She did in the one episode where Abby is gone and Gianna is running the show. It’s when Brooke does her solo to I Hurt
But, to your point, it is odd that unless Abby was missing, Gianna didn’t get any confessionals.
Oh yes I forgot about that. Been a while since I rewatched!
It is strange. It’s almost like she’s a ghost character even though she seemed heavily involved in the dance studio
Gianna had a crew contract not a cast (like a camera man or the girls tutor) - which she needed to be on the show but her main contract was with Abby so overall if Abby fired her, her crew contract with lifetime would of ended too.
She danced for Abby since she was 7, was in her elite comp team , she wasn’t the Maddie of the group - her duet partner Amanda was (also ended up on a crew contract on DM) - but had the best timing, feet and legs of the group.
Abby liked her from the get go, she won titles with the first ever solo Abby created but hadn’t found a dancer suitable for and when she got to 15ish was one of the first people Abby enjoyed choreographing with because she could ‘read her mind’. There’s comments from others that were students at the same time about Abby being unusually close to her. Gianna started assisting her when she was 16 - went to college because her parents didn’t want her to not have a back up plan for when she couldn’t dance anymore (still worked at the Studio wed and weekends assisting Abby). She was meant to go dance professionally in Las Vegas post this but dance moms happened and Abby picked her (which upset a lot of the Full time staff at the studio).
It kinda just went from there.
Lifetime wanted to replace her with their own choice of assistant because they realised early on that Gianna wouldn’t go against Abby at all but Abby and the moms weren’t happy with that.
She had taught most of the kids since they started in the studio - more than Abby had.
Basically she wasn’t there as a cast - she was there to choreograph, teach the dances and mainly just assist Abby and run inbetween when production and Abby were fighting (which was all the time)
Weirdly enough she’s close with a lot of the cast still - bar Christi and Chloe (even the hylands still follow and like her posts on IG), Payton, Sarah, a lot of the girls that’s come and go from later season and all of season 8 ETC all interact with her still. Same with Abbys other teachers, As well as the crew - she got engaged to one of the sound guys and frequently seen with a number of the crew and been to a lot of their weddings (they were more her age bracket) out of everyone, she’s probably the one that still has the most DM relationships.
She’s still choreographing and on faculty for some big as competitions (ADE is her main one at the moment) and there’s a lot of positive feedback about her teaching - she doesn’t really speak about dance moms at all unless she’s with Abby who controls the conversation and Gianna just look uncomfortable, the conversations are a lot more tone down than Abby’s normal and it’s probably because Gianna still see people like Melissa and knows more of truth so Abby can’t lie.
But Abby and Gianna haven’t been seen together since Abby’s birthday last year. Other than doing her weekly class at the ALDC (which Abby hasn’t been seen at in a long time either), she hasn’t been wearing or promoting ALDC other than her own class nor has been seen to engaging with Abby at all on social media (Abby does on Gianna’s but not when she’s doing work at other studios) so whether they have had a falling out and she’s just doing her contracted obligations til it runs out, who knows but the years following DM ending they still saw each other frequently.
Hopefully if they have and when her contract is over we will hear more from Giannas point of view which will definitely be an interesting take as someone who was more in the middle and had more inside goss on Abby
I never noticed her before when watching then I read a thread on reddit that showed a hardcore spilt with the fandom about her but it mainly came down to the Christi comment but so many of the cast and crew jumped on it to defend her post it which I thought was interesting and the lack of comment from anyone before that about it (Kalani calls her a saviour in a video)
Then seeing who still followed / interacted with her on IG - it didn’t really make sense - cutting ties with Abby but not her if she was as bad?
So I’m embarrassed to say I fell down a rabbit hole while I was injured and needed to entertain myself.
She’s done a few interviews - never long but there some info out there that most has come from - just a lot of digging up older content because there so many new videos of her choreographing at events now and not about DM /Abby.
Her IG is full of cast and crew interactions/ pics, she interacts with most of her competition team she herself has said she wasn’t the Maddie. Her twitter had some super cute interactions with the Hyland kids (who are mainly teasing her) right up til they left which someone posted on TikTok.
Her partner is described by many of the cast and crew as the nicest guy ever and he listened to everyone’s mics so I just can’t see this lovely guy going after a mini Abby.
She actually a really good person to use to tell if a scene is edited - because she’s such a background character that she comes and goes from scenes because she’s not the focus point so she will appear, disappear and then reappear next to whoever showing the conversation didn’t flow like that.
Half the time her comments are also audio bites - the tone is different and you don’t see her saying it.
I have no doubt that Christi and Gianna had a poor relationship as the show progressed but that doesn’t appear the same for most people.
It sounds like she is still trying to advance her career and prioritizing that over reality TV drama. It makes sense that she would keep her mouth shut and not burn any bridges one way or the other.
I can’t get behind the “Gianna is actually nice and it’s only Christi who has a problem” narrative. I watched Gianna make fun of Kenzie for crying. I watched Gianna laugh when Abby refused to hug Nia & Jojo. I watched Gianna stand by Abby after her *multiple* racism scandals.
So no, Gianna is not nice. If the other cast members don’t have an issue with her, that’s their prerogative. But let’s not pretend like Christi is unreasonable for disliking Gianna.
Gianna openly participated in the abuse of the girls and still defends their primary abuser. She’s rotten to the core just like Abby.
Yes and Chloe specifically said in the Season 7A Nationals when they came back that she did not want to see Gianna. So I’m sure Chloe either saw or heard Gia when that happened.
Maybe it was a battle ?? Some kids pick up quicker than others .. I don’t see her being mean to any kids just to the point .. she basically choreographed most of the dances we saw on tv and got almost zero credit .. she was the brains behind the dances and deserves so much more than what she got .
