react to the bonus episode yeah and or the bonus scenes whatever they are i don't know we do the extra little mini episode on friday's which is ad free and you also get never before seen content and photos and stuff yeah yeah we shared some of brinkie's wedding this year this month so definitely check out the patreon and then something else i was going to say four tickets that wasn't it oh on the patreon though um leave us your stories of if we met you when you were young yes we want to know that i think we're already said i know what i'm gonna say to you okay all right so we are very professional today we have an ipad and i would probably be able to see my glass i left my glasses upstairs all right so which one do you want to do do you want to do do the one's the least i i've been doing the field notes and that i swear there ain't any even episode all right let me look i can oh field notes are very short in this one let me look all right field notes field notes are okay then i'm doing the episode heli's doing the field notes okay um what are you drinking what you drinking cow i got some lemon water she comes back from we stopped over at the uh asian bar and she goes sorry fast forward 15 seconds if you're triggered by roofie jokes she was i hope when roofie my lemon water you're safe oh well i also left my computer no one stole it i doubt that they were like i would rather root for me than feel your damn computer all right well all right so you're drinking lemon water i'm drinking nothing nothing um so we're on season five episode 15 and the name of the episode is maddie versus kalani now i thought when i started reading this that this was the first time they went up against each other and it's not well they talked about that in the episode i guess maddie had beat kalani before um and this was filmed with the a dc i guess look i have a pencil so if you go like this okay you know you can use it too i'll share my pencil um so this was filmed the end of january i am dead when these episodes are filmed the end of january and they show the trees with leaves i appreciate flyers yeah they just use them from they only they only want to film once yes get their money's worth out of it that's right all right so we're gonna open up in pyramid okay what was the thing when producers would send us our um i don't know like our our call times what would they say about our wardrobe do you remember don't wear what white white stripes they're all in white how do they all in white stripes and how dare abby put pre-teen girls in white leotards they're like what are those called like a like a new balloon for outfit yes but like what if somebody yeah that's these are this is a mean selection if you're a pre-teen girl that gives you a camel toe for sure well and the camel toes are prevalent we have prevalent camel toes and it's not their fault they did not choose the camel toe like the camel toe like chose them okay four girls see the humiliation you're like that yes she does i'm still gonna say choosing this for a 13 year old girl is yeah and then right well it's yes and then abby's wearing white look she has a white flower ring she has a white bracelet she has a white bracelet look i love that look hold on this look look what what is so offensive to her that was always her look her offensive look okay so abby is going to reveal pyramid i don't know why we got a special yeah of Jess but her shirt is ugly i like jails the best yeah that it looks it's giving Chanel knockoff Chanel gel sorry um not a fan of melissa how is looking spiffer today she she's got on some shit kickers too those look shit kicker ass yeah for holly kira's i would like to know where kira shops i think i have a teenager store right but some of her selects i've never seen available anywhere so she has a very specific store i like holly's look of disgust yeah just pure disgust at all times i think it's lace it's the lace holes under the arm oh my god she went from a cold shoulder to a cold pit yeah holly has a cold pit it's an it's a it's an aeration system that's weird how they're both just right after armpits that is weird okay i have questions holly give me a call all right so we open three days to competition and we are at the third street dance come or dance studio which again i said this last week i'll say it again dancing with the stars films a lot there so if it looks familiar and you've seen that show probably why um go ahead i can't read it oh my god okay so we can make her because there's compliment neah who is sporting her new look in order to find characters for her upcoming video shoot what is her new look is does she have natural hair is that it i'm assuming because she didn't look any different than the other way okay i like her natural oh i do too i think it's really cute on her um okay so as soon as the moms and the girls arrive in front of the building the girls are sent upstairs to stretch and get ready the moms talk about last week's success they're so hyped now kira lets everyone know that they'll be competing against mdp this weekend so is that um erin babs is that her old studio no mdp is from i want to say orange county area i could be wrong sorry if i'm wrong um no it's the it's the studio who beats the abbey leedion's company last time they were in LA okay so erin babs is the one who played her at the yes teaching the kids but i didn't know who she was she she had fought for kathe originally and then like they brought her studio and i think erin is really pretty and young and she's a good choreographer so it's like the trifecta of abbey aggravation yeah yeah um so kira pulls up a social media post that uh i guess erin had posted in saying that they were ready to kick some pits for booty booty booty okay so in the viewing room uh which is studio b and studio b the girls are talking to kendall about her song where i'm out in the upcoming music video kendall's nervous because this will be her first music video as the featured performer and then she sings a little bit of the song um in her interview neah says i think kendall wants to compete with my music video i don't want that to happen because we're both different i'm happy for her anyway do you want to know what i think happened here but you go first i was just gonna say like i think all the kids were happy for anybody you want anything yeah yes i think what happened here is i think these were pickups for neah i think kendall wants to compete with my music video i don't want that to happen because we're both different i think that that was her pickup i think neah added i'm happy for her anyway i do that's my like my gut tells me that's what happened okay so now abbey in her white al dc rhinestone crap pops her head in and calls the girl into studio for rehearsal um she congratulates them on her victory and emphasizes the importance of continuing to win moving forward as if we could ever forget yeah i thought wouldn't be great if she was like you know what this week i don't really give a shit yeah you all did great so now we are going to pyramid and not shown is the pyramid standings number six is neah and she said neah was a high gold is not high enough yeah oh goodness then in fifth place is mckinsey and mckinsey keeps getting called out in the group routine for technical errors then we have jojo jojo it was a quiet week for you i didn't hear your mouth it's a good thing how do we get abbey on this plan yeah i don't know if she wanted to get us on it right about whatever i want all right so then maddie is third and they have very dramatic music playing yeah but i think they were kind of shocked i thought melissa was oh yes um and abbey says she always dances well in the group because of her musicality which i do agree maddie has great musicality i agree abbey emphasizes the importance of staying on top of her technique so in her interview she says maddie is dancing on tv all the time now and a lot of the dancing doesn't require the proper technique that i've drilled into this kid's head can i just say for anyone who is unaware this is abbey being shady to the choreography and see his music videos without being shady uh because her dancing doesn't require the proper technique that i yeah have drilled into that kid's head i'm telling you the first