Tuesday on Dance Moms Season 5 Episode 30, Kalani and Nia squared off to decide once and for all who would get the senior division solo.
The stakes? Higher than ever.
When Dance Moms Season 5 Episode 30 got underway, we were just one week away from Nationals, the pinnacle of the ALDC calendar year.
Set to compete against the strong MDP, Abby Lee Miller knew she needed to bring her A game, so she pitted Kalani and Nia against one another.
As you can see when you watch Dance Moms online, Nia felt pressure on that front … and because she was also filming her new music video.
These girls are going places.
Who’s going to Nationals specifically, though? Most of the moms and Abby herself made it clear that Kalani was the obvious front-runner.
Nia’s mom begged to differ.
Holly Frazier told the cameras, “I think Nia, honestly, is quite often the underdog that people just dismiss, but you can’t count her out."
"Don’t give up on my kid,” she said, whatever conventional wisdom says. “She may be the horse that’s coming in from behind you don’t even realize.”
How prescient this turned out to be.
During the awards ceremony, Kalani took home third-place in the teen solo division, while Nia walked away with a huge first-place win!
When Abby found out about this?
“Oh my God!” Miller exclaimed … and dismissed the idea that this would earn her a solo, telling her Kalani “had a huge breakthrough today.”
As opposed to … finishing first?!
Not in Abby’s mind: "She’s won what, three times in her life? For what it’s worth I thought Nia was great, but she does not blow me away."
"I need a sure thing," she says, no matter what actual results and judges might tell her that is on this day, "and my sure thing is Kalani.”
Holly was not happy, taking to Twitter Tuesday to voice her upset over Abby’s decision, saying, “Somehow the rules change when Nia wins!”
Basically, yup.