WEBVTT - Dance Moms: The Journey 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:05.000 You're listening to Jojo Sea Now with me Jojo Sia 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:10.360 and iHeartRadio podcast and I might oh Australia Now that's 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:13.760 a fun one. Normally I'm British. Anyways, Hello, and welcome 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:19.280 back to Jojo Ciua Now where you get me unfiltered 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:24.079 and ranting. Essentially, I feel like this obviously it's my podcast, 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:26.720 but it truly feels more like it is my rant sessions, 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:29.480 which I kind of love. I'm just gonna tell stories, 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:32.479 get to talk to myself in a room full of 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:39.120 myself looking at me, which honestly, like I don't I 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:41.440 I don't believe that this is me, Like I know 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.200 that it is, but like at some point in time, 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:47.480 like this really was my life. Like I really did 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:51.600 pose while wearing that. I really did have Bobo, I 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:54.520 really did have these products. I really did wear that 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.280 ponytail and wear that bow and own that like that. 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:00.680 It just blows my mind, it really does, because I'm like, 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:04.679 that to me is not me, but it is me, 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:07.960 but it's not me. I don't know, I don't know. 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.640 It's a very strange feeling. Anyways, today we are kind 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:15.720 of going back to not necessarily how it started. For 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:18.640 me and how I became a public human being. But 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:23.360 something that I think really was detrimental to my career 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.320 and was massive for me, which was Dance Moms. We 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.399 had the Dance Longs reunion just happened, and the Dance 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.200 Longs reunion. Ye know, I was a mixed bag of 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.600 bones for me for sure, which I can go listen 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.200 to my whole podcast or the Dance Moms reunion, but 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:45.199 I Dance Moms as a whole is not a mixed 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.560 bag of bones for me. It is the biggest blessing 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:53.120 of my entire life. It is one of the things 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:54.960 that I am most grateful for. Of course, there were 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.120 hard days, but nothing that I couldn't handle and nothing 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.880 that I didn't want to handle and want to have. Yeah, 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:03.640 there was a lot of tears, a lot of blood, 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.440 a lot of sweat, but look at where it got me, 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:08.840 and it is a massive part of my career that 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:13.720 I will always and forever be so freaking grateful for. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:17.480 Let's go way back. So I did Abby's also in 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:21.280 Dance Competition, and that show is produced and on the 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:27.239 same network as Dance Moms was, and AUDC wasn't as 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:30.240 successful as Dance Moms, but it was a spinoff of 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.919 the show, and so it was kind of the same umbrella, right, 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.440 But at the end of the day Dance Moms, I 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:39.680 mean it was everybody's school. I remember when Dance Moms 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.280 came out. I was I was little, I would have 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.600 been seven, and my mom was like, why are we 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.400 not on this show? This is literally made for us. 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:49.800 And it wasn't only my mom that was saying that, 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.480 but it was also just like everyone that knew us 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:54.840 was like, this is literally made for you. Why are 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:56.440 you not on it? And we were like, we don't know. 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.480 But at the time, I mean, we're just in Nebraska, 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:03.160 live in life. Anyways, I'm gonna jump way ahead. So 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:06.360 I finished Abby's Altman dance competition, got on that show 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.680 by just submitting online and hoping for the best, and 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:14.360 it ended up happening very crazy. But then my mom 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:16.760 got a phone call. Is at a dance convention called Nouvo, 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:19.320 and my mom got a phone call while I was 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:21.120 in hip hop class. She stepped out to take it. 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:23.359 She comes in, she grabs me and she's like, hey, 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:26.360 that was the producer of Dance Moms. They want you 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.200 there on Monday, and I was like, wait, Like it 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.359 was Saturday at this point, and I was like, what 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:33.600 do you mean they want me there on Monday? And 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:35.360 she was like, it's only for a week. They just 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:37.160 wanted to bring you in, bring you for a week, 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.320 have fun, then you'll come back here and we'll keep 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:40.880 living life. And I was like, oh my god, Like 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.520 that was like winning a fucking oscar. Like going to 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:46.400 Dance Moms for a week was the goal for every 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.600 single dancer. Whether every single dancer wants to admit it 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:52.400 or not, every dancer at some point in time wanted 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.280 to be on Dance Moms. And it's it's become I 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.800 guess a trend to say. Oh. I was like almost 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.880 like to be too cool for it. No, Nope, at 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:05.080 some point in time, every dancer, with the exception of 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:07.280 those who didn't know about Dance Moms, if you knew 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.160 about Dance Moms and you were a dnswer, you wanted 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.280 to be on the show. Anyways, that's where we're at 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.600 that I have to go on occasionally to hype up 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.800 dance Moms. Always speaking of dance Moms, my dance mom 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.039 just texted me. Should we see what she said? Should 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:26.960 I expose this, let's see. Uh oh oh my god, fun. Wait, 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.240 this is so exciting. I just got a deal with 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:32.719 like literally one of my favorite people in the freaking 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.640 world and we get to h oh. I wish I 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.960 could spoil. I can't spoil just yet, but stay freaking dune. