Dance Moms Season 2 | Channel Guide Magazine

“Dance Moms” recap: Warts, Miami And All

March 14, 2012 | By Lori Acken
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Or Dance Moms recap: The Pony, The Swim and A Jerk. Again with the decisions! Whatever you want to call it, this week’s episode begins with Abby blaming last week’s loss at Fire & Ice Elite on the girls, rather than the fact that they did her choreography flawlessly despite having to do it in their judge-mortifying, fan-dancin’ underpants. Which is everyone’s fault but the girls’ and that’s a fact. The pyramid is a complex affair with lots of qualifiers. Bottom of the bottom is Big Mac, who, says Abby, should act “bigger and longer.” A perfectly zen Mac looks like [...]

“Dance Moms” recap: Faux Weddings and a Funeral

February 29, 2012 | By Lori Acken
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Does this mean we can be done with shows about Jill now? That Kendall can dance, happily, supported, victorious and unhindered by her mother’s ego? That Nia can dance happily and supported, victorious and unpunished for her mother’s work-life balance? That this show can actually become an eensy-peensy bit about dance again instead of the low blows of high-heeled moms? I’m guessing no on all accounts, but a girl can dream. Because I want my old Dance Moms back. The ones who ultimately played yakky but reasonably harmless second fiddles to their joyfully dancing daughters. I want to believe that at least [...]

“Dance Moms” recap: Benched

February 22, 2012 | By Lori Acken
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First of all, let me say how thrilled I am to be wrong in saying last week that Paige would not be at the top of this week’s pyramid. Paige earned her spot, and Abby rightly gave it to her. Then let me say how not pleased I am to be right that she would be made to pay in some regard for winning last week’s competition, which we’ll get into more in a bit. Suffice it to say for now that Abby’s ferocious vitriol toward a wisp of a girl whom she knows has one nervous-wreck cell for every [...]

“Dance Moms” recap: She Cried With Her Boots On

February 15, 2012 | By Lori Acken
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We learned something right out of the gate, didn’t we, Dance Moms Nation?! We learned that the floors in Abby Lee’s studios cost a whopping $68,000. Thus, like the dancers upon them, they are precious and heels are not allowed. Naturally, Jill shows up in gray suede boots with not-allowed heels. It’s OK, she tells Abby Lee because she’s standing on her toes. Rules dribble off Jill like water off a duck, but Abby lets it slide for now, ‘cause she’s got stuff on her mind. Namely this week’s competition, which is Dance Explosion in Secaucus, NJ. It will be riddled [...]

“Dance Moms” recap: Bully for you! And you! And you!

February 1, 2012 | By Lori Acken
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Forgive me, Dance Moms nation, but I must begin this one with a big bucket of editorializing. I just must. Is it just me, or has this season begun to give off wafts — OK, big ol’ smoggy clouds — of having been stripped of the one thing that made all of the adult theatrics palatable (or at least survivable)? That is, the dignity of the little girls who — no matter what behavior in which their parents or the truly insufferable Abby Lee indulge — go out there and dance with preternatural grace and maturity, and treat one another with [...]

“Dance Moms” recap: Return of the Candy Apples

January 18, 2012 | By Lori Acken
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Forgive me, Dance Mom Nation, for I am an episode behind, having been sequestered at a hotel in Pasadena covering the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour. I’m all caught up now and will recap the premiere (I think. Eventually.), but in the interest of staying current, let’s forge ahead with last night’s humdinger, “Return of the Candy Apples.” • Watch “Return of the Candy Apples and other full episodes of Dance Moms online Before I dive in, let me issue a correction to early posts in which I said Brooke and MacKenzie did not return for this second season. [...]

Christi Lukasiak talks “Dance Moms” Season 2!

December 14, 2011 | By Lori Acken
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“A year ago, I was sitting on my porch with a Flip camera talking about how crazy my dance studio is,” laughs Christi Lukasiak, cuddling her toddler daughter Clara while on break from shooting a brand-new episode of the runaway Lifetime reality hit Dance Moms. “A year later, we’re on national television and heading into our second season!” • MORE: Lifetime announces plans for Dance Moms: Miami Fans recognize the bold, blond thirtysomething as unofficial leader of the posse of four put-upon mothers united by their daughters’ training at the nationally known, Pittsburgh-based Abby Lee Dance Company — and the [...]

“Dance Moms” returns to Lifetime January 10

December 6, 2011 | By Lori Acken
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From Lifetime: Ever since it wrapped its hit first season shrouded in sequins, costumes and fiery catfights, die-hard fans have been clamoring for more of Lifetime’s fast-rising docu-series Dance Moms. Last summer’s most talked about show, featuring infamous dance instructor Abby Lee Miller, her world-class students and their mothers, Dance Moms will take its long-awaited leap back into the world of competitive dance on Tuesday, January 10, 2012, at 9pm PT/ET. • MORE: Read Channel Guide’s exclusive interview with Dance Mom Christi Lukasiak! Dance Moms will debut prior to the premiere of Lifetime’s new fashion competition series 24 Hour Catwalk, [...]

“Dance Moms”: Chloe’s audition tape, finale fallout and a teensy teaser for Season 2

October 19, 2011 | By Lori Acken
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Even though Dance Moms’ domineering diva Abby Lee Miller swore to Reality TV World that the production company for the jaw-dropper hit auditioned moms only and the kids came aboard untested, today her co-star Christi Lukasiak tweeted a link to what she says is Chloe’s (perfectly adorable) audition tape for the series: • MORE: Read Channel Guide’s exclusive interview with Dance Mom Christi Lukasiak!

Dance Moms finale: And it’s Chloe for the win!

October 6, 2011 | By Lori Acken
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By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA I knew it! I said! Way back in episode …well, whatever episode it was where the Big New York Casting Agent came! I said this: “So now that I’ve accepted this new reality in this new reality show, I feel equally secure in tossing this prediction: Despite the fact that she has done nothing but dance joyfully, express her love for her peers and look splendid in an inappropriate pile of brown eye-shadow — Maddie is about to get her comeuppance at the hands of Chloe. I say this for several reasons. One, because that would make [...]