Dance Moms fans saw Abby Lee Miller’s erratic teaching style on eight seasons of the reality series from 2011 to 2019 — but Nia Sioux’s new memoir takes readers behind the curtain on some of the infamous dance teacher’s most extreme behavior.
“Being the only Black girl on the team for most of Dance Moms was really challenging,” Sioux, 24, who joined the show at just 9 years old, wrote in Bottom of the Pyramid: A Memoir of Persevering, Dancing for Myself and Starring in My Own Life, published on Tuesday, November 4. “My mom and I dealt with microaggressions and racism daily.”
Sioux starred on the hit Lifetime series, which takes viewers inside Abby Lee Dance Company’s Junior Elite Competition Team in Pittsburgh, alongside her mother, Holly Frazier. The mother-daughter duo were the only original Black cast members, starring alongside Maddie and Kenzie Ziegler and their mom, Melissa Ziegler-Gisoni, Chloe Lukasiak and her mom, Christi Lukasiak, and Brooke and Paige Hyland and their mom, Kelly Hyland. Notable alums like Kendall Vertes and JoJo Siwa joined in later seasons.
“Don’t you just wish you had white-girl hair?” Sioux alleges Miller once asked her during season 2 of the show, one of a myriad of racist accusations that included the dance teacher referring to the pigeon pose as the “swastika pose.”
Dance Moms’ Most Memorable Stars: Where Are They Now?
“I felt like I was set up to fail,” Sioux wrote in Bottom of the Pyramid. “I was given choreography that was too juvenile for my age group and ability level. The songs I danced to and the costumes I wore were sometimes overtly racist, immature or inappropriate. I was pitted against the few Black dancers who joined the team and criticized for my skin tone, the curves of my body and even the natural hair that grew out of my scalp.”
Yet, Sioux does hold compassion for her former castmates.
“I don’t know if I forgive everything. … For the most part, I do,” the content creator and actress told Us Weekly exclusively ahead of the memoir’s release. “Just because I’ve forgiven doesn’t mean that I didn’t learn the lesson. … It doesn’t mean that I forget. I know there’s that saying, ‘Forgive and forget,’ but you shouldn’t always forget.”
Keep scrolling for more revelations from Sioux’s memoir:
Racism Allegations
Sioux’s recollections of the racism she experienced on Dance Moms range from microaggressions to full-on overt discrimination.
On the rare occasions where Sioux was chosen for a solo routine, they were often for stereotypical and hurtful roles, while her castmates got “popular, recognizable songs that were cute and age appropriate.” Her solos included “Nattie of the Jungle,” “Satan’s Li’l Lamb” and Shakira’s “Waka Waka,” the latter of which the dancer says she was given because “whenever Abby heard Africa, she automatically thought of me.”
One of Sioux’s most popular solos was “They Call Me Laquifa,” which she says her mother felt was “Abby mocking Black people.” Yet when Frazier attempted to voice her concerns, Sioux alleges Miller responded “that I’d better get used to it; there would be plenty more routines like this in my future since I was Black.”
Hair and makeup became a point of racial contention as well, with a lack of attention on the shades of lipstick and blush that would look good on non-white skin. Asserting that “Abby was always irritated that I stuck out,” Sioux alleges that Miller made several offensive remarks about her hair, and often made her wear yellow because “Black people look good in yellow.”
One instance in which Miller allegedly said she never asked for “a Tootie” on her team (referencing Kim Fields’ character on The Facts of Life), resulted in the argument getting physical, according to Sioux, with Miller yanking her arm. Sioux alleges that the production team left out the racist remark from the final cut, though they did bring a child therapist onto set once Sioux’s family got an attorney involved.
Miller eventually apologized for her racist behavior in 2020 via Instagram after being fired from Lifetime, though the statement was addressed to later cast members Kamryn and Adriana — notably not Sioux.
Sioux also opened up about how she felt that her constantly being excluded by the other girls was race-related.
