The first season of Lifetime’s “Bring It!” isn’t even over yet and other dance groups are already gunning for them.
In a recent episode, a dance team from Miami was ready to beat the stars of the show, the Dancing Dolls, on their own turf. But, the Dolls held their own.
“Everybody wants their five minutes,” Williams told TheWrap. “You know, everybody wants an opportunity to show who they are and why they are great dancers from where they are. They may be amazing from where they are, but if I gave the team from Miami the choreography that we do, they wouldn’t be able to do it, and vice versa. I explained to the girls that everybody is gunning for the top spot. It’s kind of like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. They’re going to go back and forth, back and forth. They’re both amazing. They’re both amazing, but somebody’s got to lose.
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This season, challenges are coming from both near and far. Williams recently spoke with TheWrap about new competition, lessons to be learned from the first half of this season and what to expect going forward.
TheWrap: Were you hesitant about doing a reality show?
Dianna Williams: I think for anybody, of course, opening up your life to the world is a huge step because you want to make sure that you have all of your ducks in a row and you can fulfill whatever the responsibilities are of the show and the responsibilities that you have to family and everyone else that’s involved. I had reservations about it at first, because of my own personal stuff, but the reality show was an amazing opportunity for the team. It was kind of a no-brainer when it came to them.
Was it alarming you when the girls weren’t winning in the first half of the season? Was that driving you later in the season?
It was definitely alarming. The Dancing Dolls are an award-winning team. They always have been. We had never lost this much ever in the history of the team and we’ve been around almost 14 years. And to watch the girls lose over and over or coming in second place, it was more hurtful to them and more devastating to them than it was to me because they weren’t used to it. But, I had to explain to them that this is a part of life. You’re not going to get everything that you want out of life. Sometimes you’re going to fall short, even if you feel like you are deserving. It is what it is. You just take something from it, learn something from it and just move on. But knowing that the girls want to win and knowing that we’re coming up against teams that are more versatile and bring a different style, we need to change up the way we do things. If that’s what it’s going to take to win, then we have to get it done.
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You must get a lot more people criticizing your coaching style now that you’re on TV?
All the time. Everybody wants to say what they think, what I should be doing, or shouldn’t be doing. But at the same time, it’s not up to them. If the parents aren’t happy with what it is that I’m doing, I have an open door policy. They can come in and tell me at any time if there is something that they don’t like. But, everybody has their own opinion of what they should be doing, but if everybody stays in their own lane and just kind of does what their supposed to be doing and not worry about what I’m doing, the world will be a better place.
You’ve been broadening the dance styles for the team on the last couple episodes. Do you bring in other teachers to help teach new styles?
No. I was trained in tap, but I have taken every dance style that you could possibly think of. The jazz lyrical routine the girls did, I did that completely by myself. I can make up a tap routine if I have to. There’s hip hop choreography that’s coming up later. I have one set of gentlemen that come in and do something with that, because we wanted a more masculine version of it. Of course, I’m not a guy so I couldn’t utilize some of the things that I wanted them to do. So, we brought someone in for that, but that was very minute. But for the most part, I have OCD when it comes to my team. I don’t let very many people get close to them. I want to make sure that everything that they do is something that’s coming from me.
“Bring It” airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Lifetime.