time she saw she and the leader she's like you're dancing around like an alien well the alien has three billion views she's doing all right yeah all right and she goes if she gets out there and her technique is anything less than immaculate then it's gonna look bad for me always worried about her always so now we have kalani and she stood out in the group routine in a good way and the judges were really impressed by her aerial walkover now before abbey unveils the top spot here it interrupts abbey to let her know that she'll be missing on friday but kalani will still be present we never hear anything more about this and that's it's in the field notes so the field notes say kira announces she will be missing friday rehearsal to attend a charity event but kalani is choosing not to go um she would rather stay with the team okay great all right so now we have kendall in the top spot her solo one abbey is now talking about kendall's upcoming music video shoot she doesn't want to miss the opportunity to say this will be the fourth music video she's produced real quick was it four or three well she did summer love song right yeah and she did girl party and then what's the course kendall's did did mckenzie have another music video and i don't know that wasn't featured maybe okay maybe since there's a lot of work to be done abbey says that the girls will be kendall's p.a.s for the next week i'd like to know how the moms really felt about yeah yeah well holy jumps in well and she's like nia's music videos next week so she needs to focus on preparing which okay if abbey actually cared about nia she would have said that from the get-go yeah but now that holly's like no no she's not going to be a p.a abbey's all like well fine nia's not going to help us she's so selfish she doesn't really say it but she implies it so that's why holly is so holly goes on to elaborate and nia i'm sorry abbey cuts her off and she goes straight into assignments holly is annoyed and if you hear her say she says something like i don't know what she's talking to a producer across the room did you catch that i don't she literally is answering a producer okay but they show it on the episode and it looks like she's just like muttering to herself she's talking to someone somebody's probably like ask her more and she's like i don't know what you want me to do with that yeah you know because abbey's not playing ball okay so abbey announces big news for kendall this week it's her music video shoot yeah abbey reveals that the girls who are not dancing in the video calani is the only one in the video they are allowed to work as p.a's for the shoot i don't know why he says this we already just said that yeah i know holly announces nia will be shooting the video her video next week and we'll have to miss uh kendall's video shoot in order to prepare her own video shoot so abbey quickly compares the two kendall didn't have to miss anything to prepare for her video right because abbey worked around her schedule so ever okay wait let's wait for the flight sorry it's like breaking a sound barrier hold let me see if i can turn my phone off yet hold hold that's what they used to say when yeah there was stuff going on all right so now abbey's giving me a thymine this week's competition is world class talent experience in riverside california um and then kira's like hey mdp is going to be there this week just so you guys clock this abbey will not say marietta deans project the entire episode she says the other studio she won't give them i know marietta's they weren't the good ballerinas oh i know who they are i didn't know it is mdp yep mdp so abbey gives the assignments calani has a solo and it's called innocent and it's contemporary maddie has a solo called dreams come true it's lyrical and the group is contemporary and it's called the rose garden and abbey says it will be a dark piece i really liked that this moves so we can like read it yeah and she says you know that every rose has its thorn god and then she like looks at the moms every rose has it's gone so now abbey is so excited to let everyone know that maddie will be missing thursday's rehearsal so she can perform on ellen wait a minute she just told me uh kendall didn't have to miss anything well maybe he's missing something she has been missing something almost every week right okay okay so abbey interrupts kendall to learn and rehearse her the choreography for her music video during every waking moment joe attempts to inquire about if abbey was hired has hired anyone for the video yet but her usual abbey shuts her down so the girls are forced to push to do push-ups when the moms bring up maria the dance project abbey won't put up with the moms giving that team any attention or saying them on tv she will not say their names on tv oh that's so much better look that's better um so now abbey dismisses the moms and she begins group rehearsal and abbey screams at kendall for not taking directions she's not ready for the this music video and abbey incorporates new moves into the routine clearly trying to secure a win against maria i love when abbey's nervous but she's like i'm not nervous did you notice like like you showed that picture of her in pyramid like in that look on their face but as soon as she says like the maddie thing she's just like lights up you know like it's it's so funny like she gets so like excited over them kind of things i i know and i think it's a combination of two things i do think she's genuinely excited yeah but i also think that she loves an opportunity to rub it in everyone's face i think that's a lot of her glee yeah she's like everybody else sucks yeah all right in her interview abbey says the group routine is very precise and sharp just like a thorn you hit it you get pressed what doesn't even make sense yeah if you hit a rarest pedal you get well correct i get it but what why are they getting correct in the dance maddie well she just tries to say shit if you come oh no never mind i spoke too soon if you come up against this routine you get pressed she just wants to say correct for one chance um if you're going to attract the caliber of students that i want in order to grow my business when i open a la then we have to beat the other dance studio the other dance studio so abbey stops rehearsal to harp on neah for looking ridiculous and oh i didn't hear her say this neah can't dance in front of where i'm sitting she makes me crazy oh that was so rude um so now in the waiting room the moms try to decipher the dig that inspired this group routine every rose has a song well girls let me break it down for you you're a bunch of thorns okay there since mdp is the only thorn in abbey's side currently they speculate that this is what inspired the group dance and we're reaching yeah the hope not to experience a repeat of abbey's behavior the last time they went up against mdp what did she do was she nutty did she gummy bears in a car did she wipers fit from the sides of her mouth what happened she had a bob ever or basket robins and her wheelchair no i think she was eating burger king in the car was that mdp remember she was like shoving those pearly fries in her mouth and there was nuggets she wasn't she had all kinds of burger king shit oh the trail of chicken nuggets okay so jill talks about how excited kendo is for her upcoming music video holly points out that neah isn't quite as excited and she doesn't have abbey's support like kendall does here i'll make that bigger so you can read so the mums speculate why abbey didn't give an update on her studio because there isn't one holly's pissed by abbey's attitude during the pyramid regarding neah not being able to be at kendall's video shoot work work work you did you had that work sorry sorry so the mums discuss how abbey is creating a battle of the video's type situation holly compares abbey's music video competition to when she produced maxi's video music video in order to prove that she could do it better than worked at hers she did books yeah she did books yeah okay but then broke one time with her well right but why are you trying to prove anything with maxi's video when you did the one that you're trying to prove that you did better than okay so maybe that by doing that all she did was reinforce