sofiah

Yeah, you are right. And to be honest, I get tired of Alexa's choreography after a while too. Sometimes it's a little heavy handed on the "this is a serious interpretive dance" vibe. Trying too hard, so to speak. But Kalani's solo "video game" solo is not Alexa's choreography, I think its Andrew Winghart. The other solos I linked to I like better. I just posted Kalani's onto the thread because they are the most relevant to Dance Moms :)

I think so. The type of choreography above may not be for everyone, I accept that... but Abby's choreography is like choreography-by-number and is usually geared towards winning competitions. If she gets her hands on a flexible dancer then its literally generic trick after generic trick with awkward transitions in between. Plus its cheesy - she relies on pretty "emotional" music, ridiculous costumes and exaggerated pained expressions. If you guys watch Carlee's solo that I linked to above, its pretty traditional. And she won 1st, so, judges at TDA do see the value in the more graceful dances too. I am in no way being snarky, just genuinely interested - I'd love to see some links to young dancers (not strictly ballet from YAGP etc.) that you guys do enjoy... besides ALDC of course.

The Dance Awars Vegas happening right now. Here's Kalani's solo competing for teen best dancer (results aren't in yet, I think they still need to announce top 10 and then re-do solos and have the improv competition She won 5th overall in the regular nationals with this solo If anyone is interested, this same youtube channel has a bunch of solos from Club Dance and others at TDA and a lot of them are pretty amazing! Carlee was first in juniors with this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg-pVCkWrMg And Bostyn's I really liked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unawS2cgaeI Jaycee's also really interesting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MShuwbiDUvQ And some amazing minis from all the studios - too many to link, I won't bore everyone! I've heard that Maddie and Kenzie will compete at TDA New York... will be interesting to see how they do!

I also didn't like that solo, I have to admit. I personally didn't follow dance that long ago so I don't know any that are now dancing in their twenties. I have been a fan of Simrin Player though, since she was a little seven year old... and now I think she's around 17. But when she was little she was more known for hip hop, she wasn't really a competition kid. Either way, here she is at 11: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5aSiopbgQo And more recently... I personally love that solo, but I know its not for everyone!

Well this solo was not choreographed to win any competitions or be purposely technical -- this was a performance for a closing show, she never used it to compete and it was purposely choreographed for this purpose. Either way though, I disagree. I think it's a beautiful dance that does show strength and control She's obviously not a ballerina (although all Club Dance dancers in Pre-Pro take quite a bit of ballet), but she certainly is a technical and controlled dancer - one does not win mini best dancer at the Dance Awards, as she did this past year, without being one.

I stumbled upon this solo of Brynn's. She looks so much better here then she did with Abby's choreography. I think this would have won. Also, its telling that Abby put Brynn against Maddie, because as far as I can tell Brynn was 11 when she was on the show, and actually closer to Mackenzie's age.

I don't think Nia is leaving the show until its over. I think her and Holly see them leaving prematurely as letting Abby "win".

Guys, my DVR must have cut off the end -- what did Melissa say about Mack that was so horrible? I must have missed it... Yeah, I figured this was the case too... Also agree about Maddie's tap. I don't know much about tap, but it didn't seem very advanced to me -- plus her hair looked silly and the costume was awkward. Maddie's previous tap solo - game of love - I liked better! It had more charm... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0VONrWeJjM Mack's was just trick after trick... but she does seem to have learned some cool new tricks! If only they could incorporate a little dancing in between the tricks...