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:45.240 I'm so excited. Anyways, we go to Dance Moms for 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.040 a week. This was We got the call to go 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:50.440 on Saturday. They wanted me to fly out on Monday, 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.240 which makes a lot of sense because Pyramid was on Wednesday, 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:55.400 so we would kind of have a day to get 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.680 settled and then do Pyramid on Wednesday for her Wednesday, Thursday, 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.640 travel on Friday. I compete on Saturday. So got the 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.560 call on Saturday, and that night went home from the 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:10.160 dance convention and like started scrambling to find clothing, like 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:12.720 cause I wanted to go and I wanted to make 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.120 my impression, like I get one week, I will be 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.560 doing my big one all freaking week. But we didn't know. 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.920 We didn't know what to expect, right, didn't know if 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:22.680 I was gonna be Danzig, didn't know if I was 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:26.760 gonna be just like there did it, had no idea. 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:30.200 So we get there and they actually they put us 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.560 in an apartment complex and we end up leaving on Monday. 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.520 We get there, they end up having us. I don't 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:39.640 remember what happened on the Tuesday. Maybe we were just 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.680 kind of settling in. But then Wednesday they were like, 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:44.800 all right, your call time is like eight am or 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.760 nine am, super early, and we're like, okay, where where 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.080 And they were like McDonald's parking lot down the street 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:52.800 from the studio, and like, at this point, I had 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.719 never even been to the ALDC. But this was at 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:58.320 season five of the show. I came on on season five, 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.839 episode three, and so this was I should get that 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:06.240 tattooed season five, episode three, S five e three. I'm 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.800 doing it. That's happening because I will never hate that. 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:11.520 I only get things tattooed that I know I will 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.719 never hate or regret S five e three. I will 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:18.839 never ever for Oh, that's sick. I'm gonna do that. Actually, 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.520 I want to go get a tattoo so soon of 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:26.000 my beast I make up from Karma. I'm I just 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.760 don't know where officially I want it, but like I 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.960 think it would be so sick. Anyways, not the point 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.279 of this podcast. Point of this podcast is Dance Moms. 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.440 We go to McDonald's parking lot. We sit there for 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.560 approximately two hours. Then they were like, okay, come to 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.200 the studio parking lot now, but you have to hide. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:44.919 So we're like ducked out in the car and the 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.000 producers are coming in and out talking to us. And 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:49.360 then finally, after like another two hours, like okay, come 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.360 into the studio, but like just stay in the waiting room. 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:53.919 Because the thing with Dance Moms is, now that I 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.960 know how the show is, Pyramid was so unpredictable, right, 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:00.719 and so they basically had me on standby till they 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.760 were ready to bring me in and then all of 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.440 a sudden, it was like nobody says I remember. There 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:09.120 was a point in time actually where Maddie Kindall and 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.440 Kilawney ran out to go to the restroom and I 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:14.480 saw them and they saw me in the waiting room, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:16.880 and I was like, I freaked out, Like I had 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:20.200 watched these girls my whole life on TV, like I 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:22.880 loved them, I adored them. It's season five, so the 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.680 show has had so much hype and I lost my mind. 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:28.960 And they had known me from aud scenes and they 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:30.560 were just nice girls. And so they were excited to 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:32.680 see me, but it's like we couldn't talk to each other, 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:34.120 and so I was like away from over the desk. 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.720 It was cute. Anyways, I can like literally picture of 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.760 that visual like it was yesterday. And then all of 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:42.440 a sudden, the producer was like, all right, Jojo going 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:44.000 to the studio. It's time, Like we'll tell you when 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.120 we'll give you the key when Abby, says a guest, 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:51.280 and then boom, I walked in and it was I 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.360 I don't think I realized how much walking into that 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:55.360 studio was going to change my life at the time, 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:59.320 but boy freaking did it. I was only supposed to 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.880 be on the show for week and then they really 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.280 enjoyed my personality and they really enjoyed my mom's personality. 