Dance Mom Research Paper

Ever since I was about 4 years old, I was dancing. I had been dancing competitively for about a year when the reality TV show Dance Moms aired. I remember constantly hearing different forms of the question; “Is it like dance moms?”, or “Is your teacher like Abby Lee?”. Of course I shot it down because I always thought that the show was a bad thing...partially because my mom never wanted me to watch it. But, now that I am looking at it in a different light, they are similar in some perspective. Competition dancing and the reality show Dance Moms are built upon the same idea, but are not necessarily interchangeable.
For years now, society has fallen into the hole of reality television. People like to escape their own problems and watch and become conflicted with some else’s. What’s the difference you ask? The stars on those shows are paid millions of dollars to fight, and it’s scripted. It’s the same thing for dance moms and competition dancing. Abby Lee Miller is paid millions on millions of dollars to yell, rank her students, and portray herself as a bad role model. Even people that don’t dance become wrapped up in the alternate universe. But what they don’t realize is that competition dancing is nothing like that; the followers of the show just began to …show more content…
One way Dance Moms and competition dancing are alike is how the dancer’s technique is the main focus. In the show, it takes you through the star’s week and shows them in their technique and ballet classes. It does show drama, which is the main focus, but there are parts of the show dedicated to the classes and such. This is just like any normal competition dancer and their studio. Dancers endure many hours of training to work on their technique. From classes solely based on technique to workshops and conventions they put in a a lot of work and time. Whether is televised on Dance Moms or not, dancers put in a lot of work for their