Marissa Ziegler // Dance Moms

Dying to Dance

"Did you call Cesar yet?" I ask my mom as we're in the car on the way to dance

"Not yet, I'll call him soon though, don't worry" She assures me and I smile. We then arrive at the studio so I get out of the car and I grab my blue dance bag. Blue is my favorite color because it reminds me of my eyes and the ocean, and I love the ocean and beach

"Hi Abby" I wave as I walk inside the studio

"Hey, babydoll. Has your mom contacted Cesar yet?" She asks me and I shake my head. "Make sure she does it soon". I nod and walk into the dancers den

I change into my white top and pastel green booty shorts. Then I throw my hair up in a ponytail and add a white bow in

"Let's go, girls! Come on in!" Abby tells and we make our way into studio A for pyramid. I take a seat between Vivi-Anne and Nia and behind Maddie so I could play with her hair

"I want to talk about this upcoming weekend. It's regionals. Everybody knows how important that is. We are going to Starpower" Abby points to the writing on the board, but I look over to the pyramid

Mari
Maddie Chloe Paige
Brooke Nia Vivi-Anne Mackenzie

"You know that's one of the toughest competitions out there. This is what's going to happen for this next weekend." Abby thinks

"Maddie, new solo. Brooke, new solo. Mari, new solo. Chloe, new solo." She lists and I smile to the other three who return it

"Now... the age categories are a little different, so we want to make sure that your dance reflects you as a dancer now, not the beginning of the season." Abby tells us

"We are doing a new group routine this weekend, and everybody is in it, the entire cast. It is called Where Have All the Children Gone. This is a routine about children who become missing. You've all seen the children's faces on the mil cartons. It's contemporary, it's mature and it is very dark. You have to be great actresses to pull it off. And they're all in white, like they're angels." Abby explains. I love dark numbers so I can't wait

"I don't want any discrepancies. I don't want any opinions." Abby says to the moms

"Moms, I'm going to go ahead and dismiss you now. We have lots of work to do. Girls, up. Let's get moving. Let's get moving. Come on."

Five days to competition

Right now, we're in studio C rehearsing with the music. It's not even music, there's a man narrating the lyrics, he's just speaking them. It's really creepy, but really fun to do. I'm using my acting skills to portray my character.

But basically, throughout the dance we're killing ourselves. I'm supposed to put my fingers to my head like a gun and basically shoot myself so I fall into the wings of the stage and out of view from the judges

"Come in close. Listen to me" Abby waves us over to her, and so I get up and walk closer

"You're dancing. You're doing the steps. You're trying to listen to the words. You're not interpreting the story correctly. And this is very serious because maybe people in the audience have had a child that's gone missing, so you're going to touch somebody's heart. So this has to be a very serious routine. And right now you're just doing the steps. And we need to get past that, and we need to perform." Abby explains before turning to Vivi and Kenzie who are sitting next to her. "Do you two understand? It's very serious."