Back to the Barre

“They hand her pom poms and she’s on the field like, ‘What am I doing?’ says Christi, of the essence of the third episode of Dance Moms’ second season. Brooke may start at the top of the pyramid this week, but she ends up being thrown under the bus along with Kelly. The episode, like many Dance Moms episodes to follow, revolves around a small bit of truth that producers exaggerated into a completely false narrative. In real life, Brooke mentions that she’s thinking of doing cheerleading instead of dance, and Kelly expresses a sincere desire to make sure Brooke doesn’t miss out on normal milestones. Producers spin this into setting up a fake cheerleading audition for Brooke, and making it seem like it took Brooke away for the whole weekend, missing the competition and letting the whole team down. Kelly explains how none of this was real, and the huge disparity between what producers let the other mothers get away with and what they punished her for.Christi and Kelly share more behind the scenes trade secrets. Interviews are done the week after an episode’s footage is filmed and they could tell the direction an episode was going in based on the interview questions. Sometimes they were so eager to get it over with they would say whatever the producers wanted them to.Christi can’t believe that Cathy was allowed to push her and put her hands on her and get away with it, especially considering that those same actions would be enough to cause Kelly and Abby’s most infamous fight and all of the damage that resulted from it. They share the repulsive costume idea Abby originally had for the Born to Dance costumes. Quotes“Listen, when you go through the trenches with someone, you're joined for life. And there were times–and we'll definitely talk about this,--- especially when we talk about the episode that we had that big fight in—.we were together more than we were with our husbands.” (9:06-9:22 | Christi)“Originally, Abby wanted us to make umbilical cords out of fabric and wrap them around their costumes. That’s disgusting. I think I don't understand the purpose of that. Thank God we didn't do that. But there was a point where she had all that purple and red fabric and she was twisting it. She said, ‘I want you to fashion umbilical cords.’ And we said, ‘No. Disgusting.’ (20:44-21:09 | Christi and Kelly)“Abby says that Kenzie proved herself in the group dance. ‘Hope she remembers,’ she says, fingers crossed and smiling. I'm thinking, ‘Meanwhile she would take our kids out back, tie them under a bumper, drag them through that pothole parking lot if they forgot.” (32:50-33:04 | Christi and Kelly)“Maybe we should start drinking whenever Jill wears fur.” (33:30-33:33 | Christi)“Abby says, ‘You know, when your kids get a full scholarship to Harvard, and Brooke’s going to community college like her mom, are you going to support your friend?’ I said, I didn’t go to community college, bitch. Meanwhile, Abby didn't go to college either. So what is she talking about? Did she even really graduate from high school? (46:35-46:58 | Kelly and Christi)“She's the type of person who breaks your toys. She doesn't want anybody else to play with her toys. So instead of sharing, she breaks them. So if she can't get her way at the competition, she's just going to screw everybody.” (48:06-48:18 | Christi) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

