March 21, 2025 • 31 mins
Abby Lee Miller is dancing through life sans the moms she used to deal with on TV. She reveals an update on her health and why none of her former dancers are on the top of her pyramid anymore.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello, everybody. Addie Minella here.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
You may know me from a little TV show called
Dance Momps. And if you don't, well you should, that's
for sure. The show was in one hundred and thirty
four countries and my voice was dubbed in eleven languages.
And I'm a little bit everywhere on social media, including TikTok,
(00:33):
where everybody likes to mouth or reproduce, recreate my voice.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So you're gonna know me.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And if you don't know me, your sister knows me,
your mom knows me, your girlfriend knows me. Somebody that
you're affiliated with knows me. That's for sure. All right,
let's jump into it and get started right away here,
shall we.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yes? All right, So.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Recent headlines something about Tate mccraig. You are going to
have to wait and check out my YouTube channel that's
at the real abbe Lee Miller to get the full
story on misstate. Fabulous dancer, fabulous singer, just thriving right now, and.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
You'll hear the whole story. It's funny, Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Now, I am here on Rogue Energy to talk about
what's happening, what's new, and what's going on in my life.
So let's get right to it. Have I've spoken to
the team since Dance Moms some of the students, Yes,
(01:42):
I talked to If you watch my podcast Leave It
on the Dance Floor, you'll see a whole interview with Kilane,
with Brinn Brynn's.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Mom, Ellianna, Ellianna's mom.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I'm trying to think of who else has been on
Jojo of course and Jocelyn Sea. So I tried to
include the moms with the girls, but they're not together,
they're separate.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So we could, you know, dish on the mothers.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, some of the key people that I was so
good to, so kind to, so generous with my time
and music, costumes, choreography, everything I don't talk to.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
They don't speak to me.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I think that kind of has to do with some
you know, liegishes, let's say, a forensic accountant, you know
who's MM and M incorporated things like that, and that's
part for the course. Yes, And I also had a
song that I produced called It's a Girl Party you
(02:42):
Might Know It to catch you a Little Tune, and
it went to number one in Australia, the UK, and
the United States on iTunes. And I haven't seen a
penny of that either. So there's issues on why kids
aren't keeping in touch or why they're not you know,
with me or on my podcast, or they don't come
(03:02):
to see me. Yeah, you have to check them out
and ask their mothers too. So people ask about my
health all the time. Have I struggled with health issues?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I was healthy, never spent one night in a hospital,
never until I was fifty two, and then look out,
I had cancer. It's called Burkett lymphoma, choking my spinal cord,
and it's a very fast growing disease. They said, in
(03:34):
five weeks you start to see symptoms. At eight weeks
you're dead. That's how fast. It's a deadly cancer. And
it was choking my spinal cord like wrapped around thirteen
vertebrae like black tar. So when they finally somebody listened
to me, I went to six doctors in ten days,
(03:58):
through a ten day period, visited a doctor emergency room,
a dentist because my jaw was numb six different times.
And I got go home and take it easy, honey,
you'll be fine. Oh she wants drugs. Oh she's an
actress on TV. Oh this, oh that, Go home and
take it easy, honey. So I ended up paralyzed from
(04:20):
the neck down, and then after emergency surgery, I was
paralyzed from the waist down, and then my feet came
back after a time, and my knees came back. I like,
you know, gradually it worked its way up, and it
worked its way down, but through the middle, like from
your waistband to the middle of your thigh, is still period.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So paralyzed.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I could set a hot pan on my lap and
I would feel it, but I wouldn't feel it until
minutes went by and I was already burned. Yeah, so
I feel things but differently than you. And that's a
good Because I've shattered my tid fib in my right
leg twice. Once I was in a swimming pool, random
(05:07):
rare accident, and the next time my wheelchair smashed me
so hard into a wall that it shattered the bones
in my leg.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Crazy, crazy, crazy crazy. But the cancer's gone. I just
had a pet scan. I'm doing well. It picks up
even one sell of cancer in your body. There's nothing
to be alarmed about or even to look at another scan.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
It's We're all good.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
My left shoulder is really bad of ligaments that are
really bad in my rotator cuff, and that left knee
is taking all the brunt of being off that right
leg for so long. All right, so now let's move on.
Let's do more exciting things to talk about. Yes, all right.
So some of my students have spoken about their time
(05:53):
on Dance Moms. Do I think their criticisms are fair
or have they exact?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I think they just lost their minds. I do.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I'm the one that had ten rounds of week long,
seven day chemotherapy, twenty four hours a day. What happened
to them, I don't know. But I was the one
that fought against the producers. I was on the same
side they were on. They were my team, they were
my kids. I loved those kids, yes, and I wanted
(06:27):
them to put their best foot forward. I wanted them
to step out on that stage and own it and
be fabulous, because, don't forget, we were competing against my
competitors in West Virginia, in Ohio, in New Jersey. Those kids,
their students had six months to learn one routine. My
students were learning it in two days. I did everything
(06:50):
I could to get them the best costumes, to get
the best music, to get time, more time, more time
to choreograph.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So that's what I remember.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I remember quitting the show because of something they wanted
to do to Maddie, not let her do the sea video.