I dunno, I thought Melissa and Abby seemed happy for Mackenzie. Melissa was crying for crying out loud. And I don't think Abby cares that much, because she also favors Mackenzie a lot. And I'm usually a Maddie defender, but when Abby went to hug all the kids and Maddie says to Abby "I deserve to beat her, but thats ok!"... that left a bad impression on me. It felt like Maddie was waiting for Abby to do what she usually does when Maddie doesn't win -- announce how unfair the results were and tell everyone how she should have won -- and when she didn't Maddie was a bit taken aback and said something to her. However, I do understand Maddie a bit -- whenever she doesn't win, she knows that EVERYONE in the room is watching her for a reaction. It must be very uncomfortable and awkward, especially with your oaf mother telling you to "BE HAPPY BE HAPPY" for the cameras. Maddie gets disappointed when she looses, doesn't mean she isn't happy for the person who did, and sometimes I think she just wants everyone to leave her alone about it. She did look very happy for Mackenzie when they were onstage together... the problem came after, which makes me think perhaps it has more to do with her relationship with Melissa and Abby then it does with her. Also, Abby is clearly acting crazy - I suspect on purpose. Seems like she is in a battle with production. She's forced to do things like the pyramid, etc. but she is just going through the motions. Her making Jojo cry for no reason was despicable. That is actual bullying of an innocent child. Travis Payne was amazing.

I really liked Jordyn too! I also liked Trinity from the next season, who coincidentally was also the "hip hop dancer" of that season. You can see her front and center from around the 2:10 mark -- she is really good! And the group of little kids that dances after her group are so impressive too! I love watching these videos because the kids look like they are having so much fun, and the choreographers look so engaged in watching them and dancing with them. I get the feeling that a lot of the kids getting work in LA are the ones who are good at hip hop. Those are the kids getting booked for music videos, awards shows, etc. Abby should invest in some good hip hop teachers for her studios...

I also love how Nia seems cool calm and collected when dealing with Abby. If there was ever a child who was not born to be a pop-star it's Kendall. Nia PERFORMED infront of a bunch of people, singing, dancing, etc. She was confident, happy and kind of carefree about the whole thing. Kendall, on the other hand, was loosing her mind just having to STAND on stage with Abby and thank a few people. Also, who dressed her? She looked like a tacky adult's version of what is "cool". I like Kendall, she seems like a great kid, but I feel for her that she is perhaps being pressured to go down this path.

Yeah I love seeing them too! Maybe we can start a general thread - or as you said, move it to the small talk thread if it starts to get too off topic! I agree... way better. I looked them up and Kaycee Rice and Charlize Glass (from the Rihanna video) are some of the best out there for their age. Asia is "fierce" but I don't think she's actually that good at this type of dance.

Here's a video of some kids of similar age... the little ones start at 1:10. Its not Brian though - Tricia Miranda. I'm no expert but they look like they'd eat Maddie alive, hehe! The little girl on the left (with the maroon shirt) is not showy but so good - so smooth! And the middle one was actually on Dance Moms in the Candy Apple team! But Maddie would probably eat them alive in lyrical, so this isn't a dig at her at all - I just didn't realize little kids danced like this! On another note, how fun do these classes look? Sure beats getting yelled at by Abby doing the same thing over and over!

I didn't realize it featured all the others as well! I take that back then ;)

Thats Brian Friedman... who is kind of a big deal in the dance world - he has choreographed for Britney Spears, Beyonce, etc. and he's the creative director of X-Factor and I think also America's Got Talent. He's also creative director of The Pulse on Tour convention which tours around the world with some of the most successful choreographers in the business. So, its kinda cool for Maddie to be dancing right next to him! But anyway, I lol'ed at the heels too, haha! He also obviously adding Maddie's name to the title of the video to get more hits because I wouldn't say this video really "features" her.

And I recognize the girl in the front in the two first dances ... Simrin Player who goes to Kalani's studio and was teen best dancer this year. She is amazing! I'm super impressed with Maddie... really good for someone totally not used to this type of dance.