17 Okt 20221h 19min

“I cannot believe this show is on television,” says Christi about Season 2 Episode 2 of Dance Moms. “It’s so absurd!” It’s also hilarious. It features some of the funniest lines in the show’s history, including the name that Christi called Cathy, which producers asked her to modify because it was too funny to leave out but too obscene for a family audience. This latest recap is just as funny, and features a story of Kelly eating at a Chinese restaurant with Abby that lives rent-free in Christi’s head. In this episode, Kelly and Christi react to Jill’s sense of entitlement and willingness to overstep her bounds and play dirty right from the beginning. Abby continues to play dirty, too, accusing Kelly of being drunk at rehearsal, and insinuating to Nia that Holly doesn’t love her. Kelly’s resulting tirade manages to be unintentionally hilarious. Vivi-anne continues to be a source of deadpan comedy for Christi, delivering two lines that have since gone down in Dance Moms history, one of which is Christi’s favorite of all time. They discuss the dance at this week’s competition which is Katy Perry meets the Andrews sisters, complete with rats and snoods that are the bane of their existence. They only wish the show would choose better music to dub over the original choreography music, and that they would show the actual dance moves that made their daughters stars in the first place. Quotes“This episode has a ton of really iconic lines from the show that have been quoted a billion times, so this will be a fun one to recap.” (8:48-8:54 | Christi)“It’s so funny that the show always opens with Abby screaming ‘Girls, let’s go!’ because it makes it seem like our girls aren’t ready. Meanwhile, our girls have been sitting there for four hours waiting to go.” (9:57-10:08 | Christi)“I am astounded at the bullshit that is said out loud to these children. I don’t remember these things and when you watch it back, it’s horrifying!” (20:50-21:01 | Christi)“This is where it starts to get dirty, and there will be lots of this going on in Season 2. Abby gets pissed because as we and our kids become popular with the fans, Abby wants us gone. She doesn't want anyone on the show who the fans like, except for her favorites or herself. So she would get so pissed off if anybody liked us, so that’s why she wants you and your kids gone. Because people liked you.” (45:39-46:08 | Christi)“We’re in the dressing room, and we’re starting to do their hair and it’s hair everywhere, there’s rats and snoods, Abby is wearing a frickin tracksuit with aggressive rhinestone jewelry. It is Dance Moms at its finest.” (1:00:09-1:00:24 | Christi)“This is why I liked Candy Apple weeks because we were very united as a team. It felt good.” (1:11:37-1:11:43 | Christi) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

10 Okt 20221h 24min

“You can completely tell that we knew we were on TV at this point,” says Christi of the premiere episode of Season 2 of Dance Moms, “The whole tone completely shifts.” In this season, the original Dance Moms are now self-conscious of how things will appear on camera. In an effort to avoid breaking the 4th wall, they refer to the show by calling it “the video,” in reference to the popular music video that the girls filmed in Season 1. Everyone else is aware now, too, that the Moms are on TV, as suddenly there is a line around the block to audition for the ALDC dance studio in an effort to be part of “the video.” New Mom Jill, who once thought Abby’s studio wasn’t good enough and drove an hour away for Kendall’s dance lessons, showed up to audition during Season 2, despite claiming never to have watched “the video.” Leslie, too, feels entitled to have her daughter Peyton receive a spot on the dance team, and to reap all the benefits of being a Dance Mom, despite not having put in any of the work. Of course, some things never change, like Abby’s constant contradictions and cruel behavior toward the girls. She makes Holly—and by extension, Nia—feel guilty for not being at rehearsals because Holly has to work, yet she yells at the other Moms to get jobs. She asks why Nia’s dad can’t stay and watch rehearsals in Holly’s place, but last season, made Maddie’s dad leave because a father’s presence makes the dancers uncomfortable. Kelly and Christi explain the long-lasting effects of Abby’s harsh and unfair critiques of the girls’ intellect and abilities.Kelly explains the story behind one of her more (though not the most) infamous fights with Abby where she calls Abby a whore. Though producers unsurprisingly removed it from the final cut of the show, Abby had viciously gone after Kelly’s mother with unfair and false accusations, causing Kelly to explode. They discuss the origins of an audio clip of Abby that has since gone viral on TikTok. Quotes“So here we are, Season 2, the show had aired, it was a bonafide hit, and no one has fixed the potholes. There were still giant potholes in that godforsaken parking lot. Abby was hoping one of us would fall in there and die.” (11:22-11:44 | Christi and Kelly)“The one thing I did like about Season 1 is that it was us. No one knew what we were doing, no one cared about the show. And you can see a big shift, even in the auditions all the moms are excited to be sitting by us. And when we’re watching in the audience at the competitions, you can see the mom behind us is all smiles and excited to be on camera. So, it changed everything.” (22:39-23:08 | Christi)“I think that we were always supposedly under the threat of being replaced. Meanwhile, you can’t replace us, we’re under contract on a show. We would have left. If we had been allowed to be replaced, we would have chosen to leave.” (27:41-27:57 | Christi and Kelly)“This is why nobody knows what to do because Abby contradicts herself so much. There are different rules for everyone.” (32:10-32:16 | Christi and Kelly)“And Abby wonders why we don’t strive to get better. Because the only one who’s striving to get better is the only one that you’re positive to. (34:48-34:57 | Kelly)“We knew Jill from dance competitions, she just didn’t talk to us before she was on the team.” (53:26-53:30 | Christi) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