I remember quitting the show on something they were going
to make me do. Can't even go into that. And
I remember quitting the show when one of the producers
(07:22):
was pushing, pushing, pushing the moms and even the girls
to talk about my legal woes when it was an
ongoing investigation and they were told that by the United
States government not to talk about. So yeah, and I
had a reason to quit for sure. Now let's get
to another question here we go, which answer do you
(07:46):
think truly had the most talent and did they live
up to their potential? Well, you know, I had a
lot of talentsed kids in my studio had back in
Pittsburgh have till this day. And one of the boys
that auditioned to be on Dance Moms with the original cast, oh,
let me rephrase that. They didn't audition. They sat in
(08:10):
a chair next to their mommies and they smiled. That's
what they did. Nobody danced, So he did that too.
He just left Hamilton on Broadway to go to Chicago
to learn the original choreography that Bob Fosse gave. He
was in the movie West Side Story. He first Broadway
show was Newsy's. He did three other Broadway shows. He
(08:35):
could have learned a new dance every week and made
it look amazing. The kids that they cast on the show.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Not so much.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
It was a struggle and that's what made for conflict.
That's what made the story. So did any of the
kids have the potential and they didn't live up to it? No,
I think they all exceeded their potential. They I've been
in my studio and continue dancing the way they were dancing.
(09:07):
Now there was other kids that would have passed them up,
but now they're all multimillionaires. So you know, it really
doesn't matter what I think.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
The biggest misconception that people still have about Dance Bombs
and my role. Well, you know, people watch the show
all over the air. Since Wholu bought the show from
the network, then Disney Plus bought Hulu, we have a
whole new audience. Five year olds, six seven year olds
are watching the show. I get messages that Broadway baby
(09:41):
passed away and they're so story. Kids are crying because
my dog passed away, And little ones asked me, did
I go to build a bear to get Broadway baby stuffed?
That just breaks my heart when they say, do you
think she went to build a bear? Yeah, So the
misconception is that I'm this mean, horrible, wicked witch of
(10:05):
the West. When I fought for those kids, I fought
for better costumes, for better music, for better themes. I
fought constantly. I fought so that Maddie could do the
see a video. I fought so that things would just
be better. It would be a better work environment, a
(10:26):
happier place. I fought, sometimes on a weekly basis, so
kids could go to an audition somewhere else, so that
kids could go to a movie premiere, so that they
could leave early to do something exciting in Los Angeles.
I fought with them all the time. I quit all
the time. Yes, all right, Now let's.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Go to.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Who was the most difficult parent to deal with? And
why can you get Yes, they were all difficult, all
in their own ways. They were difficult to deal with.
And then one that you think is your best buddy
in backing you up is the one stealing from you,
right under your nose. I think some of the ones
(11:14):
that I had the most altercation with were people that
I let slide before the show. I let slide on
the tuition, I let slide on the balance check, I
let slide on breaking the rules.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I let them slide.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I let them walk into those interviews when nobody, nobody
that ow tuition or owed money or broke the rules
should have been allowed to even interview to be on
the show. That's a huge regret too, Yeah, because there
were lots of other people. Now have any of the
(11:52):
moms reached out to apologize and make amends since the
show ended. No, No, I remember when I was in
the hospital. It was after the emergency surgery, after they
announced to the world at a press conference that I
had this very rare cancer, Berka lymphoma found in Africa
(12:14):
in little boys under the age of ten. One mom
kept calling and calling and calling my dear friend, and
finally the friend said, Paulie, what do you want? Like,
can you tell me what you want and I'll relay
the message. We're not giving her any phones to use
(12:34):
right now, or any messages to use or to handle,
And she said, can you imagine. She said, yes, Nia
just wants to, you know, finalize this. She has a
few things to get off her chest, really really and
(12:55):
my friend was like, click, never talk to her again,
all right, So let's move right along. Is there any
moment from the show that you wish never aired? Probably
lots of moments that I wish never aired, But I
wish there were some episodes that aired. Lily doing her
(13:17):
spider dance that won the overall high score of the
whole entire competition. She'd beat these seventeen and eighteen year
old boys that were brilliant dancers that went on to
Juilliard and to different ballet companies. She beat the perfect score.
Never aired it, So that means because it didn't air,
I couldn't submit it for an Emmy Award. And I
(13:40):
didn't know how the Emmys worked. I didn't understand. I
didn't know that I could have actually entered things myself.
Once I became a member of the Academy, I learned
all these things, and the show never entered anything for choreography,
and that sickens me. Yeah, that's a big, big regret.
(14:00):
Dance Moms made me famous, but it also made me
infamous for sure. Did the show damage my reputation more
than it helped, Well, it didn't help my reputation at all.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
It helped me become a name. It helped me.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Travel the world to meet children and parents that knew me,
that wanted to meet me. So there was so much
good and so much that I'm grateful for, truly grateful
for the show. But the way I was depicted in
the city of Pittsburgh, it was a witch hunt, literally
a witch hunt. They wanted to see me go down,
(14:45):
and they thought of every little thing that they could
do to make that happen.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
It was a joke.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
That whole trial, that whole thing was an absolute absurdity.