the point that we said she didn't try really hard okay so holly and jill take turns going over the logistics of the upcoming videos holly confirms that kendall did well at the competition because she has a positive support system around her daily since abbey is now in her corner it's the opposite for neah her positive support system is only around her music people uh the mums discuss how abbey needs to stop refusing to recognize mdp and embrace the west coast way of befriending rival teams especially since she's opening a studio here and kira doesn't care when the mums call her out on her lack of commitment for the team um proven by her upcoming trip to arizona on friday for a charity fashion show okay so a couple of points um so what holly is saying about kendall doing well because abbey is in her corner just reinforces what we say hi we're back market we sell expertly refurbished tech like phones for talking to your friends or your ai babysitter now playing rock a bye baby in style of norwegian black metal either way this expertly refurbished tech costs way less than you guaranteed by the back market promise one-year warranty and 30 day free returns on every purchase up next twinkle twinkle little star grind core remix back markets where the world shops refurbished tech my classroom isn't just a classroom it's a launchpad of runway a place where ideas fly on the back of paper planes sure there are other ways to get students to speak up but this is mine all it takes is a bit of creativity and soon they're all joining in it gives me a lot of joy to see one of my ideas working in the moment and the class learning something new together that's when you know a lesson is really taken off every lesson shapes a life start shaping yours with a minimum starting salary of 32 900 pounds search get into teaching about abbey always being a nanny's corner is that the girls perform better when abbey is supporting them not threatening and tearing them down yeah but this sentence here how abbey should stop refusing to recognize mdp and embrace that west coast ways of befriending rival team kelly do we ever think that was going to happen we don't we don't be friend team rivals no all right so the girls walk into studio b okay the girls wrap up their day after showing their moms what they have finished so far for the group um in the dance studio b and they all bash abbey in her eclectic ways and the upper forms her star in your own life for the moms and the girls oh but they don't show that but they showed kendall yeah okay so abbey pokes her head in and she's like kendall i need to speak with you i heard neah singing we need to get you out here and put the focus back on you so now outside on the street abbey gives kendall a run through of the concept of her video and emphasizes that she will be a star a star and she says that holly and neah are backstabbers and admits that she wants vengeance because they're excluding abbey from neah's music career she did wow and she goes you have these little peons doing your video and neah well you hired the peons and neah has big celebrities doing her video i'm out to compete i'm out to be better than them i want this to be a success so you have to make it amazing well hold on you're putting a lot of pressure on kendall and you're in charge of like making the video when it needs to be yeah but if it sucks kendall i just want you to know i'm setting the stage so that's your fault okay so now maddie starts her rehearsal dreams come true and abbey starts off by giving maddie words of encouragement you ready for them yes little missy what somebody starts off with little missy opperman yeah you cannot go to a competition and be anything but the winner the last time you went up against these kids doing a solo you got a perfect score when you get a perfect score and it's 100 there's nowhere to go but down all right so she says maddie's dreams are coming true her dream is to be a dancer and to get to enjoy what she's doing and she is maddie did not look like she was enjoying dancing this week i'm just saying the whole world is watching maddie was very nervous i do as well and it's a direct reflection on me her technique should be flawless i work too hard on this kid for it to all go down the tubes now so in studio b melissa is talking and she's surprised and concerned that maddie has a solo this week she's already setting the stage that if maddie loses it's because because she wasn't there yeah and she has ellen and there's so many other things on her plate so jill reassures her that abbey only sets maddie up for success which couldn't agree with jill more so this must be intended to make her look good all right so we're at marietta dance project and the mom's just kind of look it's a very jeans yeah heavy cute top look yeah okay so mdp is doing their group rehearsal passing through time erin is fired up she gives her team a pep talk she says that abbey is out of her league in la and losing to the al dc is not an auction so our group dance is about the glitz and glam of hollywood my girls are not scared of abbey and neither am i we want her to bring it we want her to compete against the best we are hands down a force to be reckoned with couldn't agree more yeah so erin invites the girls to stand with her in front of the mirror and reveal what they see in themselves both good and bad erin is proud that these girls are a reflection of her and her studio conversely conversely al dc should not be proud that they are a reflection of abbey's values attitude and image i i don't think any of us ever were proud of that no not at all we were always like we don't agree yeah we don't you know yeah um so erin admits that she lost she lost with kathy in ohio but she was working with a team that wasn't united that is not mdp erin launches into group rehearsal unveiling a large four person vanity as a set piece a symbol of an unrealistic demand for the perfect image she i thought that set piece was kind of an f u to the al dc because it looks like our makeup yeah i was like oh that's what i got from that yeah i'm thinking that probably was yeah so once the team finishes rehearsal erin gives them some more words of encouragement we shouldn't be feeling the pressure of abbey abbey should be feeling the pressure of us erin she is whether she admits it or not yeah she is we've created this army together let's win this battle and let's definitely win this war see i think abbey looks good there yeah okay here we have abbey looking good i do i think she this might be my like one of the best yeah looks of abbey holly it's the hair yeah holly looks annoyed jill's wearing a scarf jill looks kind of crazy there yes her hair it's very farafas at night yeah actually this whole outfit is very 70s yeah her hair looks like mine here it looks like she doesn't care it looks like she's like going on a motorcycle somewhere yes even well i don't think i think you'll get motorcycle burn on those sheer cut out pants whatever those are okay so it's two days of competition we're third street dance there you go okay so we're taking advantage of an abbey abbey this morning the mom squeezed into info out of giana has she added a new element to the dance have the girls had adequate time to learn the routine is abbey nervous about mdp jenna politely but firmly asks the moms to exit so she can she and the girls can concentrate she's like i'm not saying yeah she doesn't come back to get me yeah so the al dc is rehearsing the rose garden so now holly is very upset about the night before and she lays into jill because she's saying that jill is complicit in excluding neah the previous day and i want to point out i think i think that jill says this later she's going after jill because melissa is not there and it was jill and melissa's kids that were part of this exclusion of neah so where was melissa she was at ellen with maddie and so they weren't there i forgot about that yep so in her interview holly says last night jill and melissa took kennel maddie mckenzie out with todger call no one called no one texted and there was no invite and she said neah saw the instagram post and was confused she puts up with a lot of garbage from abbey but she cried herself to sleep last night she then reminds everyone