Nia Sioux is pulling back the curtain on her Dance Moms experience — and revealing the disturbing reality she says she faced behind the cameras.
In her new memoir, Bottom of the Pyramid: A Memoir of Persevering, Dancing for Myself, and Starring in My Own Life, the former Lifetime star details what it was like growing up on the hit reality show and alleges that her former teacher, Abby Lee Miller, made racist and body-shaming comments throughout filming.
Sioux, now 24, starred on Dance Moms for seven seasons alongside her mom, Holly Frazier, from 2011 to 2017. She was just 9 years old when the series began and 15 when it ended. Reflecting on her time in the spotlight, she says that the environment was often toxic — particularly when it came to Miller’s treatment of her.
“Abby told me that I needed to fix my hair because it looked awful,” Sioux writes in her memoir, recalling a moment from season two when she wore braids that had been approved by production. “She said — on camera, no less — ‘It’s like a log coming out of the side of her head.’”
But that wasn’t the only comment that crossed the line. Sioux claims another disturbing moment, which never aired, happened when Miller allegedly asked her, “Don’t you just wish you had white-girl hair?”
“I was taken aback by her question, but I responded, ‘No,’” Sioux writes. “‘Oh really?’ she said. ‘Like you don’t think it would be much easier?’ Again, I told her no. It didn’t matter what she said — I knew I didn’t want to be white. Unlike the other exchange, this one never aired.”
According to Sioux, the remarks didn’t stop there. She says Miller often criticized her body and even spread racial stereotypes about her dancing ability. “She would say, ‘Well, you know your people have flat feet,’” Sioux recalls. “This struck me as ignorant; I know plenty of Black dancers with perfectly arched feet! Yet, despite the fact that she actually believed this ridiculous generalization was true, she’d threaten punishment for my perceived shortcoming. ‘If you don’t point that foot,’ she’d warn, ‘I’m gonna come out there and break it.’”
Sioux writes that Miller’s behavior influenced others on set. “Comments came directly from Abby and trickled down to some of the girls and their moms, criticizing my thighs, my butt, and even my muscular legs,” she says. “At one point in season 6, Abby talked about the size of my thighs in the dressing room. She implied that I was fat because I was not working hard enough. This was just one of many comments Abby made to create an illusion that I was lazy or just not strong as a dancer. Viewers and some of my castmates ate that up without question.”
Sioux also recalls that several of her solos choreographed under Miller had troubling racial undertones — even before the show began filming. Her first solo was to a song called “Nattie of the Jungle,” about a child raised by monkeys, followed by another routine to “Satan’s Li’l Lamb.”
Her mom, Holly, often confronted Miller about the choices but sometimes “had to bite her tongue,” Sioux writes, explaining that as a child, she was too young to grasp the deeper implications and simply excited to perform.
Bottom of the Pyramid: A Memoir of Persevering, Dancing for Myself, and Starring in My Own Life is available now wherever books are sold.