Here's a video of Maddie dancing a very, very different style from ALDC choreography. She is waaaaay better then I thought she would be at this kind of stuff! Go Maddie! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Bl5FUstgE you can see her starting around :36

I don't think any of them will really be remembered per se... but Nia and Chloe are known pretty strictly only by people who watch/watched Dance Moms. Maddie may be turn out to be a one hit wonder, and she may only be known through Sia, but she is still miles ahead all of the other girls in the sense that at least she is not known *exclusively* by people who watch this reality show. I'm not saying she is well known or that people know who she is... but she is undoubtedly miles ahead of any of the other girls in terms of credible dance appearances (Grammy's, more recently Dancing with the Stars, etc.) and having her name/face out there (modeling for Capezio, working with Elle, etc.)

I thought it was funny when Jill said that she thought Abby was upset that Holly "flew Nia's choreographer all the way here - he didn't do that for Kenzie's music"... it seemed to me she was talking about the producers, but they changed whatever name she used to Holly in order to maintain some semblance of reality on this show. I think the producers are clearly messing with Abby by doing this whole huge thing with Nia's music. If this is the case, It make me feel bad for Nia - who is kind of a pawn in the sick game. Hopefully she is aware. Or hopefully its not the case. She did look more comfortable onstage then Kenzie ever did, even in her rehearsed videos.

I thought the same thing - but you can check the results on their website and both groups were in the junior category, and ALDC did win overall. It was an invitational though so I don't know how meaningful that is!

I totally buy that Maddie won 1st overall. As someone mentioned upthread, I didn't think the little girl from MDP was that impressive, just flexible and tricks -- I really liked Kalani's solo and so also thought it was believable that she got 2nd overall. I wonder if she won 1st in teen? Did they show that and I missed it? It would also make sense for Maddie to beat Kalani in the overalls because teens are generally scored much more rigorously then juniors. The group dance I liked but why oh why with the hideous cheesy costumes? Would have been so much better with simple black leotards, maybe a red skirt and a little pop of green somewhere, etc. And those horrible nails! Does anyone know if Abby is forced to use these over the top costumes for the show -- or is this really just her taste? I find the music video stuff boring -- don't really care about either girls' music videos if I'm honest. Its sad to hear their mothers talk about their "music careers" starting. So delusional.

I doubt that. Very unlike the other "guests" on the team, Abby actually worked hard to convince Kalani and her mom to come back onto the show. She wants them there and actually pursued them. Abby loves her and has since she competed in AUDC, and she's friends with her mom too.

Oh god... where are the intelligent adults in these kids lives to advise them to stop with the crappy music videos. I can kind of understand why 12 year olds think they can/should be pop stars... but shouldn't they have mothers, fathers, publicists, producers, etc. around that let them know better? I will say though that Nia looks much more comfortable on stage playing the role of a "pop-star" then I think Mackenzie ever does/did.

I think it was probably more like production wanted them to lose this time so the dance had to be bad - not that they determined the theme. Or maybe they determined the theme too - but the important part was probably the fact that it had to lose. I can believe it. They need to lose to the Candy Apples sometime, otherwise the "rivalry" kind of doesn't exist and that storyline is dead. Agree with everyone that Mack's solo looked exactly the same as always.

Yeah, I know they are dance videos - I just find it weird that most of them are so edited (not all, but most) even when its just her doing a combo or something. It makes me feel like I don't actually get to see what her solos "really" look like because there are always so many cuts and some weird pink backlighting for effect. I've seen a lot of LA based choreographers make the glossy videos of their classes, but not so much individual dancers. Larsen Thompson, Kaycee Rice, even Zack Venegas himself (who I guess choreographed this)- you can see them in glossy Brian Friedman or Willdabeast videos, but if you go to their youtube channels it is mostly unedited raw footage of them in class, at conventions, etc. Anyway, I guess I am in the minority in what I'd like to see... and Chloe is more of a "star" then those other dancers since she was on tv for a long time. I like seeing what she's up to, I just wish I could see more straight up dancing as well :) ETA: I've been a big fan of Maddie and the Sia videos so far, but I have to admit I don't love this latest one either... I found it a bit boring.