that she this is especially unfair since neah has been with abbey the longest and jill said i had no idea what it was for and holly said and you didn't care to know so they bicker back and forth and holly insists that jill is complicit in excluding neah since she made no effort to include her we're going to talk about all this in just one moment yeah so jill says holly wants answers that i cannot give her i have no idea why abbey didn't want neah to go to todrick's um and i need and the person i need to back me up melissa is at the ellen show with maddie sorry we all make decisions we all make our bed and we have to lie in it which i think jill's basically saying like holly you fought with abbey now you're getting it let me finish the scene we can distract so jess says jill is just happy that abbey's paying attention to kennel now as much as she is to maddie well let's not get crazy here well no but jill jill has been happy because kennel's been getting treated pretty good so of course jill isn't going to bring anything anyone else along or try to include anyone else so the argument gets heated as jess and holly team up against jill and jill says you're missing the point and holly says you're missing the point and you know what else you missed last night when my kid cried herself to sleep and jill said yeah i missed that holly said i had to call my husband at 130 to 2 because she was non-consolable so jill starts to storm out of the room when holly calls her a coward and to jill says you are no better than abbey and jill says you were always you always want to point the finger at everybody else but yourself you're responsible i grew that to you no because it was this is a little bit hard for me to watch this scene because with the same exact person todrick cloey was excluded twice both from todrick's music video that he shot with all of the a ldc girls and on a quote unquote todrick play date in la where nia pandell melissa or i'm sorry maddie mckenzie all went and hung out with todrick and cloey was excluded so holly is telling jill why didn't you call me it sure was my ability why didn't you call holly didn't call cloey or me and almost verbatim the same thing she saw it on social media and was upset not to mention when they were filming the video in pittsburgh all of the moms were there and knew that cloey was the only one from the a ldc not included but holly was still in abbey's good graces so she was not standing up for cloey yeah making abbey mad it's so hard just because i just think i take a break yeah i think in the normal in our normal lives we're all very supportive but when you're in this kind of situation you're you're really every man for yourselves man like you you are working out for your own kid because at this point you know nobody else's yes no i don't care who they are i think it's i do but i think there's an element of hypocrisy here because you're expecting everybody else to look out for your child but you're not do that exactly when you were benefited nope and like had it been reversed and you know like the situation was different then okay i can get it but literally almost verbatim it happened to my daughter and i could have sat upstairs and fought with holly and holly would have been like well that's your problem yeah but she expects joe just to out of her way go out of her way and so like this isn't one of those arguments that it's like i don't know we want to go take a break yeah let's just go let's just finish the field notes okay these two and then let them close the door let's just do the field notes and then we'll take a quick break i'll hold it yep okay so kira shamelessly plays both sides admitting to holly that she excluded my joe too and then goes to console console joe telling her it's unfair of holly's frame her uh joe blames holly for being the ultimate cause of the growing rift in the team and melissa and calls melissa to make sure that she has her back oh wait this next sentence is dead okay i take back what i said about supporting joe basically it's not their fault and abby makes them better and is giving their girls more opportunities it's kind of like in that um in that mean girls and we're just like it's not my fault that i'm really pretty and everybody's jealous of me you know grouch and wiener yeah okay so when kira leaves to check on joe holly vents her frustrations to jess and jess and holly are sharing a binding moment as they both feel that abby overlooks their daughters jojo and nia join their moms and discuss exciting details about nia's upcoming music video mickey calls holly to discuss nia's urban chick style evolution and to pump nia up about what they have planned okay so choking away choking away so now in the hallway where where did we end in the hallway oh yeah so we're in the hallway and jill refuses to allow to allow holly to browbeat her when kendo comes to check on her mom jill gives her a rundown of the ongoing fight with holly i thought that was weird that she told kendo like what was going on because usually we were always like oh don't worry about it yeah like i always did that on the way home like my kids would be like you know why were you upset or whatever and i'm like it's nothing for you to worry about or whatever you know like i would say the only thing maybe is because the girls are older and we weren't on the show but she's the same age that brook was when you would tell her you didn't don't worry about it i just felt like they had enough stuff to worry about they didn't need to know our problems yeah you know okay um so then jess at or in studio b in the viewing room holly says it's so clear that abby is incredibly sneaky and jill and melissa are doing the same thing jess says jill is just so happy to be in abby's right hand now right hand right now she can't contain herself and holly says jill's an idiot it might be my favorite line in the episode jill's an idiot i didn't realize that holly and jill did not really get along at this point oh i think it gets way worse remember i told you at the wedding holly just kept saying just you wait and i'm like what the hell happens in season five yeah because i don't i didn't know any of this yes crazy but it kind of makes sense because i mean we know in more recent years that there has been like an underlying whatever between them and it probably stems back to this yeah yeah but i didn't know about this no i didn't know where it was coming from right um and i didn't realize holly and jess got along pretty well well i think that when jess came and i don't know if it's now or later in australia i do remember and maybe this is where we get somebody like anion here again which i know you guys don't want anion but i'm just saying where she said that there was such a separation they kept like forcing jess to be i don't want to say friends with holly but to back holly up because she didn't have anyone but maybe here it might have been authentic i think later on it becomes like a plot i'm getting comfy yeah i see that a plot for the producer we're very we're very yeah you see that and all okay this is the most professional we've ever been so are we recording okay jill blames holly for being the ultimate case of the growing rift in the team and calls melissa to make sure that she has her back basically it's not their fault that abby likes them better and is giving their girls more opportunities but i'm so pretty and everybody likes me so jess and holly share a bonding moment as they feel that abby overlooks their daughters jojo and neah join their moms and discuss exciting details about neah's upcoming music video wait is jojo in neah's music video she might be kalani i think is the only one who's going to be in candles right i think so it sounds like it's because it says jojo and neah join their moms and discuss exciting details about neah's upcoming music video okay um mickey calls holly to discuss neah's i already read all this i already read all this yeah i put some around okay so jill asks to speak to abby outside they both agree that holly is blowing the incident out of proportion abby invites her glacke molessa her lackey jill oh yeah lackey this is now jill's the lackey and studio to watch rehearsal while holly and jess commiserate about their second