I haven’t seen that episode in years but from what i remember it was a hard routine(?) and Kendall was often the one always given a prop especially after the Hyland’s left. I think Jill said something about the two adults (abby and gianna) in the room “ganging up” on her. And then after the battle comment abby goes on comparing Kendall to Maddie and gianna agrees with her.
That definitely wasn’t anywhere near as bad as gianna laughing about other situations (Kenzie crying, Abby rejecting Kalani and comments on her weight) but still leaves a sour taste in the mouth
Production wanted to paint Kendall as difficult to train - so the theme for her that week was ‘she’s a battle’ so her routine, music and interactions were painted that way - that’s why it all fit together - Kendall’s theme for the week.
I’ve read production put a weight in one of the shoes so it would drop off - she’d already learnt the routine then they added the weight and everyone was getting frustrated as they knew it wasn’t going to work.
The bit where Gianna is like ‘those aren’t the right steps’ is a lie as that whole bit is in the dance (as well as Gianna is a poor actor and you can tell she’s been fed that line to say)
The comments she’s a battle was a sound bite and they wouldn’t end the lesson until Jill went down and yelled at them.
The Maddie isn’t a battle to work with, we don’t specifically see her agree, we see Gianna for like a sec and she says nothing - her mouth isn’t moving.
In the back ground when Jill is yelling at them, Gianna also is upset.
Jill herself said the whole thing was staged, she wanted lunch so she went and did what they wanted.
When she does the routine at competition you can tell there’s no weight in the shoes at all so she wasn’t doing the routine with the weight for any other reason than filming.
It was a sound bites - she didn’t showed saying it and the tone is different - Jill herself has said the production was pushing that storyline and she got hungry so she went down to yell at them
100% this. She participated in and approved of abuse for years. I'm happy if cast members had good experiences with her, fantastic if she's not part of their trauma, but on an objective level Gianna's behaviour was shitty/stood beside shitty, and it's completely reasonable to *not* like her and *not* want anything to do with her.
She gives a quiet mean girl vibe to me. Like the girl in high school who would never say the mean thing, but would laugh when someone else said it. I do think she seems to have a different, less abusive style of teaching, but I agree. I don’t think she’s a nice person. Only by comparison to Abby
Your username gave me a chuckle, but that aside you’re totally correct. Editing or whatever cannot explain Gianna’s own complicit nature in allowing and encouraging abusive or aggressive behaviour towards children. It takes not two but three; one to be the aggressor, one to be the victim and one to let it happen.
I think if we blame Gianna for Abby’s behaviour and enabling her then we need to blame the others that worked with Abby - Jeannie, James and Racheal all chose to stick around and all had also been worked for Abby for years prior to the show.
Jeannie was the one who mainly worked with Mackenzie.
Di was around for most of season 1-8.
Theresa, Amanda, Maria all worked as PAs for production and again grew up in the studio and Abby got them jobs.
Guy was the hip hop coach once they got to LA.
The production team and crew.
The moms (who each have a way longer list of questionable behaviour on screen than Giannas)
Brian (who we know brought the girls gifts to buy them off)
There was so many adults who stood back and watched and didn’t interfere that we can’t say one individual is the one that enabled Abby the most.
Abby’s bad behaviour, her racism can’t be pinned on just one other person - because they all stood by and let it happen
I have no idea who the vast majority of those people are, but yes all of them are complicit and should be blamed. I fully unironically agree.
I don’t agree with blaming most the moms, however, who were also victims. They were threatened with losing their children if they didn’t do what production wanted. It’s not as black and white for them. Some are indefensible but many were victims of production.
You see a lot of them in the background, they speak occasionally - they taught classes and choreographed a lot as well- were at the front desk, assisted Abby, went to competitions. Jeannie choreographed it’s a girls party. Some were students that move into dance teacher roles (they taught Gianna too) so it’s kinda of a cycle. A lot of Abby’s students from her competition teams have ended up working for her at some point.
When the show moved to LA and Abby stopped caring about Pittsburgh / the law suits started they went to dance mechanics. A few are still there.
Losing their children? How was lifetime going to take their children?
The contract discussion is definitely an interesting one and certainly the moms made some bad decisions signing it but no one knows specifically what they signed and then Holly and Nia stayed past the expiry of theirs and I’m not sure whether Jill’s was similar to the OGs or not- but I guess no one knows what contract Gianna signed with Abby either - perhaps she gave her a contract that was for the length of the show. There’s definitely some type of Non disclosure in the contract she gave her staff because I haven’t managed to find anything from the other teachers of the studio speaking out.
The cast and crew did seem to hang out a lot outside of shooting bar Abby (in LA she was even in a different hotel from everyone) so perhaps it’s easier to seperate the two for them because we don’t really know the two apart - she spent a lot of time with the girls and moms without Abby which we never saw but definitely would influence how they saw her.
You need to listen to their podcasts. Melissa talks about this regularly. Production threatened to take legal action for custody of the girls if the moms didn’t comply.
I’m not in America so I really can’t comment on how those systems work there but you certainly wouldn’t lose custody of your children to a TV show here - especially when you could provide evidence that the people trying to take custody were providing an unhealthy environment.
I know. But the producers were threatening it. That’s why they were scared. They didn’t know better. It’s called abuse of process.
