First of all, whoever decided to air Dance Moms and Toddlers & Tiaras at the same time should be grounded and put in a corner… like most of the kids on Toddlers & Tiaras. Second, while Toddlers & Tiaras provides a smorgasboard of crazytown, the story arcs on Dance Moms have included mommy rivalry, a few inappropriately sexual numbers, a Botox party, arranged teenage matchmaking, and racial profiling. (Seriously.) I kinda want to write for this show. Meanwhile, unlike Toddlers & Tiaras, the kids on Dance Moms seem to just work hard, perform well and quite frankly provide little of the storyline drama.
Until now.
This week, a growing story arc has reached its second act peak. In the spirit of Black Swan, Maddie, the season’s “star” who strives for an excellence that greatly exceeds her 8 year old limbs, has become more and more “psycho”. Did you notice she bears a resemblance to Natalie Portman? Or is she transforming? Because over the past few episodes, Maddie went from Mommy’s little angel flitting about the stage with pointed toes and a smile to being portrayed as a perfectionist headcase who throws tantrums when her french twist isn’t tight enough and bursts into tears when someone glissades a count too early. In last night’s admission, she claimed she would rather kill herself than not be able to dance. The drama! Of course, I said that every other day as a child so I would take that with a grain of salt, but it makes for good reality TV.
And it wouldn’t be Black Swan without Maddie’s “Mila Kunis” foil which is played by the optimistic, easy-going Chloe. She has been living in Maddie’s shadow all season. While Maddie gets the emotional, graceful lyrical dances, Chloe gets thrown the flirty theatrical numbers. Like Maddie, she is a stand out but can’t seem to crack the top overall spot, not that she is not trying for it. Whereas Maddie’s perfectionism makes her moves technically above everyone else, the slightly less OCD Chloe has a personality that people respond to. Sooooo Black Swan. I’m just waiting for Chloe to dye her hair brown and invite Maddie over to play while she steals her private lesson time.
My odds are already down that Chloe, who was pulled from competition this week in order to get more “technique” time, will come back and beat Maddie. How will Maddie take it? Will she imagine herself growing wings? Well, according to last night’s editing, she already “imagined” herself being hit in the shins by her fellow dancers while they were playing in the pool. I’m just not sure what Dance Moms’ CGI budget is!
All in all, despite some of this colorful editing which makes the show a trip to watch, I think the kids (Maddie included) all seem to be pretty healthy, hard-working children, so I hope they’re having as much fun with the crazy storylines on the show as their parents.
In the meantime, enjoy Pretty, the web’s version of Toddlers & Tiaras! And then grab a bit of stage mom craziness from the Digital Chick TV original series, Downsized.
…if you looked at the competition results. Chloe wins 1st all the time too, they just don’t air it.