“I am not saying that the girls were racist, but I do think they naturally gravitated toward each other because they had a shared cultural identity,” she wrote. “I was the only Black kid, the one who didn’t look like the others. The oddball that stood out. The message Abby ingrained in us that I wasn’t a good dancer created even more of a barrier. Sometimes, I sensed that the girls thought they were better than me, and it tainted our interactions. … I now believe that racial differences made it difficult for the other girls to fully understand me.”
Abby Lee Miller Knows Why She Wasn’t Invited to ‘Dance Moms’ Reunion
Financial Revelations
Sioux wrote that her family’s attorney warned her and Frazier that the original Dance Moms contract was “bad,” allegedly paying both mom and daughter less than $1,000 a week before taxes.
“There was nothing in it that protected the talent,” Sioux wrote. “We had no rights to the content and could not use or say anything in correlation with the show without the network’s approval.”
Meanwhile, Sioux alleges that Miller would “gloat” that she was being paid $20,000 an episode — “we were working overtime and not making half of that.”
“It seemed like Abby barely came to work, and yet she was making significantly more than any of us girls,” Sioux wrote. “I wouldn’t even be able to pay for college tuition from what I’d made from Dance Moms.”
Post-Show Drama
Sioux revealed that her last contact with Miller was in 2018, when the dance teacher was diagnosed with cancer. Despite the bad blood between them, Sioux wrote that she requested to visit her former dance teacher — only to be denied in dramatic fashion.
“Abby then wrote that perhaps Mom was a parent that always thinks their child does no wrong and that she wouldn’t know because she never saw Mom around me much,” Sioux wrote of Miller’s text message denial. “If this wasn’t enough for me to move on, she concluded by taking credit for getting me out of Pittsburgh, that every penny in my pocket is because of her and that Mom and I should be grateful to her for not having to shop in thrift stores.”
Dance Moms reentered Sioux’s life once again when members of the cast came together for a reunion special in 2024. She decisively declined to participate.
“I didn’t even have to think about it. If I was going to share anything about my time on the show, it would be on my terms and my terms only,” she wrote. “Just the thought of being among many of my former castmates made me sick with anxiety. I didn’t trust them or some of the producers. Production had seven years to turn my narrative around and failed to do so.”
The ‘Dance Moms’ Cast Have Mixed Feelings on Abby Lee Miller’s Methods
Relationships With Cast Members
To this day, Sioux maintains a relationship with Lukasiak, though their friendship journey was not always smooth sailing.
“The most painful part of Chloe’s departure was that she cut me out of her life,” Sioux wrote of her friend’s departure from the reality show after season 4. “At the time, I didn’t understand what she was doing. I’d thought we were close, so I wanted some type of closure or a reason why she was distancing herself from me. Now that I’m older, I understand that she needed to separate from all things ALDC to protect her peace.”
The multihyphenate also addressed tension on the show between herself and fan-favorite cast members Ziegler and Siwa.
“Maddie is a hard worker, but she also had certain advantages that the rest of us weren’t afforded,” she wrote of Ziegler, whom the moms often accused of receiving favoritism from Miller. “After Dance Moms ended and I had some time to reflect, I started to wonder whether the whole point of the show had been to make Maddie a star.”
When Siwa joined the team in season 5, things were “rocky” between her and Sioux.
“JoJo got on everyone’s nerves, including mine. It was like she was going out of her way to ruffle feathers and to get a reaction out of us. She shook up the team dynamic, for better or for worse,” Sioux wrote. “It seemed like JoJo and her mom used every opportunity to push me out of dances. Jess would constantly speak about how I wasn’t needed and say that JoJo could take my place in group dances.”
That said, Sioux told Us that there are no hard feelings between her and Siwa — or any of her other former castmates for that matter.
“I think we’re all just busy. We grow up. People grow apart and that’s the most of it,” she told Us. “But I mean, [JoJo’s] slaying, she’s doing great, and I’m happy for her.”
Us reached out to Miller and the Lifetime team, and they did not comment.