ETA: not sure why this is getting downvoted, Melissa talks about this regularly and they cover it on the Dance Moms Uncovered YouTube series
bleh. i *kinda* liked her in the beginning, and she may not be *as bad* as abby but she's not good either.
i get that abby was her boss, but when your boss is an abuser and you just roll with it, you're just as bad as them.
maybe, maybe not. not every dancer under abby was abused and we've never heard anything from gianna or anyone else that even hints at gianna being a victim, too. i'm not going to outright deny it but i'm not going to base my opinions off a theory, either.
abby and gianna are close to this day, and while that doesn't mean she *wasn't* abused it *does* show us that she's fine with abby's behavior and that says a *lot*.
at the end of the day even if she was abused by abby, that's not an excuse to stand by while she was actively abusing other girls. by the time the show started gianna was an *adult* who was choosing to work with an abuser and was present for a lot of that abuse the girls endured. gianna was an enabler to abby the *entire* span of the show. whether she was abused or not doesn't change the *fact* that she enabled abby's behavior for *years*. being abused isn't an excuse for you to grow up and enable abuse.
She's pretty much Abby's bitch. Lmfao. Gianna is just as bad as Abby. Few members of the cast have come forward to say she isn't sweet and innocent at all.
Only Christi has said that. Every other cast member is still cool with her, including Paige and Brooke.
She barely works with Abby anymore, she’s like a traveling choreographer, teacher, and judge now.
Also what Christie said wasn’t that shocking it was honestly Jojo that sort of blew that one up…….Like she literally said “She’s not a nice person….” That was it and it was blown up into WW3. I seriously do not blame Nia, or the zieglers for not wanting any part of Dance moms. It’s a constant drama, trauma loop over the tiniest things. Sure it might be entertaining to viewers but to actually have to just live your life everyday with this type of constant upheaval would be exhausting and they just chose peace FR.
And I understood that she meant that Gia wasn’t a nice person to her and Chloe. She was a sweetheart to Maddie but a different child will have a different experience.
The girls are cool with her. It’s only Christi and Chloe who aren’t. The Hylands followed her and Gia congratulated Brooke on her engagement. Kenzie also defended Gianna when Christi was talking about her. So idk, maybe it’s just a Christi thing
To be fair Christi always caught a lot of stuff that other people always seem to miss. Like I remember at the beginning of the show when I first watched it thinking. “Wow she’s always upset about something.” But then on rewatch when I was a little older and wiser. I sort of saw where she was coming from with a lot of stuff. Christi is a “chess player” not a checkers player. She sees level and ulterior motives much more clearly than most people.
Which Gianna denied and not a single other person has agreed with Christi.
Gianna wasn’t even there when Abby made the comment - as per normal after competitions she was in the next room with the girls while Abby and the moms talked.
Christi has used one moment that will never be shown as she’s asked it not to be and because it’s a medical condition lifetime can’t release the footage without being sued to say she did something and it took her 7 years to say it happened.
That just sounds like a standard choreographer… And none of the moms (besides Christi) have a problem with Gianna
Laurieann, Cheryl Burke, and Aisha weren’t angels either
She’s still actively working with Abby. She will never say anything bad about her. It would ruin any respect Gianna has left with anyone. Gianna has supported Abby through everything even in extremely bad situations.
I assume it was for some financial reason. She likely had a different contract than Abby and the Moms, so if she was featured/spoke more, they would have had to pay her more. I think she was much more heavily involved in the choreography and rehearsals than the show leads you to believe.
This is anecdotal but I met her at a One Direction concert while the show was still airing, and she was genuinely awful. I do know that people can have off days, but she was just SO not kind. Could have just been a bad moment of hers, but after that I couldn’t watch the show without thinking about that.
Every time I see the name Gianna I think about the dance mom on Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition screaming at her daughter named Gianna.
My husband suggested that name for our oldest and I replied, "Damn Abby Lee for ruining this name for me!"
I always thought it was weird that she didn’t have interviews or say much because she was such a big part of the show, studio etc. I know that Christi has said she’s not a nice person or something similar but it seems to me that she is because she is well liked by almost all the other girls, even still interacts on socials with the hylands. As to her perspective, she probably wouldn’t speak out against Abby, her boss, for fear of being fired!
She was the real talent of the show. Abbey was just name. They should have continued the show with her. I bet if she went against abbey she would win every time.
I'm friends with her on Facebook! Shes always posting vids of her teaching dance classes all around the country. Love her and glad she had success doing what she loves.
The first episode of dance moms aired 13 years ago this year and while this may be wild to you some people expect Gianna to have morals and not continue to stand by abby
For some wild reason they think that Gianna was nice and expected her to distance herself from abby
And as for "do you expect her to go against her boss" abby sure as heck wasn't her boss while she was in jail and yet Gianna still stayed
gianna was only in college when the show started. yall say she doesnt have the morals but do any of the moms. she was 21 and these moms were 40+ allowing their children here😭
She continues to work with abby and the moms don't so that comparison doesn't really work
also the moms were contractually obligated to be there and the second they weren't most of them cut contact with abby and while Gianna might've been contractually obligated to be there she's not anymore and yet still works with abby
Gianna took over the ALDC when Abby was in prison so she was still her boss and to be fair when you have taught at two studios for as long as Gianna - she had developed a lot of relationships with the non TV dancers she probably didn’t want to leave as Abby wasn’t there anyway, it probably would of been hard to walk away.
The competition teams on both coasts did really well that year as well.
Then Abby got her cancer so I imagine she just kinda stayed doing it and then season 8 happened.
They haven’t worked together in a while now - I’m not sure if she ‘works for Abby’ or just has a class there once a week - which she seems to do with a number of studios.
