‘Dance Moms’: Chloé Lukasiak on Why She Started Experiencing ‘Bad Anxiety’
It’s no secret that Chloé Lukasiak was an extremely talented dancer. From the very first episode of Dance Moms, it’s made clear that she was one of the strongest dancers on the Junior Elite Competition Team. Lukasiak excelled at a wide variety of dance styles. However, musical theatre, contemporary, and lyrical seemed to be where she really shined. However, it was also clear that the young dancer often suffered from performance anxiety.
Chloé Lukasiak loved performing before she joined the ‘Dance Moms’ cast
Prior to Dance Moms, and even in the first season, Lukasiak seemed to really enjoy performing. However, as the series progressed, she seemed to be fighting off nerves whenever she was selected to perform a solo. It turns out that there was a specific reason that the dancer started to develop performance anxiety. In a recent YouTube video, the dancer explained why she often had to contend with such strong nerves.
What caused the talented dancer’s anxiety?
“I started to experience really bad anxiety because when a lot of people don’t want you to do well, it makes you really nervous, and it makes you doubt yourself,” the Dance Moms alum shared. “So I would start to like experience so much anxiety and like intense worry before I went out on stage. Like I had a pit in my stomach constantly.”
One person who clearly didn’t want Lukaisk to perform well was her own dance teacher, Abby Lee Miller. The choreographer has openly admitted that she never wanted Lukasiak to win competitions, yet she managed to pull out wins time and time again during her tenure on Dance Moms. But why didn’t Miller want her own student to perform well? The two main reasons were that Miller had a terrible relationship with Lukiask’s mom, Christi Lukasiak, and that Chloé was the biggest competitor for Miller’s favorite student, Maddie Ziegler.
Lukasiak’s anxiety would make her believe that she didn’t remember her solo
Continuing on, Chloé shared that the anxiety would convince her that she wasn’t prepared. “I would just like go over the dance, and I’d get in such a state of panic,” she explained. “But I’d convince myself I didn’t remember the dance, and then I would just be like stressed out about everything. And I wouldn’t be able to like breathe, and I think later on I’d sort of freak out and I’m like ‘I can’t do this.’ Like that was sort of how it became every time. I was like, ‘I can’t go on, I’m not ready.’ because I just got into such like a heightened state of anxiety.”
It’s a shame that Chloé developed so much anxiety thanks to Dance Moms. It’s no wonder that she ultimately left the show in Season 4. Hopefully, the talented dancer will continue to heal from her tumultuous experience on reality TV.
