Studio 19 Sent Sarah a Gift On 'Dance Moms,' and Abby Lee Miller Was Not Pleased

From Woman's Day

Usually gifts are a good thing, but when the ALDC's rival, Studio 19, sent Sarah Georgiana a gift on the August 6 episode of Dance Moms, everyone got bent out of shape about it.

A little background: Sarah competed at Studio 19 before she joined the ALDC, and the two studios went head-to-head during last week's episode. In the days leading up to the competition, Studio 19 openly taunted the ALDC on social media. It upset Sarah's mom Michelle so much, that she told Abby Lee Miller about it, thinking she was doing a good thing. Abby, however, got upset that Michelle was talking about another studio in the first place. So much so that she temporarily kicked Sarah and Michelle off the team.

In the end, Sarah competed and the group dance beat Studio 19's dance, so it seemed the drama would stop there. Until the gift basket arrived.

After this week's competition — where the ALDC won, by the way — the moms and Abby entered the dressing room to find an enormous bouquet at Sarah's makeup station. Abby took the card from the flowers and ripped it up the card without letting Sarah see it. She then took the bouquet and left the room. Everyone was confused until Sarah's mom Michelle looked at the rest of the gift (balloons and a onesie) and noticed the onesie had a Studio 19 logo.

The gift basket made some of the ALDC moms question Michelle's motives. Some of them wondered if Michelle had tried to return to Studio 19 during her brief ALDC hiatus. Michelle insisted that she wasn't in communication with them, but the moms were so furious about the idea that Michelle's protestations went basically ignored. Pressley's mom Ashley got so upset that she kicked the balloon and popped it.

Fans of the show, however, believed that the present was a psych-out gift for Sarah intended to stir up more drama. If that was the motive, it most certainly worked.

"Thats probably Studio 19's way of continuing to taunt them. Chill out," one viewer said about the gift basket. "That’s why they sent the flowers too cause chaos," speculated another.

Part of the reason the other moms were suspicious was because Michelle had hugged one of the Studio 19 moms the previous week. But what the ALDC moms interpreted as Michelle being sketchy could have just been Michelle being nice to an old friend. After all, she was once a dance mom on that team. It makes sense that she'd still be in contact with some of those moms and potentially on friendly terms.

Fans on Twitter were quick to consider this theory as well. One viewer wrote, "I don’t think Michelle just hugging an old friend means she’s going back to the old studio?! I think someone just saying hi and hugging is an innocent act!" Another commented, "Wait so Michelle is not allowed to talk to her acquaintances on her former team? I mean the lady looked pretty nice." Someone else added, "They are bitter about a mother being friends with another mom from another team YIKES."

Sometimes the moms on this show do intentionally cause drama, but this doesn't seem to be one of those times. Michelle tried hard to get back in Abby's good graces, and clearly wants to be at the ALDC. Based on Studio 19's track record of trying to psych out the competition, it seems totally plausible that the studio would send Sarah a gift basket to cause suspicion. And it worked.

It seems that Sarah's old studio is going to keep causing drama for the ALDC. Hopefully the ALDC member will stick together in the face of it all and try to get through it as a team.

Watch all new episodes of Dance Moms season 8 on Tuesday nights on Lifetime and catch up on all the old seasons on Hulu.

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