3 Okt 20221h 33min

“You gave us the opportunity of a lifetime,” Christi says of John Corella, one of the creators of Dance Moms who joins Christi and Kelly to discuss the origins of the show and how it still resonates with audiences 12 years later. As former Mr. Dance of America, John wanted to create a show that let viewers see some of the country’s most talented young dancers and their dedicated mothers. As they all recognize, the show came together easily, as though it were meant to be. The chemistry and camaraderie among all the women was already in place. John looked out for the ‘OGs,’ and pushed back against the craziness that resulted as the show progressed beyond its original format. Now that he teaches dance to little children, he better understands what the Dance Moms were going through with their kids at the time.They discuss their favorite moments, how they deal with continuous negative feedback, and even the celebrity response to the show. They wonder if some of the people from the community who weren’t cast still wish they had been. John even credits the show with making inroads by bringing different cultures and lifestyles into the living rooms of the average American viewer. Quotes“The thing about the show that I think was different from a lot of experiences that people had: Everything just kept clicking. Everything kept working. Everything was fast. Everything fell into place. It didn’t seem difficult. A lot of people pitch shows, and they sit in production for a year.” (13:07-13:26 | Christi)“That is the beauty about Dance Moms is that women identified with you all, and kids identified with your kids because they were inspired by you all. And that’s why people watched it.” (20:38-20:52 | John)“You all were funny. You have to give yourselves credit. You were so funny and open. The cameras turned on and you went. That’s something I’d never seen before and it’s hard to find.” (23:45-24:01 | John)“We’re probably more hypercritical of ourselves than anyone else because we always have to apologize constantly for our behavior–’I’m sorry I did that.’ We’re always defending ourselves.” (26:45-27:00 | Christi)“I never brushed it off. I feel like it kind of ate at me, and that’s why I sort of lost my mind, because all that would bother me. I was never a social media person, I’m still not. I try to just stay away from it. I would lose my mind if I read everything everybody thought about me.” (27:56-28:23 | Kelly) “I just can’t imagine what all of those people, who are the quickest to judge and the meanest, what they would look like if someone put a camera on them. Or if they were under the pressure that we were. You never know how you’re going to react. And then you get your kids involved and it’s a whole other ballgame.” (29:18-29:37 | Christi and Kelly) “The part that I don’t like about reality TV is the lying. Just be transparent and let people choose whether they want to do it or not.” (38:12-38:27 | John)“I don’t think anyone should suffer over television.” (45:36-45:39 | John)“I didn’t know the effect it would have on people. I felt like people would watch it but I didn’t know how angry some people would get, how passionate, how crazy over your kids. That was something extremely new.” (52:14-52:31 | John) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

