Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition: Season 2 episode 7 recap

Coming down from last week's incredible set of performances, the dancers really had their work cut out for them. This week's theme was "Modernized Fairy Tales," and the skill was turns. This week was all about ballet skills, which automatically put Ally at a disadvantage (and her mom on the defensive) after her recent revelation that, at the age of 13, she has only been studying ballet for a year.

This week's challenge was a difficult, turn-heavy ballet routine. The winner received a private one-on-one lesson with Abby Lee Miller. Some of the dancers and moms had mixed reactions to this news. In fact, it looked to me as though at least one of the dancers threw the competition in order to avoid having to spend that much time getting direct "feedback" from Abby.

Kalani won the challenge, which kicked up some grumbling among the other moms and dancers. Abby Lee Miller has been outspoken about the fact that Kalani is her favorite ever since the beginning, and it certainly is getting difficult to overlook the effect of Abby's favoritism. Not only did Abby's favoritism bring Kalani back from elimination, but it was well on evidence during the one-on-one coaching session in which Abby uncharacteristically heaped praise upon Kalani.

Things quickly returned to normal (what a relief!) when Abby pulled Travis' mother Sheryl aside for a stern talk about her role in Travis' attempt to quit the show the week before in solidarity with his brother. The talk turned even more chilly when Abby discovered that Sheryl was chewing gum. (Surely adults can be trusted to chew gum responsibly?)

Then things got really weird. First, Abby held out her hand and demanded Sheryl spit out the gum. "Please don't make me," Sheryl squeaked, humiliated. Then Abby took the gum and mashed it on the bridge of Sheryl's nose.

I just… what? What just happened. Did she really do that? Yes. Moving on.

JoJo took the stage first, in her first solo routine, playing the role of Rapunzel. This routine involved a truly challenging prop: a long braid of hair about four feet long. Couple that with a routine focused on lots of turns, and frankly I was worried for her.

However, JoJo did an amazing job, kicking out a combination of sassy attitude and amazingly good technique. This was probably her best performance of the series so far, earning the coveted finger waggle from Richy (who was resplendent this week in a crown and a sleeveless jacket topped with turquoise-fringed epaulets).

Next to the stage was a contemporary piece called Evil Stepmother. Ally played the role of the stepmother, with Trinity playing the role of the daughter. I thought Ally turned in a good performance, but the judges were mercilessly harsh on her technique.

Third was what I thought was the worst performance of the night: Travis and Kalani in a piece called The Ice Prince and the Snow Queen. Their performance was tepid, and they had no connection on the stage. And Kalani very prominently botched a turn, which was kind of the focus of the week.

But despite Kalani's obvious technical flaws, Abby heaped praise upon her performance, which caused a near-riot among the other moms and dancers backstage, as well as an exasperated eye roll from Richy.

I was particularly annoyed when Abby pointed out that Kalani had attempted the turn barefoot, which none of the other dancers had done. But surely if another dancer had botched a turn while trying to dance barefoot, Abby would have badgered them about not wearing the right footwear for the performance.

The final performance of the night was titled Pinocchio, had something to do with kids not being able to live without their smartphones, and involved a set of long bungee cords which frankly looked extremely hazardous. Between the difficult prop and the constant barrage of criticism from Gianna's mom Cindy, both Gianna and McKaylee had an off night. Which was particularly disappointing, given McKaylee's amazing performance from last week.

It was a tough call for the judges. A lot of the dancers gave pretty poor performances. But in the end, they all agreed to send Ally home.

This was a tough one to watch, since I have liked Ally from the beginning, and I was rooting for her to succeed. But as the show wore on, it grew tiresome listening to Ally's mother constantly blaming everyone else for her daughter's poor reviews.

Unfortunately, Ally has suffered from the same problem all along: she's a great performer, but she's not the best dancer. A problem for her on the show, to be certain, but I think once she finds the right niche, she will really go far.

Next week, a focus on jumps, and what looks like a country/western theme? Stay tuned!

Image copyright Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition/Lifetime