“In an instant, your life changes completely,” a cancer-stricken Abby Lee Miller, 52, says at the start of the trailer for season eight of Dance Moms (or Dance Moms: Resurrection, per E! News.) She obviously wasn’t kidding, as the trailer reveals the extent of her painful struggle against Burkitt Lymphoma. “I was ready to go back to work and start my life over and now I can’t even walk,” she said from a hospital bed. Abby was diagnosed with the rare form of cancer in April 2018, and Dance Moms will capture her struggle, as we’ll see her start chemo, deal with losing her hair and continue to fight her way back from the bring.
Oh, and fight she will, as she doesn’t know how to quit. “I need to get back to teaching and I need to get back to screaming at children,” she says in the trailer. “I need to get back to my roots. I’m going to take these kids right back to Pittsburgh.” After donning a wig and applying her makeup, Abby Lee is ready to return to the Abby Lee Dance Company (ALDC). When she returns on a wheelchair, she is greeted with open arms by all her students!
“There are people that counted me out, thought I was finished, considered the ALDC dead. Well, I fought hard to be here, and you have to a fighter too. You have to fight to get those legs straight, you have to fight to get better feet, you have to fight to be a champion,” she tells her students, invoking the same (somewhat controversial) attitude and discipline that made Dance Moms a household phenomenon.
“I have my own personal goals and I have goals for the team. I need to be ready for that first competition. We need to make a statement on that stage that the ALDC is back and ‘watch out,’ “ she says at the end of the trailer. Abby hinted that she was returning to Dance Moms (until she outright announced in Dec. 2018 that she’ll be back for season 8.) Her decision to return to the show was reportedly against her doctor’s wishes, but maybe it was exactly what she needed? In January 2019, four months after finishing chemo, Abby posted a photo of herself with Bow Bow Siwa, and Abby looked great! While she was still in a wheelchair, her skin had a healthy glow and she had a huge smile.
Dance Moms: Resurrection is set for a June 2019 premiere on Lifetime.