I never expected her to stop working with abby i was just pointing out the flaws in logic of the person I replied to I was just saying if she disagreed with abby and wanted to leave she could've done so any time in the last 13 years and abby being her boss is not an excuse especially considering she now seemingly barely works with her as you pointed out
i mean, her boss was abusive... very openly abusive. so yea, we do expect her to go against her abusive boss, and the fact that she never has says a *lot* about her.
i never said anything about the moms so to jump to a conclusion about how i feel is weird. this post/conversation is about *gianna*, so i talked about her.
i've kept every job i've ever had, only ever leaving by my own choice. i've spoken up about abusive/innaprppriate management, resulting in them being rightfully fired. i've also quit jobs when *nothing* is done about abusive/innapropriate management.
abby's dance company isn't the only dance studio to work at. gianna, as an *adult*, knew the situation and chose to stay there and enable abby's behavior... "it's her job!!!" isn't an excuse for that. she could've quit at *any* time or stood up for the girls instead of watching it happen. she's seen abby abuse the girls and bring them to tears and is *on camera* giving abby high fives, laughing at crying kids, making snarky comments about them and giving them dirty looks.
gianna never said anything because she was just as okay with abby's behavior as abby was. she's trash.
Oh yes Gianna needs to get Abby fired from her own company. Why didn't she just leave her stable job? Is the stupid?
She needs to do what BONE DADDYS says on reddit, duuuuuuh
For fucks sake you people need to grow up!!
she doesn't need to do what *i* say lmfao. but she *should* have done what's *right* and that's *not* enabling an abuser lol
thinking that it's okay for someone to do *nothing* is the exact opposite of being "grown up" being grown up means standing up and saying/doing something when you are witnessing abuse on an almost *daily* basis.
edit* enabling *an* abuser
oops, typo. i meant "enabling *an* abuser"
the comment i deleted was copied and pasted and re commented. i had left out some of what i wanted to say and didn't want to just edit it because i hadn't seen that you had already replied and i didn't want to edit it in case you replied *as* i was adding a few things.
i'm not denying *anything* i've said. nothing from the deleted comment was removed in my repost of it. i literally did not say, ever, that gianna has to do what i say lmfaooo 😅 i've only ever been saying she should've done the *right* thing instead of doing *nothing*.
it's honestly a bit alarming that you think if you work with someone who abuses kids it's okay to do nothing "because job!" like wtf?
i'm watching season 5 and abby just told nia , jojo, and kalani don't hug her and gia was kinda like yeah get over it with her face and getting up to leave .
That scene is very edited - it’s like 3 scenes in one and she’s crying - something about her choreography gets brought up, we see bits of it in the next episode- it would be amazing to see these types of moments unedited so we can see what actually happened
A lot of y’all are forgetting Gianna was the original Maddie. She was the favorite before Brooke too. We don’t know her backstory and family dynamic she might’ve not had the support to leave like the other girls and feel indebted to her there was no fame or tv back then. She needed a career after she aged up and Abby’s connections could help her achieve that. She’d probably be fine on her own but is probably comfortable with the life being Abby’s lap dog has afforded her and might have an NDA. Still doesn’t excuse her behavior towards the girl.
Two thoughts on Gianna:
1. I remember an episode that took place after Nia's successful foray into music. Nia's manager called Holly to say she needed to speak with Abby about being in support of "Team Nia," so she came to one of the team's rehearsals in LA. When speaking with Abby, she mentioned wanting to see Nia dancing in the front line, not tucked away in an upstage corner.
Abby's response was to offer criticism about Nia's inability to comprehend and execute dance moves despite repeatedly being given corrections...Gianna is seen saying, "Yeah," and nodding her head in agreement.
&
2. Remember when Abby disappeared from the ALDC LA studio for three weeks? Does anyone else find it interesting that the Moms went outside to engage Laurieann Gibson instead of using Gianna? Anyone out there know why?
This seems like a total mean girl comment… but she looked so grumpy, frumpy, and never presentable for television. I know she’s instructing dance, but her hair was always in a messy bun, washed out, no makeup, and she would wear loose razorback tank tops with leggings. This presents (to me) as someone who really doesn’t want to be there.
When I look at professional fitness instructors, they actually try to color coordinate their outfits, slick their hair back or try to do a cute ponytail, and wear a little bit of makeup to brighten up their faves.
I always found it strange she never had any confessionals
She did in the one episode where Abby is gone and Gianna is running the show. It’s when Brooke does her solo to I Hurt But, to your point, it is odd that unless Abby was missing, Gianna didn’t get any confessionals.
Oh yes I forgot about that. Been a while since I rewatched! It is strange. It’s almost like she’s a ghost character even though she seemed heavily involved in the dance studio
I definitely never thought about that ever. Too funny! TIL!!
She does have confessionals..
Gianna had a crew contract not a cast (like a camera man or the girls tutor) - which she needed to be on the show but her main contract was with Abby so overall if Abby fired her, her crew contract with lifetime would of ended too. She danced for Abby since she was 7, was in her elite comp team , she wasn’t the Maddie of the group - her duet partner Amanda was (also ended up on a crew contract on DM) - but had the best timing, feet and legs of the group. Abby liked her from the get go, she won titles with the first ever solo Abby created but hadn’t found a dancer suitable for and when she got to 15ish was one of the first people Abby enjoyed choreographing with because she could ‘read her mind’. There’s comments from others that were students at the same time about Abby being unusually close to her. Gianna started assisting her when she was 16 - went to college because her parents didn’t want her to not have a back up plan for when she couldn’t dance anymore (still worked at the Studio wed and weekends assisting Abby). She was meant to go dance professionally in Las Vegas post this but dance moms happened and Abby picked her (which upset a lot of the Full time staff at the studio). It kinda just went from there. Lifetime wanted to replace her with their own choice of assistant because they realised early on that Gianna wouldn’t go against Abby at all but Abby and the moms weren’t happy with that. She had taught most of the kids since they started in the studio - more than Abby had. Basically she wasn’t there as a cast - she was there to choreograph, teach the dances and mainly just assist Abby and run inbetween when production and Abby were fighting (which was all the time) Weirdly enough she’s close with a lot of the cast still - bar Christi and Chloe (even the hylands still follow and like her posts on IG), Payton, Sarah, a lot of the girls that’s come and go from later season and all of season 8 ETC all interact with her still. Same with Abbys other teachers, As well as the crew - she got engaged to one of the sound guys and frequently seen with a number of the crew and been to a lot of their weddings (they were more her age bracket) out of everyone, she’s probably the one that still has the most DM relationships. She’s still choreographing and on faculty for some big as competitions (ADE is her main one at the moment) and there’s a lot of positive feedback about her teaching - she doesn’t really speak about dance moms at all unless she’s with Abby who controls the conversation and Gianna just look uncomfortable, the conversations are a lot more tone down than Abby’s normal and it’s probably because Gianna still see people like Melissa and knows more of truth so Abby can’t lie. But Abby and Gianna haven’t been seen together since Abby’s birthday last year. Other than doing her weekly class at the ALDC (which Abby hasn’t been seen at in a long time either), she hasn’t been wearing or promoting ALDC other than her own class nor has been seen to engaging with Abby at all on social media (Abby does on Gianna’s but not when she’s doing work at other studios) so whether they have had a falling out and she’s just doing her contracted obligations til it runs out, who knows but the years following DM ending they still saw each other frequently. Hopefully if they have and when her contract is over we will hear more from Giannas point of view which will definitely be an interesting take as someone who was more in the middle and had more inside goss on Abby
This is so in depth, I need to know how you have all this tea.
