'Dance Moms': Abby Lee Miller Defends Giving The Girls Guns As Props (VIDEO)

Another week, another clash on "Dance Moms" (Tue., 9 p.m. EST on Lifetime) as viewers got to share the moms' discomfort at seeing young girls dancing with large guns.

Although dancer Maddie said that the fake prop guns wouldn't inspire her to pick up a real gun, the moms agreed that having their daughters use them in their routine seemed inappropriate and unnecessary.

Nia's mom Holly questioned Abby Lee Miller about the wisdom of using the guns.

"The caliber," she said, presumably with no pun intended, "of the piece, it doesn't seem as high as what you normally put out there for the girls. The guns ... as moms it's throwing us off a bit. It seems a bit aggressive."

Abby defended her decision in typically vigorous fashion. "I've done 'Children With Guns!' And it won everything! It was a piece of brilliant work."

Shen went on to explain that lots of musicals use guns as props, like "Chicago," for example. The fact that "Chicago" features adults, not little girls, packing heat seemed to escape her.

Abby's rationale was that she wanted her girls to enter the competition in Pittsburgh, "armed and dangerous."

Come choreograph your way through life with the "Dance Moms," Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on Lifetime.

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Comments

[tissa]

11:23 AM on 03/01/2012

Appearently the next episode has the kids dressed inNude colored costume---Abby Lee wants them to appearNude.

Now if that is notSICK I don't know what is.

These moms need to have their kids taken away from them.

And BTW, they are not that talented.

[kareemachan]

03:33 PM on 02/25/2012

You could no more get me to watch this show than 'Toddlers and Tiaras' - or whatever it's called. The whole 'dress up your kid in age-inappropriate outfits' has more than a whiff of living-vicariously-through-your-kid about it. And the core teaching of this kind of cr@p is that only your looks count. GREAT lesson to teach a little girl - not.

[BigWillyG]

04:32 PM on 02/24/2012

Toy guns are what is freaking people out about this? Nobodies gonna bring up the creepy thing about dressing pre-teens up like hookers?

[sunnydayz20118]

03:02 PM on 02/23/2012

What's even more disgusting than the way this woman "teaches" dance, are the parents who actually pay this woman to berate, humiliate, demean, bully, etc., their child in the hope they will be "discovered".

Since when is exposing a child to what is the equivalent of a seriously "dysfunctional family" (screaming, yelling, throwing things, belittling another child, etc., between so-called adults) considered a "healthy" environment?

[msoverall]

11:06 AM on 02/23/2012

I was bored and landed on this show accidentally one day. After 15min I had to change the channel, that so called teacher is a horror show. She belittles and bullies these girls and their mothers pay her to do it. Unbelievable.

[orthobobsuruncle]

02:54 AM on 02/23/2012

Lord have mercy.

[hawaiianstile]

12:58 AM on 02/23/2012

toy guns??!! thats the issue people are focusing on? have you ever seen the show? how about the fact that these moms are less mature than my elementary school nephews and nieces, bickering like spoiled children right in front of their own kids. or that they are HORRENDOUSLY unfit parents. or that they sexualize little girls, much to the delight of masturbating pedophiles. the whole show, the whole industry is a giant cavalcade of failure and destroyed childhoods. unless the CPS storms these "moms" houses in an episode its not a show anybody should watch or support. purely disgusting.

[swamijo]

10:10 AM on 02/23/2012

srsly you ACTUALLY watched this crap?

[hawaiianstile]

01:20 PM on 02/23/2012

i saw bits and pieces of a few episodes, the one with the remote was flipping back and fourth. all of what i said is obvious within minutes of any episode i think.