clash treatment kira points out that all of the talk of her not being a team player she's the only one actively trying to keep the team united right now how's she doing that because she went out in hallway four or two so abby receives a surprise visit from an old friend and colleague robin anton who inadvertently reveals to abby that her choreographer mickey mindon is directing neah's video robin tries valiantly to give words of advice to all of the girls that all abby wants to do is talk about maddie who is it even there oh my god so now in the viewing rooms the moms oh my god he needs to write normal fucking writing lambit lambit lament like kallie's vocabulary lesson for the week lament jill and holly return to their verbal sparring regarding the todrick's incident which everyone with everyone exciting after holly declares her refusal to listen to more nonsense oh my oh god we got jihanna i actually like this jacket of i do too i especially like it when she doesn't wear it with polka dots exactly like this looks good just with a white shirt and jeans it would also be really cute with a black turtleneck like and yeah all right so now we're one day to competition oh field notes okay i am i got these field notes okay so maddie gives the girls and moms a full rundown on her experience at the ellen show it even shows them a video of her performance moms truly felt in their heart of hearts like if you were in their brain do you think they're like i think they can fuck you like yeah my daughter right um once the girls leave the room the moms decide kira's lack of commitment to the team how'd they discuss her lack of commitment to the team which is currently proven by her trip back to arizona would you imagine if we were like hey we're gonna go to a fashion show yeah um so kalani is rehearsing innocent abby is up on her feet and she's actually choreographing and in her interview abby says the music for kalani solo it's a little mysterious and dark it's like she has a secret and she might not be that innocent and the name of the roulette is two sapphires and it's going to destroy the a o c oh wait that's not what she's talking about oh okay so she says even though kalani is in the team division and maddie is in the junior division this competition gives out an overall high score for the solos so they're going up against each other as does every other competition we have done yeah and every other kid in the studio like i don't understand why she protects her against dancing against people i think because she said for so long that she's the greatest of the great that if anybody beats her then that means abby is subpar i don't know even if it's her own kids yeah i don't whatever so in studio b hallie and jill get melissa up to speed on their argument from the previous day nothing changes throughout the discussion jill and melissa failed to see any wrong doing on their part and holly insists that by complying with abby's exclusion of neah jill and melissa are still partially at fault jill talks about feeling overshadowed by neah's music career i did think this was crazy yeah holly is quick to question what she means since holly rarely talks about it and abby refuses to i i agree with that anytime she brings it up so i don't know how jill can feel overshadowed except if she is talking about the fact that production is paying for it but i think production pays for neah or i would think they paid for both of them abby made it out like she paid which you know what he said she paid like 60 000 or something abby wasn't paying for shit you wouldn't even pay for that camcorder that she had mckendy going around behind a tree with like she wouldn't pay for a canadaia cope to have on set no seriously she wouldn't she used to have the kids pull their money out their envelope for the taxi because she wouldn't pay for the taxi so jill says we all know how abby works we know she plays favorites so when she's giving it out you gotta take it and that's how i feel right now abby is invested in candle and i have to jump on the bandwagon because i've been waiting for four years for my kids to shine okay hold on she came in season two which wasn't even really in season two which someone pointed out to us at back to the bar live she was only in a couple episodes of season two which that wasn't jill yes so you were in season three four in fact that was not four years make darling yeah for like 18 months but okay maybe two years jill adds that she wants nothing to overshadow overshadow Kendall's moment in abby's spotlight i did not have this but but why can't they all have their day in the spotlight like why can't we rejoice Kendall's music video today in neah's tomorrow like i don't understand well i think it's because abby won't do that i know she wrote but i don't understand like why do you not want everybody to be happy especially children yes i don't know because she's the bell snickle the bell or the grinch um so holly warns the moms that abby is using the competing music careers to create division between the moms yes holly says the girls need us they need to be focused and not distracted by any of our nonsense the moms all agree and it's important to have a united front especially when going up against mdp so now we're at mdp in kira is rehearsing her solo resurgence erin talks to kira about her solo she says i don't want the wicked witch of the east to have any reason to judge you in your solo you are mother nature the protector of everything so everyone's watching her run her solo and erin says big things do come in small packages kira's tiny but she can do anything that you asked her to do i wonder how old she is i was thinking that no i have to ask you are some of these girls were they on kathy's team i mean the one looked familiar to me um i don't think so maybe you look familiar because she danced at mdp and we had them on the show a couple of weeks ago so erin ends her solo rehearsal with words of encouragement a high five and a hug oh god isn't that nice my god i would love to have for my kids to get a hug do you because there would be a lot of bosom nestling and god knows what i think i would have liked that okay so not shown erin reveals that through social media and the pictures of maddie kendo and kenzie with todrick the al dc image is more fractured than ever see there's no way erin knows that unless producers sitting at mdp are like look who's missing it's neah yeah so erin intensely propels them into rehearsal saying that yesterday was great but she expects even better today always driving towards perfection like the concept of the dance to connect with the theme of the perfect image erin instructs each girl to reveal the physical thing about themselves they wish they could change oh god oh i don't like that no i don't like her so now it's still one data competition we're back at third street dance with al dc they're doing rose garden um and they're wearing pieces of paper taped under their fingers because they're going to have nails on during the competition and it reminds me of that influencer who does the Kardashian like oh my god when she does clloe she always has like these long skinny posits on because of clowy's nails like those little skinny ones i know they fall off the whole time she's doing it it's so funny um so jojo jokes that they should use the nails to give each other massages abby explains that the long nails will be thorns the moms come in and watch a run through rehearsals interrupted by a phone call abby's real estate agent lets her know that she has a good and bad thing to tell her bad because she's about to be going into a lot of construction and good she got the building everyone is ecstatic yay and abby takes this opportunity to the importance of winning because she needs to establish her reputation in la it's not shown while congratulating abby pop group grl yeah i guess i don't know we've all been entered into the studio the grl girls perform a song and dance from the team um hoping to inspire them the girls glow with excitement as they get up and dance with the g l l girls and receive some words of encouragement abby involves them that informs them that both Kendall has an upcoming music video and holly quick adds that neah does as well so the pop group