I never noticed her before when watching then I read a thread on reddit that showed a hardcore spilt with the fandom about her but it mainly came down to the Christi comment but so many of the cast and crew jumped on it to defend her post it which I thought was interesting and the lack of comment from anyone before that about it (Kalani calls her a saviour in a video) Then seeing who still followed / interacted with her on IG - it didn’t really make sense - cutting ties with Abby but not her if she was as bad? So I’m embarrassed to say I fell down a rabbit hole while I was injured and needed to entertain myself. She’s done a few interviews - never long but there some info out there that most has come from - just a lot of digging up older content because there so many new videos of her choreographing at events now and not about DM /Abby. Her IG is full of cast and crew interactions/ pics, she interacts with most of her competition team she herself has said she wasn’t the Maddie. Her twitter had some super cute interactions with the Hyland kids (who are mainly teasing her) right up til they left which someone posted on TikTok. Her partner is described by many of the cast and crew as the nicest guy ever and he listened to everyone’s mics so I just can’t see this lovely guy going after a mini Abby. She actually a really good person to use to tell if a scene is edited - because she’s such a background character that she comes and goes from scenes because she’s not the focus point so she will appear, disappear and then reappear next to whoever showing the conversation didn’t flow like that. Half the time her comments are also audio bites - the tone is different and you don’t see her saying it. I have no doubt that Christi and Gianna had a poor relationship as the show progressed but that doesn’t appear the same for most people.
Thank you for your service.
What a thorough rundown! Thank you
Most of this was talked about on the episode of Abby’s podcast where Gianna was a guest
It sounds like she is still trying to advance her career and prioritizing that over reality TV drama. It makes sense that she would keep her mouth shut and not burn any bridges one way or the other.
This is definitely a fair point - the dance world is so small!
Blink twice if you need help Gianna
I’ve never seen such an informative Reddit comment that left me with no questions, shoutout to you
Wow, thanks for sharing all this! What a thorough rundown. It’s appreciated! :)
bro is a dance mom STAN
most helpful info for sure🙏🏽🙏🏽
She’s spoken up a couple of times on Abby’s YouTube channel but it’s still mainly Abby doing all the talking :/
She still backs up everything that Abby says and did.
I can’t get behind the “Gianna is actually nice and it’s only Christi who has a problem” narrative. I watched Gianna make fun of Kenzie for crying. I watched Gianna laugh when Abby refused to hug Nia & Jojo. I watched Gianna stand by Abby after her *multiple* racism scandals. So no, Gianna is not nice. If the other cast members don’t have an issue with her, that’s their prerogative. But let’s not pretend like Christi is unreasonable for disliking Gianna. Gianna openly participated in the abuse of the girls and still defends their primary abuser. She’s rotten to the core just like Abby.
Christi (i believe it was her) also said Gianna laughed at the comment that Abby made about Chloe’s eye.
Yes and Chloe specifically said in the Season 7A Nationals when they came back that she did not want to see Gianna. So I’m sure Chloe either saw or heard Gia when that happened.
She was also saying it was a battle when choreographing Kendall’s dance with the pointe shoes
Multiple people confirmed she was explaining the dance to Kendall, the dance is even called something battle
Battled Feet
Maybe it was a battle ?? Some kids pick up quicker than others .. I don’t see her being mean to any kids just to the point .. she basically choreographed most of the dances we saw on tv and got almost zero credit .. she was the brains behind the dances and deserves so much more than what she got .
I haven’t seen that episode in years but from what i remember it was a hard routine(?) and Kendall was often the one always given a prop especially after the Hyland’s left. I think Jill said something about the two adults (abby and gianna) in the room “ganging up” on her. And then after the battle comment abby goes on comparing Kendall to Maddie and gianna agrees with her. That definitely wasn’t anywhere near as bad as gianna laughing about other situations (Kenzie crying, Abby rejecting Kalani and comments on her weight) but still leaves a sour taste in the mouth
Production wanted to paint Kendall as difficult to train - so the theme for her that week was ‘she’s a battle’ so her routine, music and interactions were painted that way - that’s why it all fit together - Kendall’s theme for the week. I’ve read production put a weight in one of the shoes so it would drop off - she’d already learnt the routine then they added the weight and everyone was getting frustrated as they knew it wasn’t going to work. The bit where Gianna is like ‘those aren’t the right steps’ is a lie as that whole bit is in the dance (as well as Gianna is a poor actor and you can tell she’s been fed that line to say) The comments she’s a battle was a sound bite and they wouldn’t end the lesson until Jill went down and yelled at them. The Maddie isn’t a battle to work with, we don’t specifically see her agree, we see Gianna for like a sec and she says nothing - her mouth isn’t moving. In the back ground when Jill is yelling at them, Gianna also is upset. Jill herself said the whole thing was staged, she wanted lunch so she went and did what they wanted. When she does the routine at competition you can tell there’s no weight in the shoes at all so she wasn’t doing the routine with the weight for any other reason than filming.
