The other night I couldn’t sleep.  Wisconsin was having one of its crazy fits of weather and we’d gone from cold and rainy to thunderous and muggy in a matter of hours.  I tried everything.  I read for awhile, I moved around, I turned off every light I could think of.  Wide awake!  So I flipped the TV on to zone out for awhile and what did I find?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Meet my Newest Guilty Pleasure:

Dance Moms Miami

(image from neontommy.com)

Please, let me tell you more!  Staying up until 3am watching this crew, I’ve learned a lot.

The Cast:

Angel and Victor (image from channelguidemagblog.com)

Victor and Angel:  Longtime friends, Victor Smalley and Angel Armas, are the owners and choreographers of Stars Dance Studio.  Their motto:  “Turning Kids Into Dancers and Dancers into Stars.”  Victor you may recognize as he is now heavily requested for his choreography after being a finalist on Season Six of “So You Think You Can Dance.”  Victor is the young, mostly heart, pep talker of the duo, and Angel is the business side, very disciplined, with high expectations for his dancers.  Together, they’re shaping their dance team into professionals, learning when it’s time to work, you work, always earning your place on top of The List, a weekly breakdown of each dancer’s performance and behavior.  Positioning on The List earns you chances for solo competition.

Kimmy (image from channelguidemagblog.com)

Ani and Kimmy:  Are you ready for this?  Meet the only sweet pair in the bunch.  Kimmy is an adorable and kind hearted perfectionist.  She was recently given a solo to a song all about being bad, and the girl had never done anything bad!  Her homework assignment was to misbehave.  You know what she did?!  Another dancer threw pistachios at her, and she threw them back!  Scandalous!

Ani and Kimmy (image from mylifetime.com)

Ani is also the only adorable mom.  Staying out of the drama for the most part, her only anxieties show when she watches how hard her daughter practices to dance perfectly.

Abby and Sammy (image from mylifetime.com)

Abby and Sammy:  New mom on the block, Abby, better prepare herself as daughter Sammy climbs The List.  The other moms have their claws out and ready.

Adorable Hannah (image from tvgasm.com)

Which brings me to Debi and Hannah.  While I love how hard Hannah tries and the fun she clearly has dancing, her mom is a new form of batsh*t crazy!  Whether it’s gossiping, using the other moms as her minions, or full on sabotoge, Debi’s got it covered.

Giving Redheads Everywhere a Bad Name, Debi (image from lifetimemoms.com)

Susan and Jessi:  Rivaling Debi for the Most Crazy Mom award is Susan.  As daughter Jessi is the oldest and been working with Victor and Angel longest, there’s some entitlement issues happening here!  But Jessi recently went to the bottom of The List after her poor sportsmanship was caught on camera, ripping the team’s trophy out of her teammate’s hands!  Tsk, tsk!

But the pressure is totally on.  Jessi’s mom is ridiculously tough on her daughter to the point where Victor and Angel stepped in to tell her stop trying to train her at home because she’s coming to class tired!  After the whole trophy fiasco and teary apology scene, Victor gave Jessi a hug and a “there, there.”  Angel was immediately on him for reinforcing bad behavior to which Victor replied, “It’s not her fault her mom is crazy!”  That might be my favorite line of the show!

Jessi and Susan (image from mylifetime.com)

Lucas and Brigette (image from blogs.miaminewtimes.com)

Lastly, there’s Brigette and Lucas.  As the only boy in the group, Lucas, often gets to shine.  He’s an amazing dancer and his mother is his biggest fan.  Brigette is the lightswitch of the group, if Lucas is on top, she’s all happy and shiny, but if he has a bad week, expect things to go dark…quickly.

Check out this hilarious video of the team’s group number to the song “City Boy.”

So, what exactly did I learn from this new guilty pleasure that seemed absolutely amazing at 3 am in the morning?!

1. Be fierce!
2. Work hard!
3. Own your mistakes, then let them go.
4. Dance Moms are Crazy People!
5. It’s not your fault if your mom’s loco!

Thanks for stopping by you guys!  I had too much fun gushing over this guilty pleasure!  What’s been your latest guilty find?  And stick around for one more fun video – where the Dance Moms show you there favorite dance moves!