EXCLUSIVE: Dance Moms’ Gianna Martello Tells Celeb Secrets Why She Decided To Leave The Show

Celeb Secrets: “I’m good, I’m good. So I want to talk to you about this crazy situation that’s going on with Dance Moms. How do you feel about what’s going on about it?”

Gianna: “It’s crazy. I mean, it’s just not for me. Like, I think the show is just going in so many different directions and I don’t really want to be a part of that.”

Celeb Secrets: What made you guys kinda sit down and say, “hey, we’re gonna stop this?”…You know, even though you guys are kind of the original people on the show?

Gianna: “I’ve been working with Abby since before the show. I grew up dancing for her, so it was really hard for us. It’s been a long time coming I think; there’s been a lot of stuff on the show that Abby’s been really unhappy with for quite some time and, she’s been in and out and I just think that we work really well together as a team, and I want to make sure that people know that. On the show — she didn’t get along with very many people — