Maddie Ziegler isn’t just a dancer anymore. Nor is she just a reality star. She’s turned herself into bonafide celebrity, but despite her transformation from dance prodigy to sophisticated dancer in her own right, Dance Moms will always be Maddie’s home. And no matter how far Maddie ascends up the fame ladder one question will always taunt her: Is Abby Lee Miller really that terrible?
Below, Maddie discusses the inescapable force of Abby, the evolution of her dancing, her favorite ALDC moments, and what she’s really like off camera. Also in a video below, she and sister Mackenzie dance through the most fabulous fall trends. It’s gorgeous!
What Maddie doesn’t talk about is season 6, which is rumored to be plateaued as Abby argues with Lifetime and producers about wages and show structure.
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Describing what Abby is really like, Maddie insists her dance teacher isn’t mean, just strict. And demanding. But she means well. She really does! “Abby is definitely tough on us. She’s very, not so much mean, but she’s pushing us and always making us try to be better. But that’s just what she wants us to be,” says Maddie. “The only reason she’s tough on us is to make us a better dancer, and she definitely does look out for us and does care for us.”
Maddie also really stands behind Abby’s ALDC moments and says some of her favorite performances have been the most controversial ones. “All of the national group dances I really love because they are the ones that tell the story—like ‘The Last Text,’ or ‘Amber Alert,’ our new one that’s coming on the show for the finale. Mainly, the most touching pieces, I love all of those. And then all of my solos I’ve loved.”
For Maddie the secret to a good solo is turning. And ‘Maddie Face’ which even Sia went crazy over, featuring it in her video for ‘Big Girls Cry’. Maddie credits the origins of Maddie Face back to the first season of Dance Moms. “I think it started after one of my first solos on the show. I did a dance called ‘Cry’ and at the end, I had what they call the ‘Maddie face,'” recounts Maddie. “From there, it started getting bigger and bigger, and now, it’s like what people say. There’s hashtags about it and GIFs. It’s really cool, but sometimes I think it’s embarrassing because I was so little and I was so over the top and everything. I was so little when it started—I was only like eight.”
Insisting that she loves dance – on and off stage – Maddie shares that with her friends she generally goes for “crazy” dance moves that she’d never bust out in competition. Like the whip. “I always love doing the worm. My sister and I and my whole group—somehow we get it to work really well. It’s really funny when we all do it together because we are all in this big group coming towards you doing the worm.”
Maddie is such a fan of ‘The Worm’ that she promises it will win any dance-off should you so happen to find yourself in one! “Because if you do it funny and you do it good, people will like it,” she insists. “Technically, it’s impressive too.”
As for what else she likes to do behind-the-scenes, Maddie is a closet craft freak. “People know that I always do my hair and makeup, but I also love doing crafts,” Maddie shares with Glamour Magazine. “I love getting a blank canvas and painting something. I’m very artistic—I feel like ever since I was born I’ve been drawing. I actually have a picture in my room that I painted, and people are always like ‘Where did you buy that?’ It’s cool that people are impressed by it.”
Maddie also dishes on where she hopes her dance career takes her in the future. “I don’t know what I want to do exactly with my dancing, maybe some dance companies or even just dancing in film. That would be so much fun, like a Step Up.”
And below is a really fun video of Maddie and Mackenzie dancing through the major fall trends. It’s fabulous and it reminds me of some of the best numbers of the sadly canceled (much too early) Bun Heads. Enjoy!
TELL US – HAS MADDIE’S DANCING EVOLVED? WHAT DID YOU THINK OF MADDIE AND MACKENZIE’S VIDEO?
[Photo Credit: Instagram]