26 Sep 20221h 3min

“It all started at Mohan’s. And now here we are,” Kelly says ahead of this episode of Back to the Barre, during which she and Christi explain how the show, which was meant to be a limited fly-on-the-wall “docu-follow” series, became a cultural phenomenon that is just as beloved today as it was when it debuted eleven years ago. Though Abby insists in interviews that she never auditioned for the show, Christi herself interviewed Abby, and Kelly, for producers. Contrary to popular belief, Abby had no say in who was cast. From the beginning, producers were learning (with some help from Abby, Kelly suspects) what set the Moms off, with one producer flat out telling Christi and Kelly to start a fight with each other. People from all over Pittsburgh auditioned for the show as well, and Christi and Kelly discuss the reactions from people around them, including those who weren’t chosen, once the show became a hit. Kelly felt doing the show would be a big mistake, but her husband convinced her to do it, while for Christi, it was vice versa. They admit that the show has been bittersweet, changing their lives, for the better and the worse, in ways they never could have imagined. Quotes“We probably would have been better off doing ‘The Amazing Race’ than doing ‘Dance Moms.’ Even ‘Survivor.’ I think I would rather have eaten a cricket or something. If I survived ‘Dance Moms’ I could survive ‘Survivor.’” (10:20-10:42 | Kelly and Christi)“Brian called me and he said, ‘Do you really have a dance teacher that can’t dance and yells at little kids?’ And I said, ‘Yeah. Doesn’t everyone?’” (16:32-16:48 | Christi) “The show’s totally different from what it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be a docu-series of six episodes. Somehow it ended up being all of us from one studio and it ended up being eight seasons.” (18:44-19:03 | Christi)“We found out it was called ‘Dance Moms’ when we were on the road in the summer. Abby was really pissed about that because it was named after us instead of the dance teacher, or ALDC.” (19:25-19:46 | Christi and Kelly)“I just remember not being really interested in doing it. Even when we found out it was a ‘go,’ I remember saying to my kids, ‘Do we really want to do this?’ I remember vividly where I was standing when I said that. I thought, ‘I don’t think this is a good idea.’ The kids said, ‘Let’s do it!’ Randy my husband said, ‘It’s six episodes. Just do it. If you don’t like it, don’t do it anymore.’ So I said OK. Big mistake. Probably the first and only time I ever listened to my husband.” (32:35-33:30 | Kelly)“Us just sitting up there, that’s what we did every day of our lives while our kids were dancing. So, it really didn’t seem any different, there was just a camera there. And I think the kids were the same way.”(38:47-38:59 Kelly)“All I remember thinking was ‘My husband is going to kill me.’ Because Mark did not want me to do that show. (53:27-53:34 | Christi)“I think back and I think we were very naive obviously, but I also think it was really hard. It was also exciting. I think back and I smile about it. Who can say that they did that? Who can say they were on a billboard in L.A. and on every bus in New York?” (1:03:38-1:04:06 | Christi)“It all started with us at Mohan’s on a video camera. And here we are.” (1:04:09-1:04:16 | Kelly) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