It was waste of taxpayers money for sure. I think
four million dollars of the taxpayers money. Yeah, and then
I got a forty thousand dollars fine and I went
away for eight and a half months. The sentence was
(15:12):
a year, but I got a life sentence. Sitting in
this chair, so I want to reach out and thank
that judge for a life sentence, because if I hadn't
been taken off my medication in prison, cold Turkey, medication
for thyroid and medication for diabetes. You don't take people
(15:33):
off that cold turkey. You're weaned off of it over
a year. Takes a year, And I was, nope, you
can't have your medicine anymore. Little form of punishment. All right,
let's go to the next question, shall we. Which former
dance mom star has surprised me the most with their
(15:54):
career path?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Well, I don't know. Did they have careers? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I think Nia again, she was in an off Broadway show,
she was on a soap opera. She now goes to
Disney World, I don't know, one hundred times a year
or something crazy, and I'm sure it's all for free.
So I think that she has made a lot of
(16:24):
money in the entertainment industry that I never thought would happen.
I thought she would always be involved in entertainment because
she truly loved it, but more of an entertainment attorney
or maybe behind the scenes as a producer. I never
thought all of that would happen now. And then her
mother goes to France to Paris, does this whole YouTube
(16:49):
video with her husband about being at the Mulin Rouge
and it's my first time here, and it's my first
time there and oh, it's my first time.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I took her to Paris. I took her to the
Mulain Rouge. She sat right across from me. I don't
know what all the lives were about.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Why couldn't you just say, oh, it's my second time,
it's my first time with my husband.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Okay, all right?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
That was a shock. Do I still watch the episodes
or do I avoid them? It's not that I avoid them, but,
honest to goodness, fact, I love scripted TV. My shows
right now are Will Trent, High Potential.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Elsbeth Matt Locke. Those are my shows.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
So if I'm going to come home and watch something
that I missed on TV, it's going to be that
the only time I watch anything on the show is
when I have to do a YouTube video and talk
back about it.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Who do you think milked their dance? Moms fame the
hardest without giving me any credit, all of them, all
of them, And I don't know if they milked it.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
They think.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
That just all happened, that agents and publicists and stylists
and producers were just contacting them because they were fabulous.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I honestly think that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
They think if they were just sitting in Pittsburgh in
their houses.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That this all would have happened. It all happened without me.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
It all happened without a network, It all happened without producers.
It just all happened because they were so damn good. Yeah,
not dancing, just in general strange.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
It's very strange to me.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Does it bother me that the stars I created don't
acknowledge me? Now? I think that everybody knows that they
were in my dance studio in Pittsburgh, And some of
the moms lead you to believe that thousands of kids
auditioned for the show, thousands, thirty families, thirty families interviewed
(18:58):
for the show. Twenty seven were my students from my studio.
Two were friends of mine who had boys that danced
that I thought were hilarious. And one was Kathy Yeah,
Candy Apple. Kathy, so yeah, it mattered that they were
(19:19):
at my dance studio. Was a friend of mine, John Carrella,
who created the show Get Real People. If I could
sit down with my younger self, what advice would I
give her?
Speaker 1 (19:31):
That's easy, that is so easy.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Get a really good accountant and even better attorney, and
then question everything that they do read the fine print.
So if anybody is watching young adults, read the fine print.
That is my advice. I do cameos for kids all
over the world, and they always ask for advice. If
they're turning eighteen, they're an adult now, and that's what
(19:56):
I give, great attorney, great accountant to them. OK, if anything,
what is one thing I miss about dance moms? Oh,
that's easy. I missed the creative aspect. I miss the
(20:19):
under pressure of every week coming up with a new routine,
costuming that new routine.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
That was my thing.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
And I costume the routine and so finding costumes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
in two days, I would be at Walmart at midnight
finding little girl brass and applicuets or sequence or something
to decorate them with. I had a lot of stuff
in my store at my studio in Pittsburgh, so I
(20:51):
was able to have extra flowers and extra sequins and
extra rhinestones and all that jazz that I could embellish
things with. We got a lot of leotards and just
stuck stuff on them, so that was it. Making the
head pieces. I had to come up with all that.
Even when we moved to New York. The moms would
go out to dinner, or they'd get their nails done,
(21:11):
their hair done, you know, their networking.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
And what am I doing.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I'm going downtown against traffic, trying to get there at
the very last moment when the little kids dress shops
were open or applicate trim stores were still open that
I could buy stuff. Yeah, but I loved it. I
love that part of it. I still do that for kids.
I still teach kids private lessons on Zoom. I choreographed
their solos, whether it be in person or on Zoom.
(21:39):
And I go downtown to the fabric district. I buy everything.
I was even in New York City and I only
had a few days there.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
What did I do?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Went to the garment district to buy stuff for kids solos? Yes,
if I was to put together a reunion with the
original casts, what would I really want to say to them?
Wake up, make up? I wanted you to look the best.
I wanted you to be the best. I wanted you
to win. That's what I did. And if any of
(22:09):
you had to jump on a plane fly to LA
to audition for a show where you had to do
a new routine every single week, week after week for years.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Who would have gone.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
The world would never know your names because your moms
either didn't have the money, your moms didn't have the time,
Your moms wouldn't take off work, your moms wouldn't believed in.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
You the way that they needed to.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And well, you would think one kid would have gone,
but her mother was looking for husband number three, so
she really didn't.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Have time for that kid. We did.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
There you have it now, audio clips from my time
on Dance Moms constantly, they're constantly being used on TikTok.
What did I think when the politician started using my
audio during the last selection? I was contacted in the
morning in La because it was already like nine o'clock
(23:14):
on the East coast. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness,
have you heard that the Kamoa Harris headquarters are using
your voice?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
I was shocked, I was honored. I thought that was crazy.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Although as a convicted Fellain, I don't vote, I can't vote.