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.440 And I guess I made good reality TV. I guess 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.720 I gave them good shit because they kept me around 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:15.160 then for two and a half years, three years, two 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.160 and a half, two and a half years. I did 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.000 all season five, all season six, and then a little 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:25.320 little bit of season seven, or did I think that's right? 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:27.880 I think that's right, a little bit of season seven. 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:31.320 Our seasons were divided, so they were actually doubled season, 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:33.920 so we had season five A five B, Season six 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.360 A six B. I don't know why it was like that. 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:39.360 I think so they could cram more episodes out of 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:45.240 the contracts. But yeah, we freaking stayed and it was 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.280 so fun. I mean it was so hard, don't get 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:52.080 me wrong. But the things that you didn't see on 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.600 Dance Moms. Us going to Crafty, which was like a 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.120 little cooler and like a little bucket of snacks in 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:02.640 the front lobby of the studio. Us taking class all 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:06.200 night at ALDC after the show wrapped, us getting the 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.400 smell of the studio. The fucking smell of ALDC is 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.800 the most disgusting thing ever, but the most nostalgic smell. 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:15.920 What I would give to smell. It smells like dirty 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:19.720 socks bottom of a dance bag, Like actually nasty, but 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.520 so good. And that is nothing that anybody control. It's 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.040 a dance studio that is decades old, like it is 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:28.720 going it's just gonna have that set engraved to it. 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:32.320 But I mean, just so iconic. I remember tumbling classes 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:36.040 were always so fun. I remember bus rides, Oh my god, 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.839 bus rides were so fun. The first bus ride that 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:42.120 I did all of the girls got out their MacBooks. Now, 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.199 mind you, this is I was only eleven, So this 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:48.560 was eight years ago. Nine years ago. Holy shit, nine 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:52.960 years ago. Oh my god, that's crazy. Almost ten Wow, 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.959 Oh my god, that's almost a decade ago. Wow, Okay, 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.680 doesn't matter. Anyways, we got on bus for the first 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.000 time and all the girls got out their MacBook. And 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.040 eleven years ago, ten year old's twelve year olds did 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:08.040 not have a MacBook. That was not a normal thing. 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.880 And you know, I did it. I didn't have one. 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:12.520 And so then the next day I told my mom, 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.040 I was like, hey, like, is there any way I 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.679 can get one? To be like the cool kids? Essentially, 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:20.560 and because everyone would play games on them and I 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:22.440 wanted to. I wanted to play too, but I just 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:25.000 didn't have it. You know, we weren't set up like 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.960 they were. So then we took my first check that 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:29.800 I ever made from Dance Moms and we went and 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:31.880 we bought a MacBook. And that is how I spent 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:36.880 my very first check from Dance Moms. So worth it, uh, 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.360 And then yeah, just from there, we moved out of 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:42.520 the apartment complex. It was very weak by week so 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:44.640 after week one, it was like, can you do another week? 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:46.840 Of course I can do another week. It's fucking dance moms. 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:48.600 I'll be here my whole life if you want me 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:50.520 to be. And then after that was can you do 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:52.280 another week? Can you do another week? Okay, we're gonna 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:53.959 keep it out for two weeks, so like be prepared, 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:55.760 it's gonna be two weeks. And so it was like 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:58.440 calling my dad back home, like can you send more clothes? 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:00.760 Can you send more bows? Can you send more shoes? 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:02.760 And my mom had to go buy clothes, and it 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:04.600 was very like we just had to keep it pushing 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.160 and like keep playing it by ear, but like you 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.160 didn't know, and so we kept doing that, We kept 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.400 keeping it pushing, and then we finally ended up actually 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:14.920 moving out of the apartment and we moved into because 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:17.960 it just wasn't the right vibe. It wasn't like, it 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.000 wasn't a very nice apartment, and so it was gonna 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:22.760 be more convenient for us. It was far away, so 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:24.360 it was gonna be more convenient for us to live 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:26.720 actually in a hotel. So then I lived at the 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:31.280 Double Tree for a couple of months actually, and then 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:33.880 while I was on the show, kind of temporarily like 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:36.160 kind of toying with my mind, and I gotta stay 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.920 and I gotta leave. That's when the show started to 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:43.000 transition to LA and we started to do two weeks 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.360 in LA, four weeks in Pittsburgh, three weeks in LA, 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:47.520 one week in Pittsburgh. We'd kind of go back and forth. 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.640 And truthfully, all the Dance Momps casts I think enjoyed 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.400 LA more because they were used to Pittsburgh. But for me, 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.120 because I wasn't used to Pittsburgh, I enjoyed both. I 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.240 liked filming in LA and of course I liked filming 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:09.720 in Pittsburgh. Then I remember there was one week where 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.800 we got back to Pittsburgh, and that is the week 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:15.920 that I got my ALDC jacket. And this was hard. 