I don’t have a semi-witty comment to transition myself into the recap so I’m just going to awkwardly put a few dots at the end of this sentence and hope you don’t notice……
For the first time in Dance Moms history someone, besides Maddie, is on the top of the pyramid. Congratulations Brooke, for being first on the pyramid, even though you don’t care. I’m not making a dig at Brook, that’s literally what she said. I guess she was trying to be modest, but if I were on the top of the pyramid I’d be jumping up and down, praising Jesus (and then probably have to be escorted out of the room). For being on the top of the pyramid Brooke was awarded a solo, along with basically everyone else on the team…
During rehearsal it’s immediately revealed that Maddie has been awarded two solos instead of one. She’s doing her previous solo, Cry, and a tap solo, that she competes every year, as part of her tap private. I go back and forth on whether I thought it was acceptable for Maddie to have two solos. The girls, specifically Chloe and Maddie, sometimes dance more than one solo when at competitions. It’s just this time that Dance Moms decided to show it. I think the fact that it was “Solo Week” and everyone was each getting a solo made it slightly controversial.
Cathy was not happy about the solo week, because it meant that Vivi would have to dance her “Bumblebee” solo, which Cathy is not a fan of. Vivi is obviously not the biggest fan of dancing, at this point. I know a lot has changed since then, but when she was 6 Vivi told her mom several times that she doesn’t want to dance anymore and I think Cathy took this as Vivi not wanting to do the solo. Vivi never voiced that she wasn’t comfortable with the new choreography, just that she wasn’t comfortable with dancing in general.
During Paige’s solo rehearsal, I really noticed how different she looks now compared to how she looked in season 1. Hands down, the biggest transformation throughout the 3 seasons. Just something I noticed.
The moms went out to lunch, to Mohan’s, which should definitely be a landmark shown on the Dance Moms Pittsburg tour, that will probably never happen, but I’m secretly wishing will. Of course, Cathy spends this free time trying to explain to the other moms why she is, in fact, better than all of them. Please enlighten us, Cathy. Apparently, since she’s a dance teacher, Cathy is being charged double what the other moms are being charged, for dance. Since she’s paying more Cathy is automatically invited into this secret society at the Abby Lee Dance Company, consisting of only her, where she can ignore certain rules that needed to be followed, like riding the bus, staying to cheer on the rest of the teammates and having your child preform the correct solo at competitions. I’m glad you sorted that out for us Cathy.
Back at the studio, Mackenzie is practicing her solo. She takes the quote of the day when she says, “I don’t want to be on Broadway. All I want to do is stay home and eat chips.” Well aren’t you just so precious!
During Chloe’s rehearsal I had a small revelation. I’m not afraid to admit that back in season 1 I was a typical Dance Moms watcher, who only really grasped what the producers wanted me to grasp. I was a hardcore Chloe fan and I didn’t like Maddie at all. In the second season, I finally woke up and realized what an amazingly sweet girl Maddie is. What attributed to my season 1 haze was partly Maddie and Chloe’s attitudes towards everything. In this episode, when asked about their dancing Maddie said, “I don’t like to loose, but I don’t ever loose anyways.” And Chloe said, “I think my biggest competition is Maddie, because she’s an amazing dancer. Some people have told me that I’m a good dancer too.” Chloe is just a lot more modest than Maddie in season 1. Of course, I don’t hold this against Maddie because she was 9 and probably didn’t mean it, the way it sounded. However, that’s the way it sounded and it’s what mainly caused the comparing between Chloe and Maddie, at least for me.
