Izabella Reviews her Fav Dance Shows! - by Izabella Alagao
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Izabella Reviews her Fav Dance Shows!
Abby’s Ultimate dance Competition is a drama filled competition show where 11 select dancers are competing for the title Abby Lee Miller’s Ultimate Dancer, $100,000, and a scholarship to the Joffery Ballet school. The dancers are judged by choreographer, Richard Jackson, Broadway veteran Rachelle Rak, and of course Abby Lee Miller. Each week there is a theme such as Vegas, Gods and Morals, or Fairytales. There is also a weekly skill like flexibility turns or performance and there is also a challenge that is inspired by the theme and skill and the winner of the challenge gets an advantage in the elimination challenge where one dancer will be going home. But each judge has one callback card where they could use it to save the dancer being eliminated.
Dance Moms is a reality TV show where we get to watch this competitive dance team in Pittsburgh, PA. with a passionate but demanding dance teacher Abby Lee Miller. Each week they learn a new dance routine and then compete at a competition. Depending on how the girls did at the competition will determine their spot on the pyramid. The pyramid is a ranking of the girls made by Abby. Every girl strives to be on top. The show captures the dynamic interplay between parent, teacher and student as Abby tries to bring out the best in her students but in an interesting way. Abby instructs her students while dealing with over-the-top mothers and rival studios.
Dancing Queen is another reality TV show on Netflix focusing on a competition team from the studio Beyond Belief in Mesquite,TX. They are directed by choreographer Justin Johnson aka Alyssa Edwards (his drag queen persona). It is dramatic like Abby Lee but instead of focusing on the mini and juniors, you get to really learn about the older kids as well and see how they prepare for their comp season from Auditions to the competitions. Justin is a very talented choreographer and he seems to have a lot going on. You can tell he cares about his students and their futures. His over the top drag persona Alyssa is so entertaining to listen to during the interviews. You get to really know the dancers and their struggles beyond comp world and how they hope to transition after high school and start dance careers.
Dance Academy is an Australian Dance Drama about Tara Webster, a girl that grew up on a farm, but dreams to be a part of a full time ballet academy in the big city of Sydney. She gets in and learns so much about her classmates and all of their different backgrounds. They become her dance “family” of friends. She has the typical competitive mean girl that never stops trying to vie for top student and is jealous of Tara’s natural ability. Eventually they do become friends along with others in the class. Tara discovers both love and heartache with a typical bad boy named Christian that she is drawn too for. Teen issues combined with the stresses of the ballet dance world as you watch these young high schoolers move up to levels each year and then as their time ends at the Academy you see how they then make their choices for their ballet careers hoping for spots in prestigious ballet companies or some find their own paths in dance outside of ballet.