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.400 The way that Abby gave me my jacket was she 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.520 had all the girls write down three things that they 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:23.640 liked about me and three things that they didn't like 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.480 about me. And a lot of people in the world 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:34.000 have said, like, that's up. But here's the thing. I 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:36.440 knew what was at the end of that tunnel, and 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:42.320 I Abby is tough, but Abby is not cruel. There's 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:47.480 a very very very fine line of tough and cruel, 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:52.040 and she is not cruel, and she would not have 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:54.040 everybody stand there and tell me that and then just 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:56.400 move on with life. There was a light at the 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:58.719 end of the tunnel, and I had been on the 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:00.719 show now for a few weeks at this point, and 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.760 I knew that she wasn't a cruel human being. I 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.520 just knew that she was tough. And the reality is, 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.440 anybody that's a dancer knows what a tough dance teacher 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.640 is like. If you are a good dancer, you know 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:16.480 what a tough dance teacher is like. We all have them. 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.280 And truthfully, throughout my life, I've had dance teachers that 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.280 were way tough around me than Abby was, and so 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:23.920 that's why I was kind of almost trained to be 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:28.160 able to handle it. Anyways, So I got my jacket then, 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.559 and then I was an official member of the team. 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.280 So then when we finally moved the show out to 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:35.160 LA for good, I knew I was safe. I knew 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:37.200 I wasn't gonna be going home unless, of course I 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.280 wanted to. We did have a set therapist on Dance Moms. 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.560 A lot of people don't know about this, wait a set. 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:45.360 She was actually a psychiatrist. But she is an amazing 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:47.800 human being. And she always told us girls like, if 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:50.800 you want to leave, leave and I will handle it. 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.040 You can leave at any point in time, and she 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:56.840 she meant that, and she did have her ways that 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:58.640 she was able to help us if we needed it. 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:01.520 But luckily, I mean, I think during filming no one 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.640 really needed it. We were always taken care of. As 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:06.560 hard as it was, we were always taken care of. 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.640 For some reason, since I started this podcast, the story 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.400 that has been in my mind to tell everyone is 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.200 Abby eating her baby back ribs on my sweatshirt. I 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.720 don't know why this story has been circulating my head, 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.200 but I just like, since I'm doing a Dance Moms podcast, 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.200 I gotta tell stories that no one really knows about. 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.800 So POV. We are in Australia actually for Dance Moms, 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:33.400 and Australia was ka yaw dick. We did not know 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.960 if Abby was coming at all. She had lost her passport. 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.720 She's dramatic. We didn't know what was going on. It's 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:42.280 very chaotic and uh, all of a sudden Abby shows up. 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:46.080 It's all fine. We are at the ASTRA Awards. So 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:51.760 we are. We are performing at that, and all of 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:53.840 a sudden, it's our lunch break. We are down and 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:57.680 Abby had ordered baby back ribs for her lunch, big 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:02.120 old barbecue ribs. And I was wearing my pink Aldcla 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.320 sweatshirt and Abby's all ribby and she's like, I need 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:07.600 someone to wipe this on. She looks at me and 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:09.480 she's like, give me your sweatshirt. And I was like, no, 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.520 this is my favorite, and she's like, it's an ALDC sweatshirt. 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:13.720 I will give you a new one, but I need 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.880 someone to wipe my hands on. And so she wiped 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:21.040 her hands and her mouth all over my ALDC pink sweatshirt. 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:25.320 The best part about it is I still have that 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.800 sweatshirt beefy ribs and all I was like, this is 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:31.800 fucking iconic and I am never washing this. So I 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.360 still haven't wrapped up in a baggy placed in my archives, 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.440 so that way it just doesn't see the light of day. 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.120 But it definitely has got Abby's beef juice on it. 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:44.160 That sounds inappropriate. That did not mean that to sound inappropriate, 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.040 but you know what I mean. That's the thing about 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:50.640 dance moms is as hard of times as there was 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.760 there's so many funny times to make up for it, 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:55.720 so many good stories to make up for it, so 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.960 many moments of accomplishments. I mean, I remember one of 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:04.280 my hardest, hardest moments was when I forgot my solo 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:06.520 on Dance Moms, And that was tough because it was 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:10.720 my favorite solo that I have ever done and inspired 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:13.600 by Miley Cyrus and I blanked on stage and then 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.000 I remember after it was the first time, actually I 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.240 thought Abby was gonna be so mad at me, but 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:20.120 it was the first time that Abby actually comforted me 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:21.800 and it was like it's okay, Like you know, you 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:24.240 messed up, you're clearly upset with yourself, don't do it again, 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.120 but like it's okay. And that for me was a 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:30.000 monumental moment of like it is okay, I am human 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:34.560 and that's that's totally fine. When the show moved out 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:41.080 to LA, we really got to experience the best. The 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.160 way Abby had her studio kind of changed the way 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:48.920 studios are in LA. There's always been classes for professional dancers, 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.320 but there's a lot of kid professional dancers and al 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:55.880 DCLA was really what Malia Missed FaceTime called did I 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:57.480 not say she was gonna try to call me back. 