Some Dance Moms alums have gone on to conquer pop culture, but others? They've just been happy to escape all the drama.
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00:00Some Dance Moms alums have gone on to conquer pop culture, but others, they've just been
00:04happy to escape all the drama.
00:06The founder of the Abby Lee Dance Company, Abby Lee Miller's training plans often unfortunately
00:11included insults and even physical aggression.
00:14Her combusted personality made Dance Moms eminently entertaining, but it also tore her
00:18troupe apart.
00:19She left the series in 2017 and announced her official departure from the Dance Moms
00:23universe in 2020.
00:25Before all that, Miller had already landed in hot water as the subject of lawsuits filed
00:29by Kelly Hyland and her daughter, Paige, who accused her of assault, among other charges.
00:34Though those cases were dropped, Miller was indicted on bankruptcy fraud charges in 2015,
00:39stemming from false claims made about her income from Dance Moms-related merchandise
00:43and deals.
00:44She was sentenced to 366 days in federal prison and served eight months before being transferred
00:50to a halfway house.
00:51You owed $400,000 to the IRS?
00:54What?!
00:55Things eventually got much worse as Miller was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma in 2018,
01:00which required spinal surgery and left her in a wheelchair.
01:03In 2020, Lifetime cut all ties with her after two former dancers' mothers claimed that she
01:08had made racially insensitive statements.
01:11Maddie Ziegler's popularity on Dance Moms has taken her to Hollywood and beyond.
01:15Her ascent began when Sia taped her to dance in her 2014 music video for Chandelier.
01:19More collaborations with Sia followed, as did acting gigs in movies like The Book of
01:23Henry, West Side Story, and My Old Ass.
01:26In addition to dancing and acting, Ziegler has also modeled for brands like Ralph Lauren
01:30and Target.
01:31She's also launched an array of fashion lines and products, including team-ups with her
01:35younger sister and fellow Dance Moms alum Mackenzie.
01:38In 2017, she became a New York Times best-selling author with the publication of her memoir,
01:43The Maddie Diaries, which was followed by a trilogy of YA novels.
01:47Arguably the most popular star to emerge from Dance Moms, JoJo Siwa left the show in Season
01:526 for a whole host of other endeavors.
01:54Her massive social media following helped her score an online hit with her first single,
01:58Boomerang.
01:59Concert tours and appearances on shows like So You Think You Can Dance and The Masked
02:02Singer soon followed.
02:04Then, in 2020, she was named one of the 100 Most Influential People by Time magazine.
02:09Siwa came out as a member of the LGBTQIA plus community in 2021.
02:14In 2024, she released a single called Karma and an EP called Guilty Pleasure.
02:19Alas, she was hit with a significant amount of criticism after she told Billboard that
02:23she wanted to create a new sub-genre of music she called gay pop, a comment that she later
02:28walked back.
02:29That's what I call it, I'm a bad girl now!"
02:35Chloe Lukasiak's four seasons on Dance Moms came to an abrupt halt in Season 4 following
02:40clashes between her mother, Christy, and Abby Lee Miller.
02:43Since then, she returned briefly in Season 7 as a member of the Irreplaceables, while
02:47remaining active in dance and other mediums.
02:50Lukasiak has danced with several companies and modeled for fashion lines like Oxygen
02:54and Tutu Demand.
02:55In 2018, she published Girl on Point, Chloe's Guide to Taking on the World, which addressed
03:00her time on Dance Moms.
03:02A student at Pepperdine University since 2019, she appeared in the 2024 Dance Moms reunion
03:08special and later told Entertainment Tonight that she was still sorting out her feelings
03:11about the show.
03:12This is really hard, it's something I'm still working on.
03:14I think when you're that young, you're really vulnerable and you absorb everything that
03:18people tell you."
03:19Nia Su had the longest tenure of all the dancers on Dance Moms, with seven seasons under her
03:24belt before she departed.
