No longer on top of the pyramid. Abby Lee Miller had a reputation for turning her students into stars on Dance Moms, but many of her former costars regret what they had to go through in order to succeed.
“I had more stress [on the show] than I did once I left. I have dissociated so much from that time,” Maddie Ziegler, who starred on the Lifetime reality TV show from 2011 until 2016, told Cosmopolitan in June 2022. “It’s weird because there were really amazing times, but there were also a lot of things that were really, really not great for us kids.”
The West Side Story actress added that it took a while for her to stop tying her self-worth to winning dance competitions. “My dance teacher taught that if you don’t get the trophy, if you don’t get the crown, you are less than, which is the worst way to train a kid. It carries into other life lessons. We also weren’t allowed to watch our competitors or be friends with them. I’ve had to unlearn a lot of those things,” she explained.
She continued: “I did watch a little bit of an episode from the very beginning to show my boyfriend [Eddie Benjamin] … And we both were like, ‘This is sad. We need to turn this off.'”
Miller fired back at Ziegler’s claims the following day, claiming that the former So You Think You Can Dance judge felt “at home” at her studio. “I was fighting for everything, for these kids to be the best that they could be on television,” the dance teacher said in the video, adding that she was responsible for all of Ziegler’s success. “I know that what I did for Maddie, with Maddie, helped her succeed.”
While Miller has defended her controversial teaching methods, often pointing to the Abby Lee Dance Company alums who have become professional dancers, others have alleged that she did more harm than good.
In October 2014, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of former student Paige Hyland (who was then 13 years old) which claimed that she suffered emotional abuse during her time at the ALDC. The suit also alleged that Miller pinched students until they bled and “insulted and abused Paige on an almost daily basis, including cruel name calling, insults about Paige’s physical appearance and making offensive false and defamatory accusation [sic] about Paige’s family.” The suit was dismissed in July 2015.
When Dancing With the Stars pro Cheryl Burke stepped in for Miller on season 8 of Dance Moms, she claimed that the girls were “traumatized” from their experiences working with their former teacher. “The girls are so precious, and I feel like they are traumatized from what has happened with Abby, and it’s important for me to still be strict and do what I do,” the ballroom dancer told Us Weekly in May 2017. “I expect nothing but the best from the girls, but it’s also important for me to make them feel confident about themselves because they are all beautiful and talented.”
Keep scrolling to see everything the Dance Moms cast has said about Miller over the years:
Two years after she left Dance Moms, the Fallout star revealed that she no longer speaks to Miller. "We don’t keep in contact," Ziegler told Us in June 2018. "But I wish her the best." In June 2022, she told Cosmopolitan that she felt she needed to leave Dance Moms — and the ALDC — for her own mental health. "She was distraught [when my sister and I left]. For the longest time, we felt so guilty," she explained. "She trained me, she helped me, but also, I knew I would be okay without her and I was sick of being in a toxic environment. I was like, 'This is not for me. I can’t do this.' I haven’t spoken to her since." Adding that she doesn't plan on speaking with Miller ever again, Ziegler said, "I feel at peace [now]." Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock
The Girl on Pointe author — who was frequently a target of Miller's insults on Dance Moms — revealed that she and her mother, Christi, left the show after the Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition host made fun of her physical disability. “My former dance teacher made fun of a medical condition I have,” Lukasiak said in a January 2019 YouTube video, adding that she has silent sinus syndrome, a condition that causes facial asymmetry in her eye. "If you know anything about Dance Moms, you probably know I was my former dance teacher’s least favorite student. She was really rough on me that year." She continued: "As much respect as I have for her as a dance teacher and as a person and, of course with everything she’s going through right now, what she did was horrible." MediaPunch/Shutterstock
“Facebook telling me I have a new friend suggestion," Hyland captioned a since-deleted TikTok video in May 2020, while zooming in on Miller's name. In response, she winced and shook her head "no" at the camera. Courtesy Brooke Hyland/Instagram
The Dancing With the Stars alum is one of the few Dance Moms alums who is still on good terms with Miller (and even slammed Hyland for her shady TikTok post). “I actually talk to Abby the most out of anybody from the show. She’s great. I think Abby got hurt by a lot of people and it’s really, really, really sad that a lot of the people don’t talk to her anymore,” Siwa told Us exclusively in May 2020. “The same thing with a lot of the producers from Dance Moms. It’s just sad because Abby really is a good person." She continued: "Even though you see her yelling and screaming at children on TV, like Abby made seven stars. I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for her. Maddie and Mackenzie [Ziegler] wouldn’t be where they are today without Abby." CraSH/ImageSPACE/Shutterstock
The singer seemingly threw shade at Miller in August 2020, when she took part in the "Bulletproof" trend on TikTok. "Think you can hurt my feelings? I was on Dance Moms," she captioned the post, referring to her former teacher's rude comments. Broadimage/Shutterstock
In March 2018, Sioux — the longest-running cast member of the ALDC — told Us that she "probably" wouldn't reconcile with Miller any time soon. "Never say never, but I’ve pretty much distanced myself for a while," she said at the time. "I really learned so much from her. I think one thing that I take from working with her is I learned how to deal with difficult people, with different types of people." Sioux also took part in the "Bulletproof" challenge — although she was much more up front about who she was referring to. “You think you can hurt my feelings? I was the only Black girl on Dance Moms,” she wrote alongside her video, which was shared in August 2020. “And that’s on being bullied by the biggest bully in America. LMAO.” Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
"When I was younger, I was going through a lot of hate, so I’m glad that I had you," Kenzie told her older sister, Maddie, during a joint interview with Elite Daily in May 2021. "Our teacher, the environment we were in — it was all very stressful as a kid. I’m glad we were doing the same thing so I could have a shoulder to lean on." Maddie added that she felt terrible about the ways Miller would pit the two against one another. "It broke my heart that you got compared to me so much as a dancer," she said in the interview. "Like, if you didn’t win, why weren’t you as good as Maddie? That is so heartbreaking. Everyone should be allowed to shine in their own ways." Broadimage/Shutterstock
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