Dance Moms' JoJo Siwa and Kalani Hilliker Reveal Why They’re Still Close to Abby Lee Miller

Turns out not every Dance Moms alum would put former teacher Abby Lee Miller at the bottom of their pyramid. 

"Abby's been very, very supportive of my career," JoJo Siwa told E! News in an exclusive interview, explaining why she's remained tight with the former studio owner years after she exited stage left from the Lifetime series. "Of course, we've had good moments on Dance Moms and off Dance Moms, and then bad moments on and off. But she's a massive part in why my career is what it is today."

And while Abby has already given the 20-year-old singer high marks for her new, more mature era, including her latest single "Karma", JoJo said when she first signed on to be under Abby's tutelage, she was well aware she'd be saving her tears for her pillow. 

Entering the reality show in season four—following a stint on the Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition spinoff—"It's no secret, I will never lie about it, I'd been a massive fan of the show," noted JoJo, sitting down with fellow series stars Chloé Lukasiak, Kendall Vertes, Brooke Hyland, Paige Hyland and Kalani Hilliker ahead of the May 1 Dance Moms reunion. "And so I knew what Abby was like."

Initially, continued the star, "I went in craving Abby's approval, then I realized I was never gonna get it. And I didn't care about it." 

Because while her mom Jessalynn Siwa was busy advocating for solos and more time in the Abby Lee Dance Company spotlight, "I didn't come in to be on ALDC," said JoJo. "I came in to be on Dance Moms." Truthfully, JoJo "hated" dance, she confessed. "I really did." 

So, no, even at 11, she didn't care about her place on Abby's famed pyramid or in the group dance. 

"My mom would get so like, 'I'm going to ask her to put you in the front of the group dance, you should not be in the back corner,'" recalled JoJo. "I was like, 'Mom it literally doesn't matter. I'm dancing with Kalani, I am not going to be front and center. Not gonna happen.'" 

As for holding it down on the last row, reasoned JoJo, "There's more airtime than the top of the pyramid."

Fellow season four arrival Kalani, meanwhile, showed up in Pittsburgh with dreams of living on the dance floor. 

"I really was there for the love of dance," the 23-year-old told E!. "I cared more about the dance side of everything. I cared about being in the front. I cared about having the solo. I cared about having the best legs and feet." 

As such, teased JoJo, "Abby loved you."

And the feeling remains at least somewhat mutual for the Arizona resident, who pivoted into self-care with the May 2023 release of her beauty and wellness line Kare x Kalani. 

"She brought me in, and I would not be where I'm at or have the career that I have without Abby," explained Kalani. "And I think that I have to give a lot of credit to her."

Though she's clear that doesn't mean condoning Abby's harshest critiques. And she's not exactly turning to her for tips on how to teach her own students. "She obviously didn't treat me the best at some times," noted Kalani. "But I think I was able to heal from it and understand as I became an adult."

Which is why she's been able to team up with Abby for some recent projects. 

"I just did a meet up with her," Kalani recounted. "And she was like, 'Listen to Miss Kalani,' and I'm like, 'Miss Kalani?!' I was like, 'You're being nice to me?'" Now able to communicate with her as an adult, rather than a child who's terrified that everyone truly is replaceable, "I have a good relationship with her," said Kalani. "Not that I forgive her for things that she's done to my friends or myself, but I'm just able to move past it."

Of course, she's not the only Dance Moms alum who's thriving in her solo era. Check out why Abby's former stars are now holding court atop their own personal pyramids. 

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."

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." 

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."

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. "I’m so honored to share that list with so many amazing individuals," she wrote on Instagram, "and it’s such a privilege to be recognized."

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. 

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. 

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. 

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."

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."

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."

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."

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?'"