I think there's something you can do to get it reinstated.
A big rigmarle so I just haven't done it. So
it wasn't me, people, it wasn't me. Whatever happened, whoever
you wanted to win, or whoever you didn't want to win.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I was taught never to discuss politics or religion. And
I don't what do I think of the TikTok dancers
And do I think any of them would be able
to outdance any of my students or are they just
popular for their looks. I don't think TikTok dancers are
popular for their looks. I think TikTok is about algorithms.
(24:13):
I think it's about posting at a certain time of
the day. It's about being consistent, It's about engaging with
those that leave messages or dms for you. I think
it has a whole lot to do with more than
your looks and more than the actual dancing.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
It's all that trend stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
And I don't know who sets those trends, because I
don't want to do somebody else's dance that they made up.
I want to do my own dance. I want to
be the one that originates the trend. What I don't
like is to see trained dancers that have had years
of ballet class, jazz class, contemporary everything do this like
all that stuff. There's so much better than that. And
(24:54):
I don't know if I should say this on iHeartRadio
or not, but shouldn't be TikTok and then TikTok pro.
TikTok pro is for the real dancers. TikTok is for
the people making cookies and organizing the refrigerator. I don't
even know how that stuff gets on TikTok Okay, let's
(25:15):
talk about Mad House. So Mad House is just debuting
it second season now. Mad stands for music, acting, and dance.
I don't think many people know that. They think it's
just me crack them up again. No, it's not music, acting, dance.
And the synopsis is I lived in the House season one.
(25:38):
I'm not living in the house season two. There are
little issues with the house not being handicapped accessible the
way it should have been, like the human rights issue,
so we'll leave that alone. The kids live in a house.
I am their mentor, and they're between eighteen and twenty five.
(25:58):
They are trying to make it in Los Angeles in
the entertainment industry. So whether that's dancing back up for
an artist on a world tour, which is a great job,
but also being the artist on the world tour, acting
getting a part in a television show doing vertical shorts,
(26:20):
if that's what you have to do to start out
in the business. Whatever they're trying to make it, they're
failing miserably, and I'm there to help them or to
set them straight, and also you know, put them in
their place a little bit. They get one gig and
all of a sudden, they think they're Lady Gaga now.
So this time on season two, you can expect more drama.
(26:44):
But you also have some students in there that I know,
they were on the show last year living in the house,
or they're from Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition Hailey, and they
kind of know me. They know what I expect, and
they're keeping their heads down. They're staying out of trouble.
They're not picking sides, they're playing the game the way
(27:05):
it should be played. So you can expect more drama
because of that, because they're not engaging and it gets crazy. Yeah,
and we have some incredible dancing. We have some superstars.
Flips came and you know, you see people spin on
their head in movies and television and you think it's edited,
like they did so many spins and they cut it.
(27:26):
They kept repeating it over and over. That's not really
what happened. He did a headspin like fifty times. It
was insane. He was amazing. We have Jamal who choreographed Homecoming.
We have you know guests on. Richie Jackson was back
again this season. It's incredible. You all have to watch it,
(27:47):
yes and learn my new one liners. I see a
lot of future stars in this group. There's a girl
that's just gorgeous. She's singing, she dances, she acts, her
time is coming. And then I see some other dancers
that are going to take away a lot from the show.
They are going to take away a better social media presence,
(28:10):
which is important.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Now. They are going to take.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Away a lot of lessons for me, not just the
dancing technique, but life lessons in general. And they're gonna
take away the dancing. You know, some of these kids
can't do a split. When I was fourteen and first
started my competition team at my mother's dance studio, the
very first thing you did at the audition was right split,
(28:32):
left split, straddle split. If you couldn't do those three things,
don't come to the audition. And now there's professional dancers
working in Los Angeles can't do a split. I mean,
what are they thinking when they leave their little hometown.
I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it in Hollywood. No,
it's crazy. They're not going to make it. Abby Lee
(28:53):
Dance with Me Season nine. I am most excited about that.
It's gonna be on my YouTube channel because I need
to call everything I've learned the hard way, and it's
all about the dancing, all about the kids.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Not too much about the mothers.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
There's a couple of shows that are going to be
dedicated just to the chaos and the crazy moms.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
But this is incredible.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Now I get to wear a tiara and a wand,
and when one of the students leave, I say puff
begone and they disappear. They literally blow up and glitter.
It's hilarious, hilarious. They don't think it's too hilarious. I
think they're going to be shocked when they see it.
But we start out with five, six, seven kids and
(29:39):
they do their solos, which are great. Then poof Beyond
Somebody goes. Then they do choreography that I teach them
on the spot. Poof Beyond Somebody Else disappears, and then
they have an interview for social media right, another one
bites the dust. Then there's an improv just spur of
(30:02):
the moment battle they haven't heard the music before and
they go crazy, and then we crown a winner. And
after so many episodes, I think the whole world is
going to get to vote on who makes the team
the new aldc Elite Team.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Check it out Abby Lee Dance with Me season nine,
Also Mad House season two that's streaming on Brandon TV
and you can watch it wherever you watch your podcasts.
And don't forget leave it on the dance floor where
I spill all the tea. Yes, that's my podcast and
(30:42):
it's on hurd app Media and you can get it
wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thank you all so
much for joining me. This has been an incredible opportunity.
