‘Dance Moms’ Alum Chloe Lukasiak: I’m Grateful to Compete Maddie Ziegler ‘Created’ Abby Lee Miller
“Dance Moms” alumna Chloe Lukasiak has a positive outlook on her childhood rival with made-for-TV Maddie Ziegler.
“I’m so grateful that I experienced the show as much as I did because it made me who I am,” the reality star, now 22, tells Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast ahead of ABC’s “Dance Moms: The Reunion.” Lifetime. ” private.
In a two-hour catch-up, Lukasiak unpacks the emotional turmoil of being pitted against Ziegler, now 21 — the latter of whom was not involved — by annoying dance teacher Abby Lee Miller.
“I always thought I wasn’t enough,” she said through tears in the reunion promo clip, looking back at the many times Miller showed favoritism toward Ziggler. “Like, in everything.”
On reflection, the Pepperdine University student feels that such a rivalry with Ziegler — who usually tops her infamous “pyramid” rankings — was “manufactured” by Miller, now 58, to cause chaos on camera. (Miller did not film the “Dance Moms” reunion.)
However, Lukasiak appreciates her portrayal as the “underdog” throughout her original run on the series, which ran for four seasons from 2011 through 2014.
“Even though it was manufactured — and I go into depth about this in the reunion — and even though I think it wasn’t necessary because I think natural completion thrives in dance competitions, that’s kind of the point of it, it was kind of nice “Always be on the edge of my seat,” she explains.
“I was pushing myself and doing the best I could.”
Plus, it’s made the influencer — who currently has 8.2 million followers on Instagram — more in tune with other people’s emotions, a quality she’s proud to possess after surviving the grueling “Dance Moms” grind.
“The only thing I’m really grateful for because I went through what I went through on the show is that I feel really compa*sionate toward other people,” she says, describing the upside of always being ranked second.
“I’m always aware of their emotions and what they’re feeling and I just check in with people [and] Being so committed to the world around me, that’s the one thing I feel like I really took away from the show.
Meanwhile, Lukasiak’s mother, Kristi Lukasiak — a rising star on “Dance Moms” who has ama*sed millions of social media followers since exiting the unscripted TV space — has been consistently uncomfortable with Miller’s treatment of Khloe.
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“All you’re doing is making them fail!” she exclaimed in one memorable scene from an early season of “Dance Moms.” “Who does this to a child?”
Notably, Christie, 47, who did not sign on to the reunion due to a scheduling conflict, often found herself at odds with Ziegler’s mother, Melissa Gisoni — whose younger daughter, Mackenzie “Kenzie” Ziegler, also starred on the show — Middle Maddie vs Chloe Epic.
However, the conflict didn’t turn the girls’ friendship upside down, Chloe tells us, gushing that it remains intact to this day.
She and the Zieglers reunited in March — along with Kendall Vertes and sisters Brooke and Paige Hyland and Nia Sioux — just one day before filming for the Lifetime special. (Like the Zieglers, Sioux, 22, did not attend the taping.)
“It was the first time we’d all been together and I think it was just kind of surreal for me, because they were such a big part of my childhood. I really consider them my extended family,” she gushed, noting they had a “bond unlike anyone else.” Another” as they make up the original cast.
“No one is going to understand what we went through on the show, especially that particular group of girls,” she adds.
Khloe admits she initially “said no” to the “Dance Moms” reunion, but ultimately signed on because she wanted to find “closure” — something she didn’t feel she got when she reprized her role in 2016’s seventh season after two breakups. Season stopped.
“I still don’t feel like I had a proper farewell, like a conclusion, or closing a chapter,” she says. “So I wanted to come back, share my gratitude for everything Dance Moms has given me, remember the good times, the bad times and everything in between and then move forward.”
Chloe was also thrilled to provide context for specific on-screen situations many years after filming the series as a “voiceless” teenager, she revealed.
“I really wanted to be there because…I didn’t realize it until we got there [that] When I was on the show as a little kid, we didn’t really talk or have a voice. “We were just there dancing,” explains the aspiring author.
“So it was really interesting and cool to go back and really talk about our ideas and have opinions and express them and be completely heard — unlike when we were kids.”
“Dance Moms: The Reunion” — which premieres Wednesday, May 1, at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime — stars OGs Chloe, Vertes and the Hyland sisters, as well as later additions Kalani Hilliker and JoJo Siwa.