Bottom of the Pyramid

Nia Sioux's memoir recounts her experience as an original cast member on the Lifetime reality series Dance Moms, which followed young competitive dancers and their mothers at the Abby Lee Dance Company (ALDC) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She declined a 2023 reunion special, choosing to tell her story on her own terms. The title refers to the show's weekly ranking system, in which ALDC founder Abby Lee Miller arranged dancers' headshots in a pyramid to indicate their standing. Nia was placed at the bottom week after week. She reframes the image: In cheerleading, the bottom holds the strongest members, and she now sees herself as the person who held the team together.

Nia grew up in Churchill, a small Pittsburgh suburb, with her parents, Holly and Evan Frazier, and her two brothers. Holly was a school principal, and Evan ran a nonprofit. The family's lineage included civil rights activists, lawyers, and a professional tap dancer. Holly enrolled Nia in dance, and after a year at a distant studio, the family discovered the ALDC close to home. From her earliest memory, Nia found Abby loud, intimidating, and quick to yell. At age six, she joined the competition team, determined to earn a solo and win a title.

Her first solo was to "Nattie of the Jungle," a song about a child raised by monkeys. Holly recognized the racial undertones of having her Black daughter perform animal-like choreography. A second solo, "Satan's Li'l Lamb," troubled her Christian parents. These early choices raised concerns about how Abby selected material for her only Black dancer.

Before filming began, Nia experienced a sudden medical crisis when both her legs seized with pain. She was diagnosed with Reflex Neurovascular Dystrophy, now known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a condition in which the brain sends pain signals despite no physical injury. She entered an inpatient program where she relearned how to walk, jump, and swim. The experience taught her coping strategies she would rely on for years.

When Nia returned to the ALDC in fall 2010, her team had shrunk from about 18 dancers to five. In January 2011, a production company began interviewing dancers for what became Dance Moms. Despite their attorney's warnings about the unfavorable terms, the family signed on, accepting less than $1,000 per week for both Nia and Holly, with a clause extending the commitment to seven seasons. The original cast included Nia and Holly; Maddie and Mackenzie (Kenzie) Ziegler and their mother, Melissa; Chloé Lukasiak and her mother, Christi; Paige and Brooke Hyland and their mother, Kelly; and Vivi-Anne Stein and her mother, Cathy.

Central to the show was the pyramid. Nia was placed at the bottom season after season, and the ranking shaped social media perception and booking opportunities. Abby demanded uniform straight hairstyles, forcing Nia to damage her natural hair, and on camera compared Nia's braids to "a log coming out of the side of her head" (47). She body-shamed Nia, insisted she wear yellow or orange because "Black people look good in yellow" (54), and made Nia dye her dance shoes to match her skin tone.

A pivotal off-camera incident during season two drew a clear line. When Holly asked if Nia could fill in for an injured teammate, Abby erupted, saying she had never wanted Nia and preferred blond, blue-eyed girls. She likened Nia to a token Black character from the 1980s sitcom The Facts of Life. Abby grabbed Nia and knocked her off balance; Holly told Abby never to touch her daughter again. Production stopped filming. The network sent an executive, and most of the incident was cut from the aired episode.

Nia chose to return because leaving felt like quitting, and she refused to let Abby replace her with a white dancer. In 2014, she won her first national dance title, fulfilling her childhood dream of earning a crown, though the achievement was not shown on the series. Over the following seasons, original cast members departed: Paige and Brooke left after a physical altercation between Abby and their mother in season four, and Chloé left in season five to protect her own well-being. Nia felt increasingly isolated. She attributes this partly to racial differences that made it harder for the other girls to understand her. Holly's support was unwavering.

A bright spot emerged through music. Singer Aubrey O'Day met Nia at a master class and offered to help her pursue a recording career. When Abby learned of the arrangement, she called Aubrey on speakerphone during rehearsal and offered her $10,000 not to work with Nia. Aubrey, undeterred, connected Nia with producer R8dio, and together they created her debut single, "Star in Your Own Life." Her second single, "Slay," became her most popular song.

Nia addresses the show's racial dynamics candidly. She describes being typecast in race-themed dances when Abby wanted to win and cast in degrading roles otherwise. During the "Rosa Parks" routine in season three, she fought for the part after another mother advocated for her white daughter to play the civil rights icon. When Black dancers briefly joined the cast, each experience became short-lived or adversarial, revealing a pattern of introducing them as rivals rather than allies.

Midway through season five, Nia's grandfather, who had driven her to dance for years and had dementia, died at age 82. When the cast traveled to Australia, Abby barred Nia and teammate JoJo Siwa from tour activities. Nia performed her single at Federation Square in Melbourne before over 1,000 fans, proving she could succeed independently.

By season six, Nia was burned out. She trained independently and grew a following on YouTube and Musical.ly (later TikTok). After Maddie and Kenzie left, she became the last original cast member. At the season's end, she received a booking for Trip of Love, an off-Broadway musical, and spent the summer performing in New York. She earned an Actors' Equity card, union membership for professional stage performers, an achievement no other Dance Moms cast member had reached.

Despite wanting to leave, Nia honored her final-season contract after negotiating a pay increase. When Abby departed partway through season seven, choreographer Laurieann Gibson took over and encouraged Nia to show emotion. Nearly seven years of repressed pain broke through as she cried openly before her teammates for the first time. Her final solo, "I Need No One," and the last group dance both won first place.

After the show ended, Nia stopped dancing entirely, afraid to enter any studio. Holly reconnected her with therapist Stacy Kaiser, who helped Nia understand her tendencies as an empath and taught her to set boundaries. More than a year later, Chloe and Maud Arnold of the tap group Syncopated Ladies arranged private lessons, reminding Nia she was "a dancer at her core" (190). Gradually, she rediscovered her love of movement.

Nia signed with United Talent Agency and booked a recurring role on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful at age 16. She applied to UCLA, partly inspired by a voter advocacy event through Michelle Obama's Reach Higher program, and was accepted. During college, she became involved in political advocacy, visiting the White House and interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris. She pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and paid her own way through school.

When Abby was diagnosed with cancer in 2018, Nia asked to visit, seeking closure. Abby denied the request, sending a dismissive message taking credit for Nia's career. In 2020, after public pressure, Abby posted an Instagram apology for her racist behavior but omitted Nia's name entirely. Nia has never received a personal apology.

Nia closes by reframing the pyramid: Being at the bottom gave her room to grow and built a foundation of resilience. She acknowledges she may always be associated with Dance Moms but reclaims that identity, declaring herself "the star in my own life" (231).