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:02.920 Nailed it anyways. Abby made it okay for kids to 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.359 come to those professional dancer style classes we used to 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.280 have Thursday night hip hop with Guy Groove. There would 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.400 be two hundred of us packed into that room like sardines. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.240 It was nuts. And some of the most professional dancers 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.640 now that they're adults, were in those Thursday night classes 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.120 with us, and it was so much fun. At the time. 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.080 It wasn't necessarily a competitive studio, and then it became 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.880 a competitive studio within like the first year, but it 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.600 was just classes all day long and it was so 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:36.800 freaking fun until about a year in and then we 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:40.240 all got over it. No one wanted to train anymore. 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:42.240 No everybody was over it. We all were like, fuck that, 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.680 we'll do the show and then we'll leave. Me and 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.800 Kelauny actually we used to lie about our interview times. 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.760 We would joke around because we did interviews on Tuesday, 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:56.639 Pyramid on Wednesday, rehearsal Thursday, Friday, travel on Friday, and 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.560 then competition Saturday, and then we'd have Sunday to travel back, 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:02.520 or we would just have Sunday Monday off and we 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:05.639 always had Mondays off, but Klan and I on Tuesday 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.320 at like four o'clock was ballet, and so we'd always 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:11.480 be like, oh, we got the nighttime interviews. Sorry, we 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:13.679 would literally have like the nine am interview. No, we 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:15.720 would not care. We would be like, fuck that we 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:18.800 ain't going to ballet, but then we'd go for the 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.840 fun classes after. But it was always just so fun. 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:24.640 We used to do school. We used to live right 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:27.919 by the Grove. When we started filming in La they 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.119 actually let Jill pick where we lived, and Jill wanted 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.280 to live by the Grove in California, which is basically 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.000 like nice little shopping plaza, so and we all live there. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.320 We'd walk over, we'd go to dinner together. I mean, 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:46.040 we had so many just fun memories together. One of 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.359 the hardest things for me is people trying to put 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:53.240 in my head my experience on Dance Moms. People trying 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:55.840 to tell me that I am traumatized from Dance Moms 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:57.520 or that I am not okay because of what I 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.360 went through on Dance Moms, and like, don't get me wrong, 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.119 the shit that you saw was brutal, but you didn't 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:05.720 see the good stuff, and the good stuff always made 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.040 up for the brutal stuff. Every kid that is an athlete, 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:11.040 that is good, that is talented, is going to go 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.199 through some brutal shit with their coach, with their teacher, 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.199 with their mentor because they know what it takes to 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:18.480 get them to that good spot. I think the world 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.600 is definitely changing where it's like you don't need you can, 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.639 you can. What's the saying like progress with positivity. But 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:29.160 at the same time, I always knew that anyone being 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.639 hard on me had truly my best interest, And the 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:35.040 reality of it is how you saying, joj all, have 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:37.800 you all learned nothing? Which also that did come out 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:40.159 of nowhere that was not deserved, that one did come 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.359 out of nowhere, but that made it to the TV show. 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:45.439 The good stuff never is gonna make it to the 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:49.040 TV show because in all reality, we filmed sixty hours 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:51.520 a week for Dance Moms and it's edited to forty 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:56.480 two minutes. There's like barely anything is gonna make it. 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.400 So of course all of the craziest moments are gonna 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.919 make it, and things are gonna be edited so that 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:06.879 way they make the most sense but also quickest. So 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:12.199 that for me is something that I still struggle with online. 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.520 I'm like, how is someone telling me that I should 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:17.320 be talking about Dance Moms in one way? Because I 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.679 do feel like a lot of people who are a 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.800 part of the show don't enjoy talking about the show 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:24.520 or don't enjoy it being a part of their life 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.520 or their history, and for me, I'm the complete opposite. 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.840 I am so fucking proud to have been a part 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:36.280