The Price of First Place: How Dance Moms Turns Ambition into Turmoil
The reality TV show "Dance Moms" captures the highs and lows of the dance world, emphasizing the exploitation and exaggeration used to enhance entertainment.
"Second is the first to lose." When Abby Lee Miller shouts those words at her ten-year-old dancers, it's more than a harsh remark – it's a window into the exaggerated world of reality TV. What began as a wholesome hobby turns into an emotional nightmare, where the artistry of dance is sidelined for entertainment. The Abby Lee Dance Company, a Pittsburg institution since 1980, gained national fame in 2011 with the premiere of Dance Moms. The show dramatized competitive dance, shifting the focus from artistic expression to the relentless pursuit of victory.
The pursuit of victory in Dance Moms distorts public perceptions of competitive dance by exaggerating the importance of winning. The show fixates on the Abby Lee Dance Company’s obsession with first-place finishes, presenting a skewed view of the competitive dance world. In reality, competitions like Shooting Stars, held bi-monthly, offer awards across categories such as choreography or costume design, which don't always reflect technical skill or artistry. However, the show heightens the stakes with dramatic weekly competitions, glorifying first-place wins by dancers like Maddie Ziegler—former Dance Moms star turned celebrity— while treating second place as failure. This portrayal undermines the true essence of dance, which celebrates teamwork, creativity, and personal growth over constant victory.
(Image of Maddie Ziegler winning first place in the earlier seasons)
The fixation on winning not only distorts the spirit of competitive dance but also creates immense emotional pressure for its young stars. By pitting mothers, dancers, and Miller against one another, the show fosters an atmosphere of conflict for dramatic effect. In an interview with Forbes, original cast member Nia Sioux describes her time on the show as "stressful" and "confidence-shattering." She attributes her eventual recovery to family and prayer, underscoring the mental toll Dance Moms inflicted for the sake of viewership.
This mental toll is compounded by the physical demands depicted in Dance Moms. In the show, one of Miller's dancers, Paige Hyland, breaks her foot attempting a back tuck to win Miller's approval, while Nia Sioux also struggled with pain management due physical and emotional stress. These injuries reflect a broader trend in youth sports, where overtraining and perfectionism is on the rise. According to the CDC, in 2001, athletes aged 5-24 made 2.6 million emergency room visits annually due to sports-related injuries. By 2023, Johns Hopkins Medicine reported over 3.5 million sport injuries annually, illustrating the growing risks of overuse injuries. The show mirrors this troubling reality, showing how intense training and mental strain can have lasting effects on young athletes.
The intense training and mental strain seen in Dance Moms, highlighted in Miller's "Second is the first to lose" sentiment, extends beyond dance to other high-pressure youth sports, like cheerleading. Netflix's Cheer provides a more authentic view of cheerleading, following Navarro College's journey to the National Cheerleading Championship. While Cheer highlights the pressure to win, it avoids the sensationalism of Dance Moms. Coach Monica Aldama's supportive approach contrasts Miller's harsh critiques. The result? Cheer lacks the explosive drama of Dance Moms, but it offers a more realistic view of competitive sports.
However, the chaos of Dance Moms, opposed to the realism of Cheer makes the show so captivating. The global appeal of dance helps the show reach a broader audience, turning the intricate world of competitive dance into a high-stakes spectacle. By prioritizing drama and winning over artistry, Dance Moms reshaped both the lives of its dancers and the expectations of its viewers, leaving a lasting impact on the competitive dance world.