I am honored to host this podcast. I am going
rogue with Rogue Energy. I think I've always been going rogue,
don't you now? We can all go rogue together Rogue
(31:06):
Energy
Hello, everybody. Addie Minella here.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
You may know me from a little TV show called
Dance Momps. And if you don't, well you should, that's
for sure. The show was in one hundred and thirty
four countries and my voice was dubbed in eleven languages.
And I'm a little bit everywhere on social media, including TikTok,
(00:33):
where everybody likes to mouth or reproduce, recreate my voice.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So you're gonna know me.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And if you don't know me, your sister knows me,
your mom knows me, your girlfriend knows me. Somebody that
you're affiliated with knows me. That's for sure. All right,
let's jump into it and get started right away here,
shall we.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yes? All right, So.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Recent headlines something about Tate mccraig. You are going to
have to wait and check out my YouTube channel that's
at the real abbe Lee Miller to get the full
story on misstate. Fabulous dancer, fabulous singer, just thriving right now, and.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
You'll hear the whole story. It's funny, Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Now, I am here on Rogue Energy to talk about
what's happening, what's new, and what's going on in my life.
So let's get right to it. Have I've spoken to
the team since Dance Moms some of the students, Yes,
(01:42):
I talked to If you watch my podcast Leave It
on the Dance Floor, you'll see a whole interview with Kilane,
with Brinn Brynn's.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Mom, Ellianna, Ellianna's mom.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I'm trying to think of who else has been on
Jojo of course and Jocelyn Sea. So I tried to
include the moms with the girls, but they're not together,
they're separate.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So we could, you know, dish on the mothers.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, some of the key people that I was so
good to, so kind to, so generous with my time
and music, costumes, choreography, everything I don't talk to.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
They don't speak to me.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I think that kind of has to do with some
you know, liegishes, let's say, a forensic accountant, you know
who's MM and M incorporated things like that, and that's
part for the course. Yes, And I also had a
song that I produced called It's a Girl Party you
(02:42):
Might Know It to catch you a Little Tune, and
it went to number one in Australia, the UK, and
the United States on iTunes. And I haven't seen a
penny of that either. So there's issues on why kids
aren't keeping in touch or why they're not you know,
with me or on my podcast, or they don't come
(03:02):
to see me. Yeah, you have to check them out
and ask their mothers too. So people ask about my
health all the time. Have I struggled with health issues?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I was healthy, never spent one night in a hospital,
never until I was fifty two, and then look out,
I had cancer. It's called Burkett lymphoma, choking my spinal cord,
and it's a very fast growing disease. They said, in
(03:34):
five weeks you start to see symptoms. At eight weeks
you're dead. That's how fast. It's a deadly cancer. And
it was choking my spinal cord like wrapped around thirteen
vertebrae like black tar. So when they finally somebody listened
to me, I went to six doctors in ten days,
(03:58):
through a ten day period, visited a doctor emergency room,
a dentist because my jaw was numb six different times.
And I got go home and take it easy, honey,
you'll be fine. Oh she wants drugs. Oh she's an
actress on TV. Oh this, oh that, Go home and
take it easy, honey. So I ended up paralyzed from
(04:20):
the neck down, and then after emergency surgery, I was
paralyzed from the waist down, and then my feet came
back after a time, and my knees came back. I like,
you know, gradually it worked its way up, and it
worked its way down, but through the middle, like from
your waistband to the middle of your thigh, is still period.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So paralyzed.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I could set a hot pan on my lap and
I would feel it, but I wouldn't feel it until
minutes went by and I was already burned. Yeah, so
I feel things but differently than you. And that's a
good Because I've shattered my tid fib in my right
leg twice. Once I was in a swimming pool, random
(05:07):
rare accident, and the next time my wheelchair smashed me
so hard into a wall that it shattered the bones
in my leg.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Crazy, crazy, crazy crazy. But the cancer's gone. I just
had a pet scan. I'm doing well. It picks up
even one sell of cancer in your body. There's nothing
to be alarmed about or even to look at another scan.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
It's We're all good.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
My left shoulder is really bad of ligaments that are
really bad in my rotator cuff, and that left knee
is taking all the brunt of being off that right
leg for so long. All right, so now let's move on.
Let's do more exciting things to talk about. Yes, all right.
So some of my students have spoken about their time
(05:53):
on Dance Moms. Do I think their criticisms are fair
or have they exact?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I think they just lost their minds. I do.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I'm the one that had ten rounds of week long,
seven day chemotherapy, twenty four hours a day. What happened
to them, I don't know. But I was the one
that fought against the producers. I was on the same
side they were on. They were my team, they were
my kids. I loved those kids, yes, and I wanted
(06:27):
them to put their best foot forward. I wanted them
to step out on that stage and own it and
be fabulous, because, don't forget, we were competing against my
competitors in West Virginia, in Ohio, in New Jersey. Those kids,
their students had six months to learn one routine. My
students were learning it in two days. I did everything
(06:50):
I could to get them the best costumes, to get
the best music, to get time, more time, more time
to choreograph.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So that's what I remember.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I remember quitting the show because of something they wanted
to do to Maddie, not let her do the sea video.