[dil123]

09:07 PM on 02/22/2012

You know if I was a dance mom...oh wait, I WAS a dance mom!! Well like I was saying, I watched a marathon of this show one Saturday and I couldn't believe how toxic this studio was. The girls were emotional wrecks, the mothers were running in and out of the main studio to yell at the director, the director yelled and scream AND humilated the girls in front of their peers...this studio is so dysfuncional it's amazing they get anything done. In my daughter's dance "career" I have sent her to one or two studios like this one, and after a couple of months we went right off and found new studios to give our money to. I for the most part am not really a supporter of competition schools, I really think girls should go to professional dance schools. But I know competition schools serve a purpose for girls who live in rural areas that don't have access to the professional schools, and some kids just like the idea of going to competitions all the time. Yes, one of the schools my daughter went to used a prop gun, but it was weilded by a 14 yr. old and it was done in the context of "Chicago." But putting prop guns in the hands of 9 yr. olds with no context is just stupid, which is a shame, because the girls are quite good dancers.

[swamijo]

10:13 AM on 02/23/2012

again I ask, you actually WATCHED this garbage, is your life so miserable/ pathetic that you are willing to waste a few of the precious hours you have on this earth killing off brain cells? And if you were a 'dance mom' you might want to srsly want to contemplate your own mental health, and seek professional help ASAP!

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society" ~ J. Krishnamurti

[gayleg]

07:11 AM on 02/25/2012

Oh give it up!!

Unless of course all you do is read Shakespeare all day long- TV is TV It's all escapism and this shows no more crappy than the rest.

So kill the moral superiority act. You're not impressing anyone.

[getalittlesneakpeek]

08:28 PM on 02/22/2012

ohmygosh.
you people need to get over it. ITS A PROP.

you all need to realize that obviously Abby Lee has some great credentials, and the parents are going send their kids to her cause SHE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN. she can make their kids have AMAZING careers. i think the kids can handle a little yelling....in the long run, she is the best for them.

Also, its a reality show. im sure she just got the "bitch edit" (producers edit the show and puts all the focus/emphasis on the meanness of one character...regardless of the situation/background)

[hawaiianstile]

01:00 AM on 02/23/2012

man if you really think that i hope you never have kids.

[getalittlesneakpeek]

01:09 PM on 02/24/2012

seriously? whats the difference between doing a play with a gun as a prop and a dance with a gun as a prop? its just acting.
i mean, look at the halloween costumes for kids...its never been an issue on halloween, why is it an issue now?

[pphhrogg]

07:55 PM on 02/22/2012

Absolute proof that "reality" shows are all SCRIPTED.....the fact that NONE of the dance mothers have slapped Abby yet. I'd sure like to see that blimp "dance", too....lol.

[Kriggens]

06:01 PM on 02/22/2012

I don't like the dance teacher. I teach myself and I find her "techniques" abhorrent. But, talented children will grow no matter how bad the environment is. As to the guns, this is overblown. They are props, quit the fuss and creating a problem where one doesn't exist.

[swamijo]

10:15 AM on 02/23/2012

you're an idiot and obviously mentally ill if you watch garbage like this, you seem to have a case of 'arrested development' somewhere around the age of 5

[kareemachan]

03:36 PM on 02/25/2012

Talented kids can get a warped worldview and have self-esteem problems just like anybody else, and this just encourages it.

[Payd Troll]

05:38 PM on 02/22/2012

what putrid women.

[Dadding Dudes]

04:10 PM on 02/22/2012

Other than illegalize vulgarity and bad taste (which would decimate 90% of TV), what are you gonna do?
www.daddingdudes.com

[kareemachan]

03:37 PM on 02/25/2012

Just say no.

[Red Mee]

02:50 PM on 02/22/2012

The Mom's have no problem with that woman teaching them to look and act like a ho, but draw the line at gangsta..well not really draw the line..It's not like they will pull their children from the class or anything...Next on the agenda : teach them how to actually pick up tricks and negotiate fees

[brooke1488]

11:34 AM on 02/22/2012

You left out the part where the moms ended up loving the routine on stage and agreeing with Abby at the end of the episode...