While we'd hate to incur the wrath of one Abby Lee Miller, Chloé Lukasiak may be all the proof we need that second place is not the first loser.
Because these days, the recent Pepperdine University grad is sitting pretty from her middle row perch on the proverbial Dance Moms' pyramid. "I was never first," Chloé joked to E! News in an exclusive interview. "Always second."
Of course, now, as a 22-year-old who helms her own national dance competition, Elevé, with mom Christi Lukasiak and fellow mother-daughter duo Diane Pent and Brittany Pent, she can see that her permanent place behind Abby's star pupil Maddie Ziegler had little to do with perfecting her pirouette.
"As a kid, I was pretty naive," acknowledged the Pittsburgh native. "I was not actively aware that it was happening. I was always just trying to prove myself to my dance teacher. I was always like, 'Why don't you like me? I don't get it. I'm doing my best. Why do you not want me to win so badly?'"
But after saving years' worth of tears for her pillow, "It wasn't until I was an adult that I was like, Oh, that was out of my control," continued Chloé. "I could have done the absolute best job in the world and it still wouldn't have been enough. So there's nothing I can do about that. That's more so about other people than it is about me."
And yet the thought of having to relive that time spent in Maddie's perfectly turned out shadow gave her pause when she was approached about filming the May 1 Dance Moms reunion special (airing on Lifetime at 8 p.m. and available to stream the next day) with fellow Dance Moms alum JoJo Siwa, Kendall Vertes, Kalani Hilliker, Brooke Hyland and Paige Hyland.
"I was really hesitant at first," shared the L.A. resident. "I was like, I don't even know if I'm ready for this. And then, honestly, I really reflected and I thought it's a really good way to close that chapter of my life and give my appreciation, show my gratitude to it, reminisce. I mean, these are my closest friends. We're sisters. It's like an extended family. And I just wanted to have that moment all together."
But while she was planning for a day spent rehashing both tough times and memorable one-liners (among her faves: the time Christi told fellow dance mom Melissa Gisoni, "I've got more dirt on you than a broom so I'd shut my mouth if I were you"), she didn't anticipate how healing it all would feel.
"It was actually really therapeutic, it made me realize I should probably go to therapy," said Chloé. "But it was really incredible, because I got to look back as an adult. I'm a fully formed human, and I have my own identity now."
One with an outlook that is decidedly glass-half-full.
"I'm honestly just really grateful," insisted Chloé. "Like, I can't stop expressing my gratitude. Because every moment that I experienced on the show shaped who I am today. And I'm really proud of who I am today. And that wouldn't have happened without that particular competition that was kind of manufactured between us and the intense negativity and the positivity in all of it."
While the experience of filming "brought up a lot of emotions," she said, "I finally realized what it is about the experience that was so difficult for me. But you know, half of the battle is just kind of recognizing what you need to work through. And then working through is a little bit easier."
As for whether that healing process will become a duet with Maddie, who's expressed her own feelings about their toxic experience, "I think we're all on our own journeys," acknowledged Chloé. "And so whether we're all ready to come together and talk about what we went through or not, we're still kind of working through it. It's up to our own discretion."
But that isn't to say she's not rooting for her former partner to rise to the top of her own personal pyramid.
"We still keep in touch and I see her occasionally," she said of Maddie. "And, like I said, she's still one of my sisters as well."
Lately, Chloé's been feeling more than a bit nostalgic as she attends Elevé's weekend competitions.
"Elevé is just about creating a positive experience for people, really bringing it full circle," she explained of her motivation behind the project. "I always wondered what experiencing that in the dance world meant for me, and I just want to take the negativity I experienced—because outside of the show, the dance world is pretty toxic and heavy and negative—so I just wanted to create a beacon of positivity for other dancers."
Her aim is for each pint-sized prima ballerina to not feel that first is the only option. "I want them to come and I want them to feel inspired and reignite their passion for dance," she said, "and just feel like, Oh, even if I didn't win first place, I had the best weekend."
And watching the performances has left Chloé wondering if she might begin living on the dance floor once more.
Noting it's reawakened her love for the art, she admitted, "I sit there and I cry, like, once a day. I'm like, 'Wow, this is really cool.'"
