When I was little, I went to basically a low-rent version of this kind of dance studio. I think they wanted to be rabidly competitive, but nobody was good enough for that. I wanted to be in class with a friend, but she was in more advanced classes and they just let me, a chubby little nerd with zero dance experience, merrily join in.

Our recital costumes were red spandex crop tops and bike shorts with gold lace ruffle collars attached. So please, try to imagine a fat little turd of a kid in red spandex and gold lace ruffles, shimmying beneath the blazing stage lights to Aretha Franklin's "Pride", and you've got my preteen years summed up.

And yet, I only managed about twenty minutes of this. Pure evil.

I'As a rule, I have avoided watching shows of the "child abuse for fun and profit" genre. For some reason, I played this one. Only watched the first part and I'm uncertain whether I will watch the rest.


It was even more cringe inducing that I expected. These girls deserve better this. If you are a parent and relate to Maddie's mother, you've failed as a parent. If you relate to Abby, you've failed as a human.

When I was a male nanny for a well-to-do, well-bred Southern family, their daughters were forced (basically withheld love until they complied and competed as ferociously as possible in this backstabbing little world) into doing this while their mothers all jockeyed to push their daughters into position to be the alpha bitch. To the point where the mothers spied, or sent spies, to watch each other. Not to mention that rival dance studios did that to each other as well.

My girlfriend, up until this semester, taught at one of these schools and its as hellish as you'd expect and it all comes from the parents.

"Elton John is straighter then those legs" wow lady. That'd be fucked up even if they were not a group of 8-9 year olds.

It's like Cobra Kai for lolis.

I can't finish this one either, but five stars for "Sometimes when Abby yells it makes me laugh, cuz her face turns red".

Maybe Abby should show us those flips and spins so all the kids know how to do it right.

Then they were forced to fight each other, gladiator style.

Five for the mothers acting victimized by this woman, and yet paying her thousands of dollars to do this to their children. That's some blue ribbon mental gymnastics right there.