I remember quitting the show on something they were going
to make me do. Can't even go into that. And
I remember quitting the show when one of the producers
(07:22):
was pushing, pushing, pushing the moms and even the girls
to talk about my legal woes when it was an
ongoing investigation and they were told that by the United
States government not to talk about. So yeah, and I
had a reason to quit for sure. Now let's get
to another question here we go, which answer do you
(07:46):
think truly had the most talent and did they live
up to their potential? Well, you know, I had a
lot of talentsed kids in my studio had back in
Pittsburgh have till this day. And one of the boys
that auditioned to be on Dance Moms with the original cast, oh,
let me rephrase that. They didn't audition. They sat in
(08:10):
a chair next to their mommies and they smiled. That's
what they did. Nobody danced, So he did that too.
He just left Hamilton on Broadway to go to Chicago
to learn the original choreography that Bob Fosse gave. He
was in the movie West Side Story. He first Broadway
show was Newsy's. He did three other Broadway shows. He
(08:35):
could have learned a new dance every week and made
it look amazing. The kids that they cast on the show.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Not so much.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
It was a struggle and that's what made for conflict.
That's what made the story. So did any of the
kids have the potential and they didn't live up to it? No,
I think they all exceeded their potential. They I've been
in my studio and continue dancing the way they were dancing.
(09:07):
Now there was other kids that would have passed them up,
but now they're all multimillionaires. So you know, it really
doesn't matter what I think.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
The biggest misconception that people still have about Dance Bombs
and my role. Well, you know, people watch the show
all over the air. Since Wholu bought the show from
the network, then Disney Plus bought Hulu, we have a
whole new audience. Five year olds, six seven year olds
are watching the show. I get messages that Broadway baby
(09:41):
passed away and they're so story. Kids are crying because
my dog passed away, And little ones asked me, did
I go to build a bear to get Broadway baby stuffed?
That just breaks my heart when they say, do you
think she went to build a bear? Yeah, So the
misconception is that I'm this mean, horrible, wicked witch of
(10:05):
the West. When I fought for those kids, I fought
for better costumes, for better music, for better themes. I
fought constantly. I fought so that Maddie could do the
see a video. I fought so that things would just
be better. It would be a better work environment, a
(10:26):
happier place. I fought, sometimes on a weekly basis, so
kids could go to an audition somewhere else, so that
kids could go to a movie premiere, so that they
could leave early to do something exciting in Los Angeles.
I fought with them all the time. I quit all
the time. Yes, all right, Now let's.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Go to.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Who was the most difficult parent to deal with? And
why can you get Yes, they were all difficult, all
in their own ways. They were difficult to deal with.
And then one that you think is your best buddy
in backing you up is the one stealing from you,
right under your nose. I think some of the ones
(11:14):
that I had the most altercation with were people that
I let slide before the show. I let slide on
the tuition, I let slide on the balance check, I
let slide on breaking the rules.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I let them slide.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I let them walk into those interviews when nobody, nobody
that ow tuition or owed money or broke the rules
should have been allowed to even interview to be on
the show. That's a huge regret too, Yeah, because there
were lots of other people. Now have any of the
(11:52):
moms reached out to apologize and make amends since the
show ended. No, No, I remember when I was in
the hospital. It was after the emergency surgery, after they
announced to the world at a press conference that I
had this very rare cancer, Berka lymphoma found in Africa
(12:14):
in little boys under the age of ten. One mom
kept calling and calling and calling my dear friend, and
finally the friend said, Paulie, what do you want? Like,
can you tell me what you want and I'll relay
the message. We're not giving her any phones to use
(12:34):
right now, or any messages to use or to handle,
And she said, can you imagine. She said, yes, Nia
just wants to, you know, finalize this. She has a
few things to get off her chest, really really and
(12:55):
my friend was like, click, never talk to her again,
all right, So let's move right along. Is there any
moment from the show that you wish never aired? Probably
lots of moments that I wish never aired, But I
wish there were some episodes that aired. Lily doing her
(13:17):
spider dance that won the overall high score of the
whole entire competition. She'd beat these seventeen and eighteen year
old boys that were brilliant dancers that went on to
Juilliard and to different ballet companies. She beat the perfect score.
Never aired it, So that means because it didn't air,
I couldn't submit it for an Emmy Award. And I
(13:40):
didn't know how the Emmys worked. I didn't understand. I
didn't know that I could have actually entered things myself.
Once I became a member of the Academy, I learned
all these things, and the show never entered anything for choreography,
and that sickens me. Yeah, that's a big, big regret.
(14:00):
Dance Moms made me famous, but it also made me
infamous for sure. Did the show damage my reputation more
than it helped, Well, it didn't help my reputation at all.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
It helped me become a name. It helped me.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Travel the world to meet children and parents that knew me,
that wanted to meet me. So there was so much
good and so much that I'm grateful for, truly grateful
for the show. But the way I was depicted in
the city of Pittsburgh, it was a witch hunt, literally
a witch hunt. They wanted to see me go down,
(14:45):
and they thought of every little thing that they could
do to make that happen.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
It was a joke.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
That whole trial, that whole thing was an absolute absurdity.
It was waste of taxpayers money for sure. I think
four million dollars of the taxpayers money. Yeah, and then
I got a forty thousand dollars fine and I went
away for eight and a half months. The sentence was
(15:12):
a year, but I got a life sentence. Sitting in
this chair, so I want to reach out and thank
that judge for a life sentence, because if I hadn't
been taken off my medication in prison, cold Turkey, medication
for thyroid and medication for diabetes. You don't take people
(15:33):
off that cold turkey. You're weaned off of it over
a year. Takes a year, And I was, nope, you
can't have your medicine anymore. Little form of punishment. All right,
let's go to the next question, shall we. Which former
dance mom star has surprised me the most with their
(15:54):
career path?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Well, I don't know. Did they have careers? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I think Nia again, she was in an off Broadway show,
she was on a soap opera. She now goes to
Disney World, I don't know, one hundred times a year
or something crazy, and I'm sure it's all for free.