Of course, she's not the only member of Abby's Junior Elite competition team to be doing something so award-worthy. See how the series standouts have been handling their lives as soloists.
Maddie Ziegler
In the decade-plus since the Pennsylvania native pirouetted her way into our hearts as the unquestionable star of the Abby Lee Dance Company, she's jeted her way from electropop star Sia's music video darling to film actress with appearances in Sia's directorial debut Music and the 2021 West Side Story remake.
She also released a New York Times best-selling memoir, 2017's The Maddie Diaries, judged a new crop of talent on So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation and teamed with younger sister Kenzie Ziegler for their Take 20 With Maddie and Kenzie podcast. "I think we wanted to let our guards down and show something that wasn't so heavily produced," Maddie explained to E! News, "and, rather, just us having a pretty casual conversation."
For her next act, she's eyeing her own beauty empire. "I would love to do my own line one day," she said. "I think that would be so amazing and something that I've dreamt of doing forever."
Kenzie Ziegler
Fully graduated from her acro days, one of the singer's latest releases was 2023's "Anatomy," a very personal battle detailing her relationship with her estranged father. "I definitely am stepping out of my comfort zone," she told People of the single, "and being authentic in a different way that’s not just on social media—I’m telling my story.”
And with all due respect to the nearly 15 million Dance Moms fans who follow her on Instagram, she's looking to dig a little deeper for her forthcoming third album. "I feel like this is just the first time where I can talk about things that have happened with my life and share some important things to me," she told E! News. "I just want people to take away something from it—whether that be happy, whether that be sad or that they can relate to it."
Chloe Lukasiak
Nearly a decade after she took her final Dance Moms bow, the trophy-collecting soloist is ready to start living on the dance floor again.
“I missed dance, and I wanted to find a way to get back to something I had loved so much,” the Girl on Pointe: Chloe's Guide to Taking on the World author explained of launching Elevé National Dance Competition with mom Christi Lukasiak and fellow mother-daughter duo Diane and Brittany Pent. “But I wanted to help create something that was the exact opposite of what I had experienced. Something positive. I challenged myself to develop something to reignite my love of dance.”
Among the other loves of the actress’ life: The Lifetime series’ OG squad. Sharing a May 2023 get-together with Nia Sioux on Instagram, the Pepperdine University grad wrote, "One of my sisters from another mama."
Nia Sioux
The OG company member (and death drop enthusiast) continues to slay in music (she dropped her single "Low Key Love" in 2020) and acting, fronting the web series Sunnyside Up and appearing in 59 episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful.
And while her day job is senior at UCLA, she moonlights in Hollywood, recently dropping her single "IMMA CATCH" and landing on Variety's 2023 Young Hollywood Impact Report. Next up, following her June graduation, "I'm just so excited to focus on my career and my craft," she told E! News in May 2024. "Now I can go off and live my life and experiment and try new things and hopefully direct more and act more and sing more and just perform in general."
Brooke Hyland
Trading in group numbers for group trips, the eldest of the show's OGs recently led an excursion to Costa Rica, sharing on Instagram in July that "7 days took us from strangers to friends crying in the airport having to say goodbye to each other."
Next up, she'll oversee a six-day jaunt through Croatia inspired by the European backpacking trip she enjoyed after graduating from Ohio University. "I explored beautiful places and cultures, while making lifelong friends in the process," she shared. "It was the trip of a lifetime."
When stateside, the Pittsburgh resident makes the most of her marketing degree, both with her Bite-Sized Foodie Instagram account and the Hyland Sisters brand she shares with little sib Paige.
Paige Hyland
The four-season vet has few tears to save for her pillow as of late. Since earning her degree from West Virginia University in May 2023 ("IM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!! Congratulations," Christi Lukasiak commented on her graduation 'gram), the model and influencer has criss-crossed the country with stops in the Hamptons, Colorado and Wyoming.
Her No. 1 travel buddy (other than older sis Brooke): Her longtime boyfriend, former college football player Jayvon Thrift. "Adore you in every kind of way," she wrote of the fitness model in a 2022 post.
