Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition: Exclusive interview with Trinity and Tina

This week I had the opportunity for an exclusive email interview with Trinity and her mom Tina. Although they are hard at work, they were graciously able to make some time to answer our questions.

Trinity came into dance from a gymnastics background. On a recent television appearance, she explained that she started in soccer, moved to gymnastics, but had to get out of gymnastics because she became allergic to the chalk. She has amazing power and timing, although she is sometimes criticized by the judges for dancing too "hard," and Abby constantly points out that Trinity has feet which are more suited to a gymnast than a dancer.

Image courtesy TrinityInay.com

Trinity's mom Tina has so far done an excellent job of staying clear of the worst of the back-stage inter-mom spats. Even though she has also had the misfortune to have won two of the worst prizes in the show so far. Tina's first unenviable "prize" was that she had to choose that week's bottom three dancers. (Instead of taking the strategic route and choosing the three strongest dancers and thus eliminating the competition, she chose to take a judge's eye and chose the three dancers who had performed the worst that week.) In the second, she had to choose one of the bottom three dancers to receive immunity that week.

Unfortunately for Tina, Trinity clearly has a competitive spirit, and always performs well in the challenges of the week. Thus, Tina may well be stuck with scary prizes in the future! Trinity is also building a lot of momentum in the weekly performances, having upstaged her partners several times. (Most memorably in a Newsies-inspired trio, when the choreographer chose to swap her with Tyler and put her into the leading role.)

For more information on Trinity, including her bio, video of some of her other performances, her clothing line, and a series of great vlog entries, check out TrinityInay.com.

Let's get to it!

Image courtesy TrinityInay.com

Trinity:

What is a typical day like for you on the show?

Online school and dance.

What's the hardest thing about being on the show?

Missing my family back home

What do you like best about it?

Working with many great people in the dance industry.

Where have you been staying during the show?

in LA

Where do the costumes come from? It looks like the moms are involved in the process. Does your mom have to make the entire costume every week, or are there staff people to help?

There is team of seamstresses.

How is school handled while you are on the show?

We had a tutor on set.

How much contact do you have with the outside world while the show is in progress?

Not much

What has it been like, working with different choreographers every week?

It was awesome!

What do you miss most from your life before the show started?

Hanging out with my friends

What do you miss the least?

Probably washing the dishes

Image courtesy TrinityInay.com

Tina

What does a typical day look like for you?

Dropping off kiddos at the babysitter and school, working a full time job, coordinating of getting the kiddos to dance and picking them up, helping the kiddos with homework and projects, cooling dinner, and getting ready for bed. So, the usual tasks for every parent.

What has been the most difficult part of being on the show?

Probably elimination night. We never knew if we were staying or leaving.

What has been the easiest?

Making friends with the rest of the cast.

What has it been like, putting your life on hold in order to participate in the show? The show bio mentions your husband, is he back at home holding down the fort, or is he in California with you?

My husband was a huge support, along with mom. Trinity and I would not have been able to do the show without them.

How much involvement do the moms have in designing and creating the kids' costumes?

There was an expert seamstress team on set. They were fabulous.

Have you ever had to step in and veto an element of a costume (i.e. for being too revealing or unflattering) and if so, why?

No, not really. The seamstress crew was very good at creating costumes for the dances.

How has this experience compared to your previous experience dealing with other "dance moms" on the sidelines?

There were some similarities and differences.

Things with the other moms can obviously get pretty confrontational. Do you have a strategy for dealing with these high-stress situations?

Smile and nod. Or simply say nothing and walk away. Sometimes it was easier said than done.

What's the single biggest thing that helps you stay sane throughout this experience?

Remembering who I am and knowing that I had a great support system at home.

Image copyright Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition/Lifetime