So I think that she has made a lot of
(16:24):
money in the entertainment industry that I never thought would happen.
I thought she would always be involved in entertainment because
she truly loved it, but more of an entertainment attorney
or maybe behind the scenes as a producer. I never
thought all of that would happen now. And then her
mother goes to France to Paris, does this whole YouTube
(16:49):
video with her husband about being at the Mulin Rouge
and it's my first time here, and it's my first
time there and oh, it's my first time.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I took her to Paris. I took her to the
Mulain Rouge. She sat right across from me. I don't
know what all the lives were about.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Why couldn't you just say, oh, it's my second time,
it's my first time with my husband.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Okay, all right?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
That was a shock. Do I still watch the episodes
or do I avoid them? It's not that I avoid them, but,
honest to goodness, fact, I love scripted TV. My shows
right now are Will Trent, High Potential.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Elsbeth Matt Locke. Those are my shows.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
So if I'm going to come home and watch something
that I missed on TV, it's going to be that
the only time I watch anything on the show is
when I have to do a YouTube video and talk
back about it.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Who do you think milked their dance? Moms fame the
hardest without giving me any credit, all of them, all
of them, And I don't know if they milked it.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
They think.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
That just all happened, that agents and publicists and stylists
and producers were just contacting them because they were fabulous.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I honestly think that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
They think if they were just sitting in Pittsburgh in
their houses.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That this all would have happened. It all happened without me.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
It all happened without a network, It all happened without producers.
It just all happened because they were so damn good. Yeah,
not dancing, just in general strange.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
It's very strange to me.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Does it bother me that the stars I created don't
acknowledge me? Now? I think that everybody knows that they
were in my dance studio in Pittsburgh, And some of
the moms lead you to believe that thousands of kids
auditioned for the show, thousands, thirty families, thirty families interviewed
(18:58):
for the show. Twenty seven were my students from my studio.
Two were friends of mine who had boys that danced
that I thought were hilarious. And one was Kathy Yeah,
Candy Apple. Kathy, so yeah, it mattered that they were
(19:19):
at my dance studio. Was a friend of mine, John Carrella,
who created the show Get Real People. If I could
sit down with my younger self, what advice would I
give her?
Speaker 1 (19:31):
That's easy, that is so easy.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Get a really good accountant and even better attorney, and
then question everything that they do read the fine print.
So if anybody is watching young adults, read the fine print.
That is my advice. I do cameos for kids all
over the world, and they always ask for advice. If
they're turning eighteen, they're an adult now, and that's what
(19:56):
I give, great attorney, great accountant to them. OK, if anything,
what is one thing I miss about dance moms? Oh,
that's easy. I missed the creative aspect. I miss the
(20:19):
under pressure of every week coming up with a new routine,
costuming that new routine.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
That was my thing.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
And I costume the routine and so finding costumes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
in two days, I would be at Walmart at midnight
finding little girl brass and applicuets or sequence or something
to decorate them with. I had a lot of stuff
in my store at my studio in Pittsburgh, so I
(20:51):
was able to have extra flowers and extra sequins and
extra rhinestones and all that jazz that I could embellish
things with. We got a lot of leotards and just
stuck stuff on them, so that was it. Making the
head pieces. I had to come up with all that.
Even when we moved to New York. The moms would
go out to dinner, or they'd get their nails done,
(21:11):
their hair done, you know, their networking.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
And what am I doing.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I'm going downtown against traffic, trying to get there at
the very last moment when the little kids dress shops
were open or applicate trim stores were still open that
I could buy stuff. Yeah, but I loved it. I
love that part of it. I still do that for kids.
I still teach kids private lessons on Zoom. I choreographed
their solos, whether it be in person or on Zoom.
(21:39):
And I go downtown to the fabric district. I buy everything.
I was even in New York City and I only
had a few days there.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
What did I do?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Went to the garment district to buy stuff for kids solos? Yes,
if I was to put together a reunion with the
original casts, what would I really want to say to them?
Wake up, make up? I wanted you to look the best.
I wanted you to be the best. I wanted you
to win. That's what I did. And if any of
(22:09):
you had to jump on a plane fly to LA
to audition for a show where you had to do
a new routine every single week, week after week for years.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Who would have gone.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
The world would never know your names because your moms
either didn't have the money, your moms didn't have the time,
Your moms wouldn't take off work, your moms wouldn't believed in.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
You the way that they needed to.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And well, you would think one kid would have gone,
but her mother was looking for husband number three, so
she really didn't.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Have time for that kid. We did.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
There you have it now, audio clips from my time
on Dance Moms constantly, they're constantly being used on TikTok.
What did I think when the politician started using my
audio during the last selection? I was contacted in the
morning in La because it was already like nine o'clock
(23:14):
on the East coast. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness,
have you heard that the Kamoa Harris headquarters are using
your voice?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
I was shocked, I was honored. I thought that was crazy.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Although as a convicted Fellain, I don't vote, I can't vote.
I think there's something you can do to get it reinstated.
