Abby Lee Miller holds Edinburgh '˜Dance Adventure' masterclass

Abbi Howard, Serena McCall, Eve Roberts and Ellie Fergusson attended the Abby Lee Miller class. Picture: Scott Taylo

Abby, who is the star of hit US TV show Dance Moms and the founder of the Abby Lee Dance Company (ALDC), visited the Capital as part of her “International Dance Adventure” tour.

The celebrity, who features on Lifetime TV every Monday evening, got up close with around 300 dancers at the Corn Exchange on Tuesday, where she taught a warm up, gave technical pointers, taught choreography from her TV show and held an audition workshop – where she selected five lucky winners for a summer scholarship at the ALDC based in Los Angeles.

The dancers, from the Edinburgh Dance Academy and surrounding studios, who all paid £75 to take part, were also given the opportunity to pose for a souvenir picture.

Abby Lee Miller File picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Jan Roberts, from Balerno, whose daughter Eve, 13, participated in the masterclass, said it was an “amazing opportunity” for her daughter.

She said: “Eve never gets nervous, she performs all the time, so dancing in front of crowds never really fazes her.

“But when she knew she was going to be dancing in front of Abby Lee Miller, I knew she was feeling anxious.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the girls, they’ve been excited about it for weeks.”

A further group of children and their parents took part in a Q&A session with Abby last night, where they asked questions about the Dance Moms series, and what the future holds for the Abby Lee Dance Company.

Jenni Inglis, from the Edinburgh Dance Academy, said: “Everyone in the dance world knows who Abby Lee Miller is, so to have her here in Edinburgh is amazing.

“Most dancers would love the chance to meet her so the fact some of ours have is great. The have loved every minute of it.”

Abby Lee Miller first rose to fame in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when she founded her own studio – the ALDC – at the age of 14, and shortly afterwards she took over her mother’s company, Reign Dance Productions.

In 2011, the dance instructor began to appear in Dance Moms, a reality TV show now in its sixth season and broadcast worldwide, following the journeys of six of Abby’s students and their mothers, as they compete in intense competitions.

She is also a judge on her own spin-off television show, Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition, and has appeared on Dancing with the Stars multiple times.

Abby, who is understood to have embarked on an open top bus tour while she was in Edinburgh, is also the dance teacher of teenage superstar Maddie Ziegler – who has starred in three of pop star Sia’s music videos and has recently been appointed as the newest judge on hit TV show So You Think You Can Dance.

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