Nia Sioux addresses 'Dance Moms' racism in new book

Watch Nia Sioux addresses 'Dance Moms' racism in new book - New York Post on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00I absolutely had moments where I was like oh this is painful to write about it's very vulnerable

00:04um especially just like some of the things that I talk about I talk about you know some of the

00:09racism I faced on the show you were very candid about that in this book which I thought was really

00:14powerful can you tell us about that because I feel like the average viewer of Dance Moms

00:18might not have caught it back in the day right but now as an audience we're just we're more

00:23astute and we're paying closer attention so when you re-watch episodes of Dance Moms or scenes or

00:28clips on TikTok you're like whoa that was crazy what was said in front of Nia's face absolutely

00:35a lot of and you know what there was a lot of stuff that was said to me that was off camera as well

00:40yeah and I talk about that in the book uh because there were a lot of things that they cut out or

00:45just happened to me prior to the show and even after the show and even if it wasn't shown it's

00:50still impacted it's still impacted me during the time so can you give our listeners an example of

00:54maybe something you heard or something that you cover in the book yeah something that I cover a

00:59lot in the book is just like how I was seen I was seen as the weak link the bad dancer some of the

01:06things that were said about me like they they tried to make the narrative like the little black girl

01:11couldn't dance and that was the narrative that they ran with um and you know they had seven seasons to

01:16turn that narrative around and they never did they failed to do so and that's part of the reason why I

01:20had to write the book because that's not the whole truth that is not the whole truth I started in one

01:25place but by season seven by the end I was completely different dancer completely different person

01:30um and I wasn't weak that's the thing I was I was a very strong dancer even whenever I was at the

01:38beginning I had some health issues before the show even started which which is a whole nother thing

01:44that I do talk about in the book um so I was set back a little bit at the beginning but you really

01:49see that growth uh throughout the seasons it's it's also hard because it's not really you because

01:54you were on the show as a kid yes it's not like you could advocate for yourself exactly there's

01:57and also because it's like the life of being a dancer but also on a show so you're dealing not

02:04just with the dance scenes but also the production and everything behind it and having no one in your

02:09did you feel like there was more often than not no one in your corner well here's the thing

02:12fortunately I have a great mother and a great family shout out to holly holly is such an icon

02:19truly such an icon like she is my best friend she's my ride or die um and yes there were times

02:25where I felt like no one else was in my corner yeah yeah like literally no one except for my mom

02:31uh we were a team and uh like she's literally my rock she's the person the reason why I'm able to be

02:39well adjusted today why I feel like I I have a voice and I and I can do these things you know

02:45it's it's her and the rest of my family

02:47you