Dance Moms vs. Bring It

Last night it was introduced to a television show on Lifetime called Bring It. Lifetime airs two different reality television shows each following a children’s dance company throughout practices, home life, and competition. Dance Moms first aired in 2011. The show follows Abby Lee Miller, the founder and director of the Abby Lee Dance Company, as she coaches and trains girls (and occasionally boys as well) to become the best dancers in the nation. The show also highlights the tension between the mothers of the dancers and how their relationships with one another affect their children. Similarly, the television show, Bring It first aired in 2014. It follows Dianna “Miss D” Williams, founder of Dancing Dolls, LLC, as she prepares here dancers for competition. The one episode I saw also seemed to show the relationships between the mothers and the tension that develops.

Please watch these brief previews of the two shows.

Bring It: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlM1BryXEFA

Dance Moms: http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/dance-moms/video/season-4/episode-11/dance-moms-episode-11-preview-clip

Plainly put, both shows highlight an egocentric, power hungry, dance tyrant who verbally abuses children and relies on their mothers to instigate drama in order to provide entertainment. However, the differences between these two shows are visually prominent. Abby Lee Miller is white, and Dianna “Miss D” Williams is black. Abby Lee teaches her students all genres of dance but mainly focuses on the disciplines of contemporary, modern, ballet, and jazz. Miss D runs a hip-hop Majorette dance squad. The majority of Abby Lee’s students and parents are white. Miss D’s entire dance troop is black.

Dance Moms and Bring It are two very different, yet extremely similar television shows. While one is predominantly white and the other predominately black, there is no television show that shows an equally integrated dance company. Do you believe that these to shows target the same or different audiences? Is there a difference between these two shows simply because the color of the reality star’s skin? Do you think that Abby Lee and Miss D are perceived differently by viewers, due to the color of their skin? What would happen if Miss D had white children in her dance company?

How do you think these shows would be different if Abby Lee Miller and Dance Moms consisted of all blacks, and Dianna “Miss D” Williams and Dancing Dolls were all white? Do you think that these two shows play into any societal stereotypes? What are the implications of this?