I've watched this show from the start and Abby Lee Miller has always been something of a tutelage monster, but a line got crossed in the April 9th (2013) episode where she pitted Maddie and Chloe against each other in solo dances. She's done that before, but she will never realize that a clear winner really can never be found between Maddie and Chloe as long as Abby does the choreography for both girls because she always favors Maddie. If Abby really wanted a fair contest between the two girls, she'd get a neutral choreographer. However, what made Abby nastier than usual is that she had the moms and the other kids vote for which girl they felt did the best.
Abby, her copious hand leaning on the voting box, stood there as each child and mom placed their votes in the box. If you were a little girl and knew Maddie was Abby's favorite and Chloe was the girl she treated like a red-headed stepchild, who would you vote for if you feared Abby standing their lurking over the voting box would know who you were voting for? We weren't shown how 'private' the voting process was. Two of the voters were 7 years old. Did they write down their votes? Were they given both names already printed out and then placed one of them in the 'heavily' guarded voting box? The moms are worse. They vote the way Abby wants because they don't want their child treated with disfavor and Abby will take her loathing for a mom out on the child. It's a lose/lose for all involved.
So, if Maddie wins and Chloe loses (she had been 'benched' by Abby, so she wasn't exactly getting practice), i.e. Abby gets what she wants, why does she keep attacking Chloe? Simple, Chloe won a national championship that Abby wanted Maddie to win and it is stuck deep in Abby's craw. To be honest, Chloe is the child most likely to grow up to be a recognized dancer. Her dancing doesn't rely on the Maddie-style of melodrama. She's tall and will get taller. She has a dancer's body, but she has a spiteful teacher who wants to hold her back. If Chloe's mom really wants her daughter to be a dancer, take her to a real teacher who believes in her.
Abby, her copious hand leaning on the voting box, stood there as each child and mom placed their votes in the box. If you were a little girl and knew Maddie was Abby's favorite and Chloe was the girl she treated like a red-headed stepchild, who would you vote for if you feared Abby standing their lurking over the voting box would know who you were voting for? We weren't shown how 'private' the voting process was. Two of the voters were 7 years old. Did they write down their votes? Were they given both names already printed out and then placed one of them in the 'heavily' guarded voting box? The moms are worse. They vote the way Abby wants because they don't want their child treated with disfavor and Abby will take her loathing for a mom out on the child. It's a lose/lose for all involved.
So, if Maddie wins and Chloe loses (she had been 'benched' by Abby, so she wasn't exactly getting practice), i.e. Abby gets what she wants, why does she keep attacking Chloe? Simple, Chloe won a national championship that Abby wanted Maddie to win and it is stuck deep in Abby's craw. To be honest, Chloe is the child most likely to grow up to be a recognized dancer. Her dancing doesn't rely on the Maddie-style of melodrama. She's tall and will get taller. She has a dancer's body, but she has a spiteful teacher who wants to hold her back. If Chloe's mom really wants her daughter to be a dancer, take her to a real teacher who believes in her.