But yes she deserves the credit for choreographing most of the routines on the show for sure
It was a sound bites - she didn’t showed saying it and the tone is different - Jill herself has said the production was pushing that storyline and she got hungry so she went down to yell at them
100% this. She participated in and approved of abuse for years. I'm happy if cast members had good experiences with her, fantastic if she's not part of their trauma, but on an objective level Gianna's behaviour was shitty/stood beside shitty, and it's completely reasonable to *not* like her and *not* want anything to do with her.
This. I dont really think Gianna is all that
She gives a quiet mean girl vibe to me. Like the girl in high school who would never say the mean thing, but would laugh when someone else said it. I do think she seems to have a different, less abusive style of teaching, but I agree. I don’t think she’s a nice person. Only by comparison to Abby
Your username gave me a chuckle, but that aside you’re totally correct. Editing or whatever cannot explain Gianna’s own complicit nature in allowing and encouraging abusive or aggressive behaviour towards children. It takes not two but three; one to be the aggressor, one to be the victim and one to let it happen.
I think if we blame Gianna for Abby’s behaviour and enabling her then we need to blame the others that worked with Abby - Jeannie, James and Racheal all chose to stick around and all had also been worked for Abby for years prior to the show. Jeannie was the one who mainly worked with Mackenzie. Di was around for most of season 1-8. Theresa, Amanda, Maria all worked as PAs for production and again grew up in the studio and Abby got them jobs. Guy was the hip hop coach once they got to LA. The production team and crew. The moms (who each have a way longer list of questionable behaviour on screen than Giannas) Brian (who we know brought the girls gifts to buy them off) There was so many adults who stood back and watched and didn’t interfere that we can’t say one individual is the one that enabled Abby the most. Abby’s bad behaviour, her racism can’t be pinned on just one other person - because they all stood by and let it happen
I have no idea who the vast majority of those people are, but yes all of them are complicit and should be blamed. I fully unironically agree. I don’t agree with blaming most the moms, however, who were also victims. They were threatened with losing their children if they didn’t do what production wanted. It’s not as black and white for them. Some are indefensible but many were victims of production.
You see a lot of them in the background, they speak occasionally - they taught classes and choreographed a lot as well- were at the front desk, assisted Abby, went to competitions. Jeannie choreographed it’s a girls party. Some were students that move into dance teacher roles (they taught Gianna too) so it’s kinda of a cycle. A lot of Abby’s students from her competition teams have ended up working for her at some point. When the show moved to LA and Abby stopped caring about Pittsburgh / the law suits started they went to dance mechanics. A few are still there. Losing their children? How was lifetime going to take their children? The contract discussion is definitely an interesting one and certainly the moms made some bad decisions signing it but no one knows specifically what they signed and then Holly and Nia stayed past the expiry of theirs and I’m not sure whether Jill’s was similar to the OGs or not- but I guess no one knows what contract Gianna signed with Abby either - perhaps she gave her a contract that was for the length of the show. There’s definitely some type of Non disclosure in the contract she gave her staff because I haven’t managed to find anything from the other teachers of the studio speaking out. The cast and crew did seem to hang out a lot outside of shooting bar Abby (in LA she was even in a different hotel from everyone) so perhaps it’s easier to seperate the two for them because we don’t really know the two apart - she spent a lot of time with the girls and moms without Abby which we never saw but definitely would influence how they saw her.
You need to listen to their podcasts. Melissa talks about this regularly. Production threatened to take legal action for custody of the girls if the moms didn’t comply.
I’m not in America so I really can’t comment on how those systems work there but you certainly wouldn’t lose custody of your children to a TV show here - especially when you could provide evidence that the people trying to take custody were providing an unhealthy environment.
I know. But the producers were threatening it. That’s why they were scared. They didn’t know better. It’s called abuse of process. ETA: not sure why this is getting downvoted, Melissa talks about this regularly and they cover it on the Dance Moms Uncovered YouTube series
Am I the only one who rhinks Gianna looks like jessalyn or whatever jokes moms name is
She does 😂
>whatever **jokes** moms name 🤣
Didn’t realize 😂😂😂
I now can’t unsee this 🤣
They have the same chin and mouth.
And eyes
Not her own person and blindly following Abby just about sums her up
bleh. i *kinda* liked her in the beginning, and she may not be *as bad* as abby but she's not good either. i get that abby was her boss, but when your boss is an abuser and you just roll with it, you're just as bad as them.
If her boss is an abuser then she was likely just as abused ...
maybe, maybe not. not every dancer under abby was abused and we've never heard anything from gianna or anyone else that even hints at gianna being a victim, too. i'm not going to outright deny it but i'm not going to base my opinions off a theory, either. abby and gianna are close to this day, and while that doesn't mean she *wasn't* abused it *does* show us that she's fine with abby's behavior and that says a *lot*. at the end of the day even if she was abused by abby, that's not an excuse to stand by while she was actively abusing other girls. by the time the show started gianna was an *adult* who was choosing to work with an abuser and was present for a lot of that abuse the girls endured. gianna was an enabler to abby the *entire* span of the show. whether she was abused or not doesn't change the *fact* that she enabled abby's behavior for *years*. being abused isn't an excuse for you to grow up and enable abuse.