19 Sep 20221h 7min

“This shouldn’t be called ‘Dance Moms: Most Outrageous Moments.’ This should be called ‘Let’s humiliate Christi and Kelly on national television—again!’” Christi says of Episode 13 which counts down the most memorable moments of Season 1. She and Kelly are afraid that their recap will be repetitive, and they do cover some familiar ground. Abby constantly contradicts herself if not flat out lies, and no one can defend themselves against her. Abby complains that the moms don’t pay their tuition bills (which they do, ahead of time, actually) but never paid the moms in return for their costuming, stoning or hair and makeup duties. But there are plenty of new gems in this episode. In fact, Kelly brings up an excellent point: if the girls whom Abby criticizes (basically, everyone but Maddie) are as bad as she says they are, how are they able to perform the same choreography in the group numbers, or perform solos without any extra instruction and often with only minutes to prepare? It’s an insight that reconciles one of the overarching points of the entire show and one of the most fundamental flaws in Abby’s logic and method of doing business. She and Christi want viewers to know that they were always fighting, but in a different way than the kind the producers insisted on showing. They fought to show the natural chemistry that the original members of the cast had with each other, having spent so many formative years together before the show ever came along. They fought to do more fun stuff, to show the laughs and inside jokes that made so many viewers lifelong fans. Kelly insists that if there had been more of that, the original cast would be on their 20th season now, showing the girls dancing in college or trying to make it in Hollywood. But the producers insisted on drama. That very chemistry is as present as ever between these two longtime friends. Join them as they offer up extra goodies including Christi’s defense of Cathy’s horrible attitude during Season 1, and Kelly and Christi remembering Abby’s boot camp which, among other tasks, involved having the kids jump up and down carrying a ten-pound bag of potatoes to see what it would feel like to gain ten extra pounds. Quotes“I was trying to find a drink called the mind eraser.” (9:43-9:45 | Christi)“Could you imagine Abby doing all the french twists and putting on the eyelashes? She can’t even put on her own eyelashes!” (14:30- 14:40 | Christi) “I am not wearing shoes as I’m doing Chloe’s hair and makeup in the dressing room. I want to punch myself.” (21:36-21:45 | Christi)“I don’t know how Abby can call Laqueefa a style of dance.” (28:53-28:57 | Kelly)“Of course, as soon as Abby’s backed into a corner, what does she do? She goes after the kids.” (32:51-32:56 | Christi)“I think we had incredible chemistry as a cast. We knew each other so well. When Jill came in, we didn’t know her, so it was a little harder. The four of us—-excluding Cathy because she wasn’t really part of it. But Abby, us, the kids, we had such chemistry because we had that history, so we knew things. I wish the producers had let us go a little bit into the more fun stuff. (39:24-39:58 | Christi)“I think we could have had 20 seasons with just the original cast if we could have just been shown to be ourselves without the fighting. But we weren’t allowed.” (40:19-40:28 | Kelly) “Do you remember how filthy Melissa would be upstairs? We would cackle! You just didn’t see any of it. It was so funny.” (40:50-40:58 | Christi)“When push came to shove, we always had Abby’s back.” (1:01:50-1:01:53 | Christi) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

12 Sep 20221h 14min

“There are two good episodes of Chloe in ‘Dance Moms’ and this is one of them,” says Christi of the final episode of Season 1. In this episode, the girls and their moms are still in L.A., (although there is a “pickup” scene that is filmed in Studio B back in Pittsburgh and everyone had to pretend otherwise.) Chloe is chosen to portray the younger version of singer Lux in Lux’s music video, “It’s Like Summer.” This was really a competition between Chloe and Paige, and as Christi points out, Paige received high praise from producers and more camera time than even Chloe in the video’s final cut. Yet Dance Mom producers made it seem like another rivalry between Chloe and Maddie to amp up the drama.Kelly and Christi finally find an “abbey” they like. They talk about visiting The Abbey, a West Hollywood institution and wonder, not for the first time, how a group of moms from suburban Pittsburgh ever found themselves in such a crazy situation. Back then, reality stars didn’t think to brand themselves or utilize social media the way they do now. Only a few years later, other cast members like JoJo Siwa, capitalized on the mistakes and missed opportunities of the show’s original core cast. Kelly and Christi continue to share hilarious anecdotes about being recognized in their early days of fame, when people still thought they knew the ladies from the bank or from church, but we’re still waiting to hear the story about naked pizza. Quotes“Abby uses one of my favorite quotes, the one that reminds me of the night I got roofied: It’s every man for himself.’ She said that when I got roofied.” (13:37-13:48 | Christi)“It’s really unfortunate that Chloe and I are featured a lot in this episode’s interviews because these are the worst interview looks Chloe and I have ever had so far.” (22:47-22:59 | Christi)“We had the bows before JoJo had the bow-bow.” (24:49-24:51 | Christi)“Melissa looks like she’s from ‘Little House on the Prairie’ in these episodes, except with fake boobs.’ (34:19-34:26 | Christi)“We weren’t of that era. Now, when people get cast on shows they think, ‘How can I have this be on my social media? How can I leverage this? How can I brand this like JoJo with the bows?’ We had bows in every episode but JoJo had someone to brand her. And she was three years later, and watched us so she knew what to expect.” (39:13-39:37 | Kelly and Christi)“No one knew what to do with us or our kids. It was just a totally different thing. Now, if you’re on TV you can say, ‘Here’s a link to my outfit.’ Then we just thought, ‘What isn’t dirty. What can I put on my body and just crawl into the dance studio and get through the day. We were not like that. The world wasn’t like that.” (40:52-41:19 | Christi)“The kids spent 24/7 together, you didn’t really want to be in an argument with each other.” (42:42-42:48 | Kelly)“I know everyone in the audience says, ‘You could have called and met with the producer Seven.’ No, I couldn’t. Just like I couldn’t go and meet with an acting coach because I was on a TV show, and I could only do what they allowed me to do.” (43:57-44:14 | Kelly)“Let’s drink in honor of the kidnapper van. I wish it would kidnap me.” (47:43-47:48 | Kelly and Christi) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

