Abby Lee Miller was asked about the Dance Moms alums she no longer keeps up with. “Someone should learn to say thank you,” Abby Lee Miller told KTLA.
The Lifetime series wrapped in 2019, and a Los Angeles station recently asked her about the alums she has not kept up with since. Her answer centered on one word in particular. One former castmate has already published her own account of those years.
Abby Lee Miller responds to ‘Dance Moms’ criticism by defending the show’s role in their careers
Criticism of her and the show has come from former Dance Moms cast members, and the 60-year-old dance instructor has responded.
“I think they’re just very ungrateful. I think the girls themselves, [they’ve said it’s] toxic the show and their memories, this that and the other thing and all their therapy — whatever,” Miller replied. “They would not be where they are today without the show. Someone should learn to say thank you.”
The Abby Lee Miller ungrateful comment sat alongside a claim about her own role in what followed for the Dance Moms alums. Careers in dance and other fields came to a number of them, and she attributes that to her personal influence. However, she named nobody.
She doesn’t “even think they would be where they are without me, forget the TV show,” she said. She pointed to the route “through my dance studio” as one that often worked.
Her school has a reputation for launching careers, and she said there are “many names I could just roll through.”
Several Dance Moms stars have addressed the show since it ended. Kendall Vertes said at the 2024 reunion, “We would not be here without Dance Moms.” She added, “It was literally the stepping stone into who we are today.”
Meanwhile, Nia Sioux has spoken about a different experience. Her 2025 memoir recalls problematic remarks she says Miller made to her. Sioux told PEOPLE that being the only Black dancer during one period of the show “had lasting effects” on her.
WHO DO YOU THINK HAS THIS RIGHT, ABBY OR THE ALUMS?