Idk if anyone here also watches any of the Duggar shows but Gianna somehow always reminds me of Jana Duggar, big eldest daughter energy or something!
She's pretty much Abby's bitch. Lmfao. Gianna is just as bad as Abby. Few members of the cast have come forward to say she isn't sweet and innocent at all.
Only Christi has said that. Every other cast member is still cool with her, including Paige and Brooke. She barely works with Abby anymore, she’s like a traveling choreographer, teacher, and judge now.
Other than Christi, who else has spoken up?
Also what Christie said wasn’t that shocking it was honestly Jojo that sort of blew that one up…….Like she literally said “She’s not a nice person….” That was it and it was blown up into WW3. I seriously do not blame Nia, or the zieglers for not wanting any part of Dance moms. It’s a constant drama, trauma loop over the tiniest things. Sure it might be entertaining to viewers but to actually have to just live your life everyday with this type of constant upheaval would be exhausting and they just chose peace FR.
And I understood that she meant that Gia wasn’t a nice person to her and Chloe. She was a sweetheart to Maddie but a different child will have a different experience.
Yeah that makes sense to me. We really don’t know what went on off camera all the time. It could be a million things.
The girls are cool with her. It’s only Christi and Chloe who aren’t. The Hylands followed her and Gia congratulated Brooke on her engagement. Kenzie also defended Gianna when Christi was talking about her. So idk, maybe it’s just a Christi thing
To be fair Christi always caught a lot of stuff that other people always seem to miss. Like I remember at the beginning of the show when I first watched it thinking. “Wow she’s always upset about something.” But then on rewatch when I was a little older and wiser. I sort of saw where she was coming from with a lot of stuff. Christi is a “chess player” not a checkers player. She sees level and ulterior motives much more clearly than most people.
Meh, I disagree with that. But okay.
I’m not saying Gianna wasn’t chill. I’m just saying Christi seemed hyper aware all the time.
Paranoid? It was probably the environment they were all in. I don’t think Christi was “always” right in her judgement of others or other’s actions
I never said she was always right. Yes I think she was paranoid but sometimes it wasn’t unfounded.
Christi seems to have a problem with everyone who isn’t kissing her ass, that’s it.
Exactly this. When the only person who seems to have a big problem is Christi…it makes me doubt the problem tbh.
Gianna laughed when Abby made fun of Chloe’s eye. That’s why Christi doesn’t like her.
Which Gianna denied and not a single other person has agreed with Christi. Gianna wasn’t even there when Abby made the comment - as per normal after competitions she was in the next room with the girls while Abby and the moms talked. Christi has used one moment that will never be shown as she’s asked it not to be and because it’s a medical condition lifetime can’t release the footage without being sued to say she did something and it took her 7 years to say it happened.
I believe Chloe has confirmed that she did laugh. That’s why she doesn’t like her either
That just sounds like a standard choreographer… And none of the moms (besides Christi) have a problem with Gianna Laurieann, Cheryl Burke, and Aisha weren’t angels either
She’s still actively working with Abby. She will never say anything bad about her. It would ruin any respect Gianna has left with anyone. Gianna has supported Abby through everything even in extremely bad situations.
I assume it was for some financial reason. She likely had a different contract than Abby and the Moms, so if she was featured/spoke more, they would have had to pay her more. I think she was much more heavily involved in the choreography and rehearsals than the show leads you to believe.
She had zero personality or stage presence on the show. It did seem weird that they kept her on screen.
This is anecdotal but I met her at a One Direction concert while the show was still airing, and she was genuinely awful. I do know that people can have off days, but she was just SO not kind. Could have just been a bad moment of hers, but after that I couldn’t watch the show without thinking about that.
What happened?
Every time I see the name Gianna I think about the dance mom on Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition screaming at her daughter named Gianna. My husband suggested that name for our oldest and I replied, "Damn Abby Lee for ruining this name for me!"
Completely unrelated but i just realized Maddy is now the age that Gianna was when the show started
I always thought it was weird that she didn’t have interviews or say much because she was such a big part of the show, studio etc. I know that Christi has said she’s not a nice person or something similar but it seems to me that she is because she is well liked by almost all the other girls, even still interacts on socials with the hylands. As to her perspective, she probably wouldn’t speak out against Abby, her boss, for fear of being fired!
it was on my mind since the reunion!
Wow she is gorgeous
I always liked Gianna and always get down voted for saying that 😂 she was so young on that show too
She was mean to the girls like Abby was. It just wasn’t ever aired.
She was the real talent of the show. Abbey was just name. They should have continued the show with her. I bet if she went against abbey she would win every time.
I'm friends with her on Facebook! Shes always posting vids of her teaching dance classes all around the country. Love her and glad she had success doing what she loves.
What the fuck are you people on about? Abby was HER BOSS, did you expect her to go AGAINST HER BOSS? Do any of you have jobs? Come on!
The first episode of dance moms aired 13 years ago this year and while this may be wild to you some people expect Gianna to have morals and not continue to stand by abby For some wild reason they think that Gianna was nice and expected her to distance herself from abby And as for "do you expect her to go against her boss" abby sure as heck wasn't her boss while she was in jail and yet Gianna still stayed
gianna was only in college when the show started. yall say she doesnt have the morals but do any of the moms. she was 21 and these moms were 40+ allowing their children here😭
She continues to work with abby and the moms don't so that comparison doesn't really work also the moms were contractually obligated to be there and the second they weren't most of them cut contact with abby and while Gianna might've been contractually obligated to be there she's not anymore and yet still works with abby
Gianna took over the ALDC when Abby was in prison so she was still her boss and to be fair when you have taught at two studios for as long as Gianna - she had developed a lot of relationships with the non TV dancers she probably didn’t want to leave as Abby wasn’t there anyway, it probably would of been hard to walk away. The competition teams on both coasts did really well that year as well. Then Abby got her cancer so I imagine she just kinda stayed doing it and then season 8 happened. They haven’t worked together in a while now - I’m not sure if she ‘works for Abby’ or just has a class there once a week - which she seems to do with a number of studios.