29 Aug 20221h 18min

“Before the show, I didn’t even know I rolled my eyes,” Christi says while recapping Episode 11 of Dance Moms. Christi’s eyes get as much of a workout this episode, which takes place in Lake Tahoe, as Chloe, whose dancing/filming schedule has been so punishing she’s starting to break down. When Abby sits the mothers down to give feedback about their daughters’ techniques, she says Chloe lacks confidence, not realizing her relentless criticism is the cause. She says Brooke and Paige are slow to comprehend things, and Kelly is quick to point out that Brooke is 13 and dancing with 6-year-olds, when she danced with senior girls as a 5-year-old. Brooke has several national title trophies, which Kelly tells Abby to shove up her ass. Kelly blows up in rehearsal because, once again, Maddie gets special treatment at the expense of Paige and Brooke. She regrets the times she got upset on camera because it let producers know what got under her skin and how to use it against her. Meanwhile Chloe and Maddie’s sweet exchanges backstage at the auditorium show how close the girls truly are without Abby’s negative and meddling influence. The moms had the same camaraderie with each other, despite producers only ever showing them fighting.While filming these episodes, the moms were becoming more aware, in real time, of how they were being portrayed, what producers were up to, and how they needed to change their behavior in order to protect themselves and their daughters. Eleven years later, there are still regrets and fresh wounds, but ultimately a hard earned sense of humor about it all. Quotes“It seems very glamorous. All these people who would come on and be featured and be told that they were amazing. They weren’t doing the grind like our kids. So, everyone thought it was super glamorous but when you really stepped into it, it was hard as hell.” (18:09-18:26 | Christi)“I think that’s a little glimpse that you get into the moms. Even though the only interaction you see is us always fighting, we would sit upstairs for hours, and 90 percent of the time we laughed our asses off..” (23:50-24:04 | Christi)“Normally, Abby is throwing us out. Last week she said, ‘You don’t need to be here, get out!’ Now, this week she wants us in. She probably wanted us to make costumes, honestly.” (25:49-26:03 | Kelly and Christi)“I am just sheer misery on camera.” (30:16-30:19 | Christi)“I don’t want my kids to be like Maddie and Chloe. I never cared if my kids got first place. My complaint always was good choreography that could compete and a good costume. I didn’t want to beat Chloe. I didn’t want to beat Maddie. And neither did they, they were always very happy for the others.” (32:45-33:04 | Kelly)“The problem with our show is Abby had too much control. If there had been people behind the scenes–which we tried to get—an off-camera choreographer, an off-camera costume people and Abby wasn’t calling the shots on everything, (33:39-33:56 | Christi)“Even for our kids to get good dances, the producers would have to almost kill Abby. They would have to bribe her, they would have to threaten her. (33:57-34:05 | Christi)“They show a shot of me, and my eye roll is absolutely ludicrous. I have one eye closed, one eye in the back of my head. It looks like I’m having a seizure. (35:28-35:38 | Christi)“Before the show, I didn’t even know I rolled my eyes.” (35:39-35:43 |Christi) “I’ve said this all along: When you have high expectations of someone, they rise to the occasion. When you’re constantly putting them down, then they feel like they’re a failure and can’t do it anyway, and think Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

22 Aug 20221h 20min