congratulates them and they exit the studio leaving on positive vibes positive vibes all right so we are oh no look at that that bracelet oh no that is the big mama of rhinestone crap does she have oh no no oh no it's like fringe oh my god i wonder all right it's good though yeah i can't get past the bracelet oh my god look at it it's like ursula tentacle where is one fine shit like that i think they're in new york but wait here also what is what is oh my oh my as if i have room to talk however we'll just go with it all right so it's a day of competition but come turn again and we're at world class talent experience in riverside california holly and me arrive first to the venue um who are greeted by erin and the rest of her md mdp team erin has nothing but friendly was nothing but friendly towards holly and neah and the three discussed neah's upcoming music ventures um in the al dc green room holly and neah have a moment to themselves before the rest of the team gets there so they discuss neah's newfound confidence and upcoming video shoot holly assures neah she knows that this is not a competition against kendall the al dc hi we're back market we sell expertly refurbished tech like phones for talking to your friends or your ai babysitter now playing rock a bye baby in style of norwegian black metal either way this expertly refurbished tech costs way less than you guaranteed by the back market promise one-year warranty and 30 day free returns on every purchase up next twinkle twinkle little star grindcore remix back markets where the world's shops refurbished tech my classroom isn't just a classroom it's a launch pad of runway a place where ideas fly on the back of paper planes sure there are other ways to get students to speak up but this is mine all it takes is a bit of creativity and soon they're all joining in it gives me a lot of joy to see one of my ideas working in the moment and the class learning something new together that's when you know a lesson is really taken off every lesson shapes a life start shaping yours with a minimum starting salary of 32,900 pounds search get into teaching girls and moms enter the green room and immediately compliment neah's new hair and in the mpp and dp green room the moms discuss how holly and neah neah are so clearly ostracized from the rest of the team and erin erin bashes abbey and how she doesn't promote a strong image of teen she's only about herself we know that we know that we do um oh no so everyone is setting up and they find that mdp has written on their mirrors which apparently is the most offensive thing ever just jill kiran melissa are very bothered by this and very quick to wipe the messages off holly says at least the message was nothing derogatory or negative i've seen much worse going on in our dressing room yeah yeah jill pulls up some messages from social media and lets the moms know just does that the mdp is trash talking to al dc on facebook jill is annoyed their girls would get in so much trouble for doing that so abbey enters and doesn't have anything positive to say about neah's new straight hair and only comments that it's waiting for the group dance abbey yeah uh oh yeah so abbey sets the new stakes it's no longer just about winning it's now about the big bill abbey has to pay which goes hand in hand with winning abbey has a bone to pick with kendall about not trying on her costuming for her video even though she has been steadily rehearsing her choreography abbey finally voices how overwhelmed she is about her new studio and the moms discuss the friendly ways that the west coast studios but it's not the same game for abbey no abbey's name period you just have that one line okay the moms decide to go to mdp's dressing room to confront them always a good idea and aron bashes abbey and how she doesn't promote a strong image of the team she only is about herself and al dc enters an insult mdp for having poor sportsmanship on social media aron counters that social media has proven the al dc's united image is fractured and neah being conspicuously conspicuously that word absent yeah so now the moms confront mdp over the mirror messages and their social media posts aron assures them that it was meant to be friendly and positive our kids self-esteem is so high and i would expect yours to be as well like they can post fun stuff like that which honestly it could have been taken in great fun like welcome to the west coast you know what i mean like it's like a heart on a mirror yeah um and jay questions the intent behind the message we're gonna kick some al dc booty she didn't say that she said pittsburgh booty she did yeah and aron said don't you want to kick our booty and jill said no we're raising fine young ladies well let me tell you and jill would have lost this week but right now we're raising fine young ladies jill says that they would never want their girls to say something like that aron's like i said it i mean she's not saying this yeah she did maybe you should then maybe they would want to kick some maybe they would kick some booty so after a moment of awkward silence the al dc moms decide to head out because let me tell you i worked with aron i wouldn't want to mess with her no i wouldn't and i think these moms knew that and i think abby knew oh absolutely so the al dc dressing room and abby walks into the dressing room the moms try to talk her about mdp abby's like don't say it don't say it because if we say their name they're gonna get free advertising on me and we can't have that don't say nobody's name but jill is persistent and brings up the trash talking that happened on social media and abby's like you got to lay off the social media jill maybe you shouldn't have an account if you can't handle it and jill says they're out to beat us again and abby's like and maybe they will so melissa and kira give their daughters tough talk before they get ready here is chris kalani that unlike every other time she's gone up against maddie this time her solo has a winning chance kalani agrees and emphasizes that she needs to win which right there tells you kalani does not so once the solos are ready abby gives them their own pep talk go out there be beautiful make me proud represent the al dc here in california so lots of people give me money to teach their children for now to the best of your abilities that's what i want also one of you should win everyone goes to the stage in her interview abby says maddie is practically the face of the al dc practically she has been for five years if that kid makes a mistake the whole world is going to talk about it abby always says if they're talking it's good i don't need mistakes not when i'm opening a new dance studio in la and maddie performs dream come true what did you think i liked it i think abby put every single thing she possibly could into it yes turn turn turn turn front aerial side aerial like a new combination and i forgot to mention this when i was watching her rehearse to me it was clear maddie knew the dance i think she's been rehearsing this number for a few weeks at this point oh doesn't doubt i wasn't out not a doubt in the world right she's going up against uh mdp and kalani abby is not letting he would have not let her perform no nope nope so then kira does resurgence with the tree like she's mother nature the trees in the back what did you think of this you said kira you mean kalani no kira this is the mdp girl um i think they're all good those korea people but i think their technique is really good i also thought she had some really interesting choreography i was like oh like i was like two to three times in that dance i was like oh that's cool which is nice because we're used to seeing the same shit six combinations yeah so that's nice i thought she was good i did i thought she was very good now what she doesn't have in her favor is a giant really popular tv show you know yeah and then kalani performs innocent what did you think i really liked kalani i liked it i said this to you in the room i think there is no doubts in anyone's mind that you can't look at kalani and think that she is technically and just naturally the best dancer that's ever danced at the al dc i'm sorry i i do um she has her leg she thought moned at one point and i think she's