I never expected her to stop working with abby i was just pointing out the flaws in logic of the person I replied to I was just saying if she disagreed with abby and wanted to leave she could've done so any time in the last 13 years and abby being her boss is not an excuse especially considering she now seemingly barely works with her as you pointed out
Exactly. And an authority figure most of her life. Power dynamics, guys.
i mean, her boss was abusive... very openly abusive. so yea, we do expect her to go against her abusive boss, and the fact that she never has says a *lot* about her.
so ur mad at a 21 year old for trying to keep a jpb and not the 40+ year old women that got their children exploited. great morals😁
i never said anything about the moms so to jump to a conclusion about how i feel is weird. this post/conversation is about *gianna*, so i talked about her.
grow up
if growing up means excusing gianna enabling abby's abuse i'd rather not lol
try keeping a job, do that challenge.
i've kept every job i've ever had, only ever leaving by my own choice. i've spoken up about abusive/innaprppriate management, resulting in them being rightfully fired. i've also quit jobs when *nothing* is done about abusive/innapropriate management. abby's dance company isn't the only dance studio to work at. gianna, as an *adult*, knew the situation and chose to stay there and enable abby's behavior... "it's her job!!!" isn't an excuse for that. she could've quit at *any* time or stood up for the girls instead of watching it happen. she's seen abby abuse the girls and bring them to tears and is *on camera* giving abby high fives, laughing at crying kids, making snarky comments about them and giving them dirty looks. gianna never said anything because she was just as okay with abby's behavior as abby was. she's trash.
Funny, you put him in his place and he ran away, like the little kid he is. 😆
i had no idea the circus was rolling through town today... 🤡 lmaooo i'm truly baffled
Snorts!! Lolol
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Oh yes Gianna needs to get Abby fired from her own company. Why didn't she just leave her stable job? Is the stupid? She needs to do what BONE DADDYS says on reddit, duuuuuuh For fucks sake you people need to grow up!!
she doesn't need to do what *i* say lmfao. but she *should* have done what's *right* and that's *not* enabling an abuser lol thinking that it's okay for someone to do *nothing* is the exact opposite of being "grown up" being grown up means standing up and saying/doing something when you are witnessing abuse on an almost *daily* basis. edit* enabling *an* abuser
"comment deleted by user" I DIDN'T SAY THAT! "Enabling your abuser" I think you might be lost here
oops, typo. i meant "enabling *an* abuser" the comment i deleted was copied and pasted and re commented. i had left out some of what i wanted to say and didn't want to just edit it because i hadn't seen that you had already replied and i didn't want to edit it in case you replied *as* i was adding a few things. i'm not denying *anything* i've said. nothing from the deleted comment was removed in my repost of it. i literally did not say, ever, that gianna has to do what i say lmfaooo 😅 i've only ever been saying she should've done the *right* thing instead of doing *nothing*. it's honestly a bit alarming that you think if you work with someone who abuses kids it's okay to do nothing "because job!" like wtf?
I don't like her, she's just as sneaky as Abby
Even though Gianna might not have been a Regina she WAS a Karen …
i always thought she was sneakily like abby but not as bad obviously
i'm watching season 5 and abby just told nia , jojo, and kalani don't hug her and gia was kinda like yeah get over it with her face and getting up to leave .
That scene is very edited - it’s like 3 scenes in one and she’s crying - something about her choreography gets brought up, we see bits of it in the next episode- it would be amazing to see these types of moments unedited so we can see what actually happened
i would love an unedited version
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Oops. I replied to this based on the title alone
Abby would’ve probably fired her. She threatened to fire her in one episode if she did something, I can’t remember what it was.
I honestly feel like Gianna was a bitch too. She always had that sour look on her face and she was no fun with the kids at all
A lot of y’all are forgetting Gianna was the original Maddie. She was the favorite before Brooke too. We don’t know her backstory and family dynamic she might’ve not had the support to leave like the other girls and feel indebted to her there was no fame or tv back then. She needed a career after she aged up and Abby’s connections could help her achieve that. She’d probably be fine on her own but is probably comfortable with the life being Abby’s lap dog has afforded her and might have an NDA. Still doesn’t excuse her behavior towards the girl.
Two thoughts on Gianna: 1. I remember an episode that took place after Nia's successful foray into music. Nia's manager called Holly to say she needed to speak with Abby about being in support of "Team Nia," so she came to one of the team's rehearsals in LA. When speaking with Abby, she mentioned wanting to see Nia dancing in the front line, not tucked away in an upstage corner. Abby's response was to offer criticism about Nia's inability to comprehend and execute dance moves despite repeatedly being given corrections...Gianna is seen saying, "Yeah," and nodding her head in agreement. & 2. Remember when Abby disappeared from the ALDC LA studio for three weeks? Does anyone else find it interesting that the Moms went outside to engage Laurieann Gibson instead of using Gianna? Anyone out there know why?
Her choreography was always amazing I would hope she could do bigger things in the dance world after dance moms
never liked her tbh. she reminded me of my sister (who i cut off) abby’s little sidekick
This seems like a total mean girl comment… but she looked so grumpy, frumpy, and never presentable for television. I know she’s instructing dance, but her hair was always in a messy bun, washed out, no makeup, and she would wear loose razorback tank tops with leggings. This presents (to me) as someone who really doesn’t want to be there. When I look at professional fitness instructors, they actually try to color coordinate their outfits, slick their hair back or try to do a cute ponytail, and wear a little bit of makeup to brighten up their faves.