A big rigmarle so I just haven't done it. So
it wasn't me, people, it wasn't me. Whatever happened, whoever
you wanted to win, or whoever you didn't want to win.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I was taught never to discuss politics or religion. And
I don't what do I think of the TikTok dancers
And do I think any of them would be able
to outdance any of my students or are they just
popular for their looks. I don't think TikTok dancers are
popular for their looks. I think TikTok is about algorithms.
(24:13):
I think it's about posting at a certain time of
the day. It's about being consistent, It's about engaging with
those that leave messages or dms for you. I think
it has a whole lot to do with more than
your looks and more than the actual dancing.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
It's all that trend stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
And I don't know who sets those trends, because I
don't want to do somebody else's dance that they made up.
I want to do my own dance. I want to
be the one that originates the trend. What I don't
like is to see trained dancers that have had years
of ballet class, jazz class, contemporary everything do this like
all that stuff. There's so much better than that. And
(24:54):
I don't know if I should say this on iHeartRadio
or not, but shouldn't be TikTok and then TikTok pro.
TikTok pro is for the real dancers. TikTok is for
the people making cookies and organizing the refrigerator. I don't
even know how that stuff gets on TikTok Okay, let's
(25:15):
talk about Mad House. So Mad House is just debuting
it second season now. Mad stands for music, acting, and dance.
I don't think many people know that. They think it's
just me crack them up again. No, it's not music, acting, dance.
And the synopsis is I lived in the House season one.
(25:38):
I'm not living in the house season two. There are
little issues with the house not being handicapped accessible the
way it should have been, like the human rights issue,
so we'll leave that alone. The kids live in a house.
I am their mentor, and they're between eighteen and twenty five.
(25:58):
They are trying to make it in Los Angeles in
the entertainment industry. So whether that's dancing back up for
an artist on a world tour, which is a great job,
but also being the artist on the world tour, acting
getting a part in a television show doing vertical shorts,
(26:20):
if that's what you have to do to start out
in the business. Whatever they're trying to make it, they're
failing miserably, and I'm there to help them or to
set them straight, and also you know, put them in
their place a little bit. They get one gig and
all of a sudden, they think they're Lady Gaga now.
So this time on season two, you can expect more drama.
(26:44):
But you also have some students in there that I know,
they were on the show last year living in the house,
or they're from Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition Hailey, and they
kind of know me. They know what I expect, and
they're keeping their heads down. They're staying out of trouble.
They're not picking sides, they're playing the game the way
(27:05):
it should be played. So you can expect more drama
because of that, because they're not engaging and it gets crazy. Yeah,
and we have some incredible dancing. We have some superstars.
Flips came and you know, you see people spin on
their head in movies and television and you think it's edited,
like they did so many spins and they cut it.
(27:26):
They kept repeating it over and over. That's not really
what happened. He did a headspin like fifty times. It
was insane. He was amazing. We have Jamal who choreographed Homecoming.
We have you know guests on. Richie Jackson was back
again this season. It's incredible. You all have to watch it,
(27:47):
yes and learn my new one liners. I see a
lot of future stars in this group. There's a girl
that's just gorgeous. She's singing, she dances, she acts, her
time is coming. And then I see some other dancers
that are going to take away a lot from the show.
They are going to take away a better social media presence,
(28:10):
which is important.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Now. They are going to take.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Away a lot of lessons for me, not just the
dancing technique, but life lessons in general. And they're gonna
take away the dancing. You know, some of these kids
can't do a split. When I was fourteen and first
started my competition team at my mother's dance studio, the
very first thing you did at the audition was right split,
(28:32):
left split, straddle split. If you couldn't do those three things,
don't come to the audition. And now there's professional dancers
working in Los Angeles can't do a split. I mean,
what are they thinking when they leave their little hometown.
I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it in Hollywood. No,
it's crazy. They're not going to make it. Abby Lee
(28:53):
Dance with Me Season nine. I am most excited about that.
It's gonna be on my YouTube channel because I need
to call everything I've learned the hard way, and it's
all about the dancing, all about the kids.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Not too much about the mothers.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
There's a couple of shows that are going to be
dedicated just to the chaos and the crazy moms.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
But this is incredible.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Now I get to wear a tiara and a wand,
and when one of the students leave, I say puff
begone and they disappear. They literally blow up and glitter.
It's hilarious, hilarious. They don't think it's too hilarious. I
think they're going to be shocked when they see it.
But we start out with five, six, seven kids and
(29:39):
they do their solos, which are great. Then poof Beyond
Somebody goes. Then they do choreography that I teach them
on the spot. Poof Beyond Somebody Else disappears, and then
they have an interview for social media right, another one
bites the dust. Then there's an improv just spur of
(30:02):
the moment battle they haven't heard the music before and
they go crazy, and then we crown a winner. And
after so many episodes, I think the whole world is
going to get to vote on who makes the team
the new aldc Elite Team.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Check it out Abby Lee Dance with Me season nine,
Also Mad House season two that's streaming on Brandon TV
and you can watch it wherever you watch your podcasts.
And don't forget leave it on the dance floor where
I spill all the tea. Yes, that's my podcast and
(30:42):
it's on hurd app Media and you can get it
wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thank you all so
much for joining me. This has been an incredible opportunity.
I am honored to host this podcast. I am going
rogue with Rogue Energy. I think I've always been going rogue,
don't you now? We can all go rogue together Rogue
(31:06):
Energy
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!