03:26Since then, she appears to have made a clean break from the series and enjoyed the spotlight
03:29in a variety of other mediums.
03:31She released a trio of singles between 2015 and 2018, and in 2016, she made her Off-Broadway
03:37debut in Trip of Love, a tribute to the music of the 1960s.
03:41Acting roles soon followed, including a year-long run on The Bold and the Beautiful and a small
03:46part in the 2024 musical remake of Mean Girls.
03:49Su also hosted a Facebook Watch series called Dance with Nia and found time to study American
03:54literature and culture at UCLA.
03:56And though she declined to appear in the Dance Moms reunion special, she told E! News that
04:01she remains close with many of her fellow former dancers.
04:04Mackenzie Ziegler appeared alongside her older sister Maddie on Season 1 through 6 of Dance
04:09Moms before departing the show.
04:11Since then, she's focused largely on music, with occasional forays into acting.
04:15Her first album, Mack Z, dropped in 2014 and was followed four years later by Phases.
04:20Ziegler began acting in 2015 on the Nickelodeon sitcom Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn and later
04:25co-starred on the Brat TV series Total Eclipse.
04:28She teamed up with her sister in 2022 for a podcast called Take 20 with Maddie and Kenzie,
04:33which they felt was an opportunity for them to present a more honest depiction of themselves.
04:37Both sisters also declined to participate in the Dance Moms reunion special.
04:42Mackenzie and Maddie Ziegler's mom, Melissa Giazzone, has always been proud of her daughter's
04:46accomplishments, but that occasionally resulted in friction with Abby Lee Miller and the other
04:50moms.
04:51Either way, she was shrewd enough to step away from Dance Moms in Season 6, when she
04:55realized that her girls were no longer benefiting from the show.
04:58It just got more and more."
04:59Giazzone's post-Dance Moms activities include Because Mom Said So, a parenting and pop culture
05:04podcast she co-hosted with fellow Dance Moms vets from 2020 to 2024.
05:09She also launched a jewelry business and sat on the board of directors for The Unity Project,
05:13an organization that brought together celebrities and content creators with fans to support
05:17various causes.
05:19Chloe Lukasiak's mom, Christy, appeared on Dance Moms from Seasons 1 through 4, and her
05:24tenure was also marked by tension with the other series regulars, including squabbles
05:28with Abby Lee Miller over perceived favoritism extended towards the Ziegler sisters.
05:32In 2017, she told People magazine,
05:34"...What's always the source of the drama?
05:37It's Abby.
05:38She's a strong personality and it's difficult to stand up to her."
05:40After leaving the show, Lukasiak has kept busy with a wide variety of pursuits.
05:44She co-hosts a Dance Moms re-watch podcast called Back to the Bar, an overseas adulting
05:50101, a business that advises Gen Z women on life skills.
05:54Lukasiak is also active with Your Mom Cares, a nonprofit founded by the mothers of celebrities
05:58like Jonah Hill and Adam Levine, that promotes access to mental health care for young people.
06:03Eliana Walmsley's time on Dance Moms was brief, but she's managed to parlay that fame into
06:08a decent career both on and off stage.
06:11A member of the ALDC mini-team in Season 6, she joined the elite team in Season 7 but
06:16departed at the end of the year, returning only for occasional appearances in Season
06:208.
06:21By that time, she'd already toured with fellow Dance Moms alum Macy Kayes and starred in
06:25the Off-Broadway production Dance Divas Nutcracker.
06:28Stints on Dancing with the Stars, Jr.'s soon followed, as did a leading role in the Christmas
06:33spectacular with The Rockettes at New York's Radio City Music Hall in 2019 and 2020.
06:39Also in 2020, she joined the YouTube series Chicken Girls as a main cast member in Season
06:437.
06:44And on top of all that, she's a popular YouTube personality with more than 2.2 million subscribers.
06:50Macy Kayes and her mother Jamie joined Dance Moms in Season 7 and remained with the series
06:55until the elite team was broken up.
