Set in Pittsburgh's renowned Abby Lee Dance Company, owned and operated by notoriously demanding and passionate instructor, Abby Lee Miller, the Life Time series follows children's early steps on the road to stardom, and their doting mothers who are there for every rehearsal, performance and bow...all under the discerning and demanding eye of Miller and intense mothers who enter their young daughters into dance competitions.
Seeing the highs and lows surrounding competition season delivers an intriguing and dramatic look at the cast's frantic pursuit of the ultimate National Dance title. Her “brand” of “inspirational” teaching is unique to her. She makes statements like, “It’s my way or the high way. If you forget, I’m gonna chop your head off.” Abby is a verbal bully who isn’t in great shape herself, so I don’t see why or how she’s as good as they say she is at what she does, but she’s been teaching since she was 14, and they say she is one of the most sought after dance trainers in the country. I don’t think I really believe that. Maybe she’s the queen on Pittsburg, but let her go to LA or NYC and then we’ll see how good she is compared to real competition.
The show, which is called a reality show, but is really a scripted show judging by what occurs in it promotes the verbal abuse of children and is accused of “creative editing to create what they want to depict. According to TMZ, the producers of the show have been accused of wrong portrayals and even banned from StarQuest, a competition in Pennsylvania. They are also accused of not airing the true results of the competition ... and editing the footage in a way that misled viewers into believing certain dancers were competing against each other .... when in fact they were not.
Producers also misled the organizers of Star Quest into thinking the show was about young girls in the competitive dancing world -- not about their catty foulmouthed mothers. Listen everyone, there’s no such thing as reality TV. The best you can get is loosely scripted, which is what reality shows are. Even talk shows are scripted, I know because I have been on them and even interned on one. People are told to clap, say oohs and ahhs, shake their heads to match with what the host is saying etc. So everything you watch, even a documentary is at least loosely scripted. The bottom line is once a camera is on a subject who is aware, the subjects modify their behavior, so there is nothing like a "real" reality show.
The show comes on every Tuesday at 9 PM on Lifetime. Feel free to watch, if you are into watching the verbal abuse of children and parents vs Abby verbal wars, as they all laugh all the way to the bank.
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