Kendall Vertes
These days, the James Madison University junior is still collecting trophies as part of the Virginia college's championship-winning dance team. "Younger me would be so proud," the political science major wrote in a September Instagram. (Naturally, her dance mom Jill Vertes chimed in, "I know I’m so proud of my little kendall.")
In addition to trying her hand at acting (including the 2019 movie Rapunzel: A Princess Frozen in Time and a live-action version of Anastasia) and singing (as Kendall K, she released several albums), the season two arrival has nabbed more than a few sponsorships, thanks to her 11 million Instagram followers.
JoJo Siwa
Despite appearing in just two seasons of the OG series (after a stint on Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition) JoJo with a Bow Bow arguably stole the spotlight, going on to nab a massive YouTube following, an exclusive licensing deal with Nickelodeon, endless branded merchandise and a spot on Time's 100 most influential people of 2020.
"One of the biggest things that I ever learned from Dance Moms was either to sink or swim," she once explained to Kelly Ripa. "Not, like, physically, actually in a swimming pool. But to really just be able to survive and to want it."
These days, as she pals around with the likes of Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian, she's doing more than treading water. In 2021, the LGBTQ+ icon partnered with Jenna Johnson to compete as the first same-sex couple on the U.S. version of Dancing With the Stars.
Now she's eyeing an even bigger stage, telling Raven-Symoné and wife Miranda Pearman-Maday, "My dream, dream, dream, dream is the Super Bowl, to do the halftime performance." And once she's scored that gig, she told the duo on an August episode of The Best Podcast Ever, "Then I'll retire and have babies."
Kalani Hilliker
Back home in Arizona, the dancer, actress and entrepreneur is fully embracing what she calls "my health and wellness era" with the 2023 launch of her beauty line Kare.
"I struggle with anxiety," she explained to E! News of her inspiration. "And I really wanted to create a brand that was inclusive to everyone to be able to just relax and take time for yourself and have a solid self-care routine to help you get through your day."
And, yes, the season 4 arrival, who also got her start on Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition, is still nailing every last arabesque, having dipped her perfectly arched foot back into dancing and teaching. "I obviously have a very different teaching way than Abby does towards me. Or, honestly, most of my dance teachers," she shared. "I like to be very kind, but also you've got to push them to be the best they can be."
Asia Monet Ray
Consider Asia officially raised. Though the California native stepped away from TV cameras just before her 10th birthday—following one season each on Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition, Dance Moms and her own standalone series Raising Asia—"I genuinely had a great experience on it," Asia insisted to E! News in 2021, acknowledging that wasn't necessarily the case for many of her costars. "There was nothing that I would change on my experience whatsoever."
Wrapping up her high school career last June as a valedictorian, "I’m extremely proud of myself for achieving a personal goal," the model and artist wrote on Instagram, "and I can’t wait to see what’s next."
Thanks to a plethora of brand deals and invites to every it event, her future seems bright. As for her reality star past, "I really did enjoy the time I had out there and growing up on television," she told E!. "Even though it seems like a lot, it was something that really set me up for life that I would never take for granted."
Camryn Bridges
Since joining the team in season 7, the St. Louis native has been living on some much larger dance floors.
Between touring with Kendrick Lamar and performing in Usher’s Las Vegas residency, she took to the Grammys stage with Missy Elliott. "Beyond blessed!!!" she wrote of the February 2023 experience.
And she plans to keep climbing her own personal pyramid. As she put it in a December 2022 Instagram marking the end of her 76-show stint with Lamar, "I know this is only the beginning."
Brynn Rumfallo
When she exited stage left after a three-season stint that saw her trying to fill Maddie's ballet shoes, the Phoenix native "wanted to go back to high school and I wanted to just be normal and have my friends," she explained in a 2023 YouTube video with best friend Kelsey Millar. "High school sucked, but I’m glad that I did it. And now that I’ve experienced both lives, I know what I want. Which, there is a way to balance both of them in the middle."
For the 2021 grad, that's meant launching her and Millar's Out of Line podcast and documenting her trips to Coachella and Stagecoach for her three million Instagram followers. Plus, experiencing more than a few encounters with fans when she takes her dance students to competitions.
"It's really cute," Brynn, who remains close to Kenzie, said of one recent encounter. "They're like, 'Miss Brynn, you're famous?'"