06:57She also briefly appeared in the Season 8 special The New Team, though she didn't return
07:01after that.
07:02Since then, she's maintained a relatively low profile on screen while continuing to
07:05dance in various capacities.
07:07Kayes has made guest appearances on the talent series Little Big Shots, the short-lived World
07:12of Dance, and JoJo Siwa's JoJo Juice series.
07:15She also toured as a dancer with Justin Bieber in 2016.
07:18More recently, she completed her high school education and enrolled at the University of
07:22Minnesota Twin Cities, where she's a member of the dance team.
07:26One of the most memorable altercations in Dance Moms' history took place between Abby
07:30Lee Miller and Kelly Hyland over the former's alleged lack of attention to Hyland's two
07:35daughters, Brooke and Paige.
07:36This dust-up resulted in both daughters departing the series.
07:39We will leave.
07:40That's fine."
07:41After a brief foray into pop music in 2013, Brooke earned a degree in marketing and management
07:46information from Ohio University before launching a second and successful career as a content
07:52creator.
07:53Brooke's many social media pursuits include a food blog and vlogging on her YouTube channel.
07:57In 2024, the Hyland sisters returned to the Dance Moms universe for the reunion special.
08:02In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Brooke reflected on the fight between her
08:05mom and Miller by noting,
08:07"'It's hard.
08:08It's become a TikTok trend.
08:09Like people are using that sound from the fight.
08:11The reunion was the first time I feel like we seriously sat there and were like, wow,
08:15this happened.'"
08:16In 2014, Brooke Hyland's younger sister Paige filed a lawsuit against Abby Lee Miller, accusing
08:28her of assault after an incident in which she angrily threw a chair while Paige was
08:32in the room.
08:33The suit was dismissed in 2015, but it effectively ended the Hylands' association with Dance
08:37Moms.
08:38Since then, Paige has forged a career path beyond the world of dance.
08:42She graduated from high school in 2019 and earned a degree in business administration
08:46from West Virginia University in 2023.
08:49She's a model and popular influencer on social media, with over 4 million followers.
08:54In 2024, she reflected about her time on Dance Moms when she told E! News,
08:58"'It definitely made me stronger.
09:00As I've gotten older, you can say whatever you want to me and I will not cry, because
09:03I cried enough in the past.'"
09:05A member of the Abby Lee Miller dance team starting at the age of 8, Kelly Hyland returned
09:09to the studio with her daughters for Seasons 1 through 4 of Dance Moms.
09:13Since the physical altercation and subsequent lawsuits, Hyland and her daughters have mostly
09:18kept the Dance Moms universe at arm's length, though she has served as a co-host of two
09:22podcasts with Dance Moms Connections, Back to the Bar and Because Mom Said So.
09:26In 2024, she revealed her breast cancer diagnosis.
09:29She successfully completed her first round of chemotherapy in August of that year.
09:34Kendall Vertes appeared on Dance Moms from Seasons 2 through 7, with a brief break to
09:38perform with Kathy Nesbitt-Stein's Candy Apples Dance Center.
09:42She later joined the Irreplaceables dance team in Season 7 and toured with them in 2017.
09:47She also released a single called, "'Where I'm Out," in 2015 and appeared in videos for
09:51JoJo Siwa and Todrick Hall.
09:54Vertes graduated from high school in 2021 and then studied at James Madison University,
09:58where she won a national championship as part of the school's dance team in 2024.
10:02She's also branched out into acting in several independent and director video movies, including
10:07a holiday feature called Santa in Training.
10:09In 2024, Vertes appeared on the Dance Moms reunion special, which proved to be an emotionally
10:14challenging but ultimately positive scenario.
10:17As she admitted to Yahoo!,
10:18"'It was definitely a very vulnerable experience for us, but I'm glad that the girls were there.
10:22We get each other.
10:23We can talk each other through any situation, and I'm very thankful that I had them there.'"