surprised because her leg was like over here where in her solo oh i mean she is so like you asked like when we are wedding or something yeah spot moning in her channel yes no she's just so naturally beautiful i think this dance did not she's amazing she showcased her true potential and i think abby knew that well absolutely absolutely i even the way it was like maddie's was stacked with stuff in kalani's wasn't but i think i would have picked kalani to win i think kalani's overall technique is just better i really like how she um transitions into her moves like very smooth and effortless like that pomeo flak to the back i mean it was like it wasn't like there was literally no effort behind it and it was perfect yeah like she is very joyful to watch danie yeah you have a lot of field notes oh god okay he likes an assignment so now in the hallway after seeing the social media post about mdp's kicking al dc's booty just calls the moms out on if they thought it was proven on the stage the moms are offended and confused when erin asked if they are ready for the image factor that they will face in a lay once again an outside team calls al dc out by questioning if nia is excluded from the new studio but holly assures them that she is not but she is why are you defending her stop it not defending nia defending abby like that's what i'm saying is i'll just say no no no no not defending me i'm saying by saying that no no she always looks at them like fuck you i got a tv show abby ain't taking me nowhere well you know but i also think that like by her saying like no nia's not excluded call her out yeah abby is an asshole to my daughter she is excluded but we're not going anywhere yeah yeah so in the mdp green room erin holds court with her team laughing about how abby is so threatened by them that she refuses to even speak to her yes she's correct abby unexpectedly enters all sweetness and sunshine and lolly yeah and unsure of how to interact oh great with the unexpected image that abby's portraying she stands dumbfounded as abby takes over the room she's like what the fuck is happening abby leaves and diana uh complains that she let mdp down and got completely duped erin reluctantly agrees and decides to go confront abby about her fake image um so unfortunately the fields don't elaborate on erin's conversation with abby but outside abby and erin meet in the hallway for discussion about each of each of their behavior towards each other erin returns to the team wide eyed after her meeting with abby she definitely encountered the real unfiltered abby this time around oh i want those fields though tell me what that person but yeah it says they don't have them yeah now in the dc dressing room um joe gives kendo a pep talk and stresses the importance that she does well to prove to abby that she is her next star holly joe kendo and mia all have a pep talk together and the moms assure them the videos are not a competition against each other and it should not come between their friendship i think they should have shown that and the al dc brings in a surprise that they have planned a cake roses for the crowd abby gives her final critiques to the girls as they rehearse their routine i am so proud that i didn't have to do bullshit like hand roses out to the crowd that's so stupid and they do that in new era right because what if they are one that they did that we recapped on pillow talk which you guys should listen to if you haven't um with jill and melissa but didn't they have like light up things in the audience because the girls did light up dances or something i'm just glad that we didn't have to get propped out to the audience because that's stupid i would have been like yeah this is almost as bad as hiring a private investigator right with a hand in the mouth and just act as like we did yeah so once the girls during costume they start running their routine kendo talks back to abby when she's given a correction she goes i know i heard i kind of like yeah good for you and then abby says to kendo if you heard then tell your ears to pass along the message to your brain at the video shoot if i tell you something and you turn around to me and say you heard to me like that one of those helicopters will be chopping your head off okay okay so the al dc performs the rose garden what did you think i liked it it might have been like one of my top couple favorite dances i did really like that yeah i think that there were some interesting things in it yeah and obviously it's very theatrical with the headpieces and all of the makeup and the nails like diana was working over time that was like the person who did their glam and makeup for jade i mean they probably gotten hair and makeup hours before each of them because they were really done and that's hard to compete with because at a dance competition 95 percent of the times the girls are like in a quick change yeah you know well we always were yeah for real not for filming yeah so to be that elaborate it definitely has an impact no so then mdp performs passing through time what did you think i liked it too i was sitting there watching and i'm like i'm having a really hard time deciding which one yeah that's what i was thinking too um because usually i'm like oh that was not good or yeah i'm good and normally i'll pick the other team just because ours always look the same but they kind of mix it up a little this week i felt like yep i agree go ahead get us all right so here's your field notes oh god oh so the a ldc calls mdp out for performing the routine that they have known for a year compared to the routine that the a ldc learned in just two days just before awards began abby and jana leave their seats and head towards back of the auditorium to watch from the back well what cowards you're gonna stand in the back so if you lose you're not on camera losing yeah but it's not mdp's fault that they learned their dance a year ago and we learned ours two days ago no that's what most competitions are you've been working on those routines for a year yep and then you go and compete them yep so they can't make it out like that's unfair for them to do that every single person that goes to competition does that has not learned their numbers in two days exactly so the awards are shown the junior solo kira gets fifth place with a score of 289 289 points maddie gets first place 293.6 so right there melissa already knows that maddie beat her in the overall so that's why they might not have looked shocked and kalani places first in the team division now if this competition did announce the scores out loud before the overalls which a lot of them did melissa and maddie already knew that she won over kalani because maddie got a 293.6 and kalani got a 292.3 so in the overall kalani gets second maddie gets first and the episode makes it seem like kira placed fifth in the overalls but in reality she placed fifth in her age division and didn't place it all in the overalls um and then did you notice they said her name wrong not kira's name but resurgence they called it i don't remember like resurrection or something does i announce it yeah so the overall group award mdp got third place with 288.9 and al dc got first with 294.9 i completely don't think it was that far across yeah i would be closer so now in the lobby abby and tiana are shown talking to the judges after the awards erin catches wind of this and she comes in and search herself into the conversation and erin is erin is walking over abby can be heard saying i know i'm bad like because she's talking to the judges which is very frowned upon and in any other competition situation abby would be having a fit if she saw somebody talking to the judges and after introducing herself to the judges erin confronts yon abby for schmoozing them which abby would have did the same thing so now in the hallway the two teams congratulate each other erin and the mdp moms are proud of the girls and convinced that they actually did kick the al dc butt and jill's like but you weren't the only studio we weren't the only studio to beat you you got third and the moms deflect and you're like you got to do the same choreography over the last five years which is true i do agree with them i did think this dance was slightly different so now