Dance Moms: Entertainment or Exploitation?

Dance Moms used to be one of my favorite shows.  Forget the reality show craziness, I simply enjoyed the dancing.  The girls, ages six to thirteen, were (and are) amazing little dancers. Now, they are amazing celebrities.

This season, the show has lost some of its luster. Probably because the producers have ramped up the drama.  The dancing is still great, but there’s more yelling, more swearing, and more out-and-out ridiculousness from the “supposed” adults.  Fame doesn’t seem to have affected the young dancers, but the studio owner’s head has swollen to epic proportions.  How much is real and how much is hype is anyone’s guess, but for us dance enthusiasts, the result is disappointment.

My biggest issue is the constant demands for perfection--from middle-school aged children.  The studio owner goes irate over any competition that doesn’t produce a first place trophy.  Of course I realize most of the ranting on the show is for ratings, but I also know the continual expectation for perfection from our nation’s youth is at an all-time high.  And not just in competitive dance, but in gymnastics, cheerleading, and even little league baseball and scholastic competitions.

Perfection is a difficult goal—even for adults who train continually.  And we expect this from our kids?  When do they have time for fun? Time to simply be children—or for that matter, to simply be.

This author thinks we might be expecting too much.  Constant stress during a time when children are supposed to be carefree cannot be helping in the development of our future adults.

So what do you think?  How can we reverse this trend and be happy when are kids are simply “good enough?”