melissa defends abby's shocking we didn't do the same routine or we don't do the same routine i'd like for you to do over 400 routines in four years is it how many are runs no because well this is season five 30 episodes maybe close so abby silently joins the mom jill pointing to abby says our kids because win because of that lady and their technique i would have banged my head against the stop it and then the mdp mom says they win despite this lady and abby lasted off team mdp they do win despite her yeah all right here well so erin mentions the image abby portrayed today cowardice uh by leaving her before results were announced in sneakiness by trying to influence the judges yep so the teams gather separate ways once they realize they have nothing more to say then in the end dp mdp green room erin is visibly angered by the results and how they promote an image of abby as being a force to be reckoned with on the west coast erin reminds her team to use this as fire to come back even bigger and stronger next time i i think erin is right because in the real world when abby would bring stuff to the west coast she only ever brought her crumb to the crumb top tier she knew that seniors were going to win dances she did not bring anything that she knew was even remotely going to get beat so it was like she would cherry pick what she would compete on the west coast because she didn't have choreography that would compete on the west coast for the most part yep all right she even says in that interview i have of her i am not known as like this insane choreographer i'm known for turning up kids who can go and audition for a show and know exactly how to audition because she's like other teams come in with these amazing numbers and that's not what i do i create employable dancers i did like i do like her choreography probably just because that's what i'm so used to yeah you know so now in the al dp dressing room everyone cheers and excitement when the girls come into the room abby says it was an artistic success and it was a business success abby brings up kendall's video shoot she's like kendall tomorrow's your day to go for it it could change your life you could be the next fritney the next katie perry or maybe the first ever kendall k and jill's like i like it quickie liked it and in her interview holly very sarcastically says thanks abby for your encouraging words to neah as you send her up for her first music video i really appreciate that that's a bitch like how can you not be happy for your student i don't know how so i'm not shown abby addresses kendall's big day tomorrow and reveals her expectations of her and the room is shocked when abby expresses that she would like to attend neah's video shoot and asks if she is welcome after proving that they ended up kicking mdp's booty the team exists and then the episode ends with abby leaving the dress room while everyone else is getting ready to leave i always loved when she left the dressing room i know thank god i know but then we would still have to argue even after she left it would be like okay now holly and jill fight yeah we need another fight for the night though yeah i yeah for sure all right so let's talk about what you guys had to say about this episode um views are down the audience viewership has been decreasing week after week after week in season five i think a lot of you are sick of it um many fans felt like maddie solo was surprisingly plain for a first place win some thought it was clean and technically strong but simple with repetitive ending poses many viewers thought kalani outdanced maddie and deserved the win saying kalani's performance was mature gorgeous and more difficult than abby than maddie's reheated nacho solo oh my god kira the mdp solas was praised for strong ability and potential but some fans said she looked too jerking of rough in transitions and lack facial emotion who was that kira yeah i would like to know how old she was yeah um mdp's group dance was widely called beautiful and modern by fans but some thought the costumes and the large prop distracted from the choreography fans were pretty split on abby's choreography with some defending its variety and others agreeing mdp's coach had a more modern fresh choreography i actually thought mdp's choreography looked very similar so i don't know um holly received even more heavy criticism in this episode than usual many viewers felt she was unfairly targeting jill over kendall's opportunities shouldn't have expected abby to promote mia's independent music video had become overly combative and inconsistent compared to earlier seasons yeah christinelle she has to do our job yeah a few fans defended mia saying while she may not have been the strongest on the team technically she showed maturity and courage but she stood up to abby abby was criticized again for allegedly setting me up to fail and speaking negatively about her in front of kendall and jill kendall's i know i heard comment to viewers to abby's surprise viewers some thought it was rude others argued she's just becoming comfortable with abby and she's a young girl oh god hey abby always says speak up yeah she loves it um oh so two days after the episode i tweeted some things tired of people saying they reached out to cloy and she ignored them flat out lies um some people will say anything when the camera's on them to make themselves look good a true friend would at least express sympathy i never want another lie about me i never want to hear another lie about me or my daughter again people's true colors are revealed tenfold oh what were they lying about you my grandmother dying this this my grandmother died this week my grandmother died this week and nobody reached out to me or cloy i did you did i'm talking about i came to the room yep i didn't realize that this is the week my grandma died so we must have been talking that but they're all saying like oh we're such good friends like people knew my grandma died and they didn't even text cloy so okay um so holly in response to the backlash this week tweeted i am not interested in a competition with the teammate i'm focused on making sure nia has a positive experience in creating her video making observations and holding people accountable does not mean i'm complaining i'm gonna put that on a t-shirt that's what i say all right so top fan tweets why do these moms allow abby to treat them like trash let alone their kids they're paying for her lifestyle and jill can piss off man she's so far up abby's ass right now first time i watch in years hasn't gotten any better i'm the moms i mean they are a horrible example of sportsmanship i feel terrible for nia but holly girl i love you you need to find your chill it's not jill's fault regardless kalani got robbed so bored with maddie this was an epic aldc group dance these all white practice uniforms are dreadful agree yeah there's no way at all that the aldc dance would beat that mdp dance at a real competition no way know how not at all can we please stop giving maddie these dumb princess solas like she's so much better than that crap okay so when asia became a professional dancer she couldn't do competitions anymore so how come maddie can't well i said that before i mean kenzie did the dancing with the stars or whatever yeah like i didn't think we're allowed to compete as just regular i don't know like it would be the star exactly exactly i don't know i don't either um okay so um what was i gonna oh i had a question for them this week oh no we we want to hear more about you guys and how you watched the show what was your what was your ritual routine who did you watch it with when did you watch it oh i like to hear that yeah i love when it's amazing how many people watch it with their dads and i love that so we want to hear that yeah i want to hear it all and we want to see you on the second half of the tour and i want to know if like your brothers watched or and why they watched just because you wouldn't let the change the channel or did they secretly like one of the girls or give us some of that did they like the crazy mom yeah they would say we need to know all right we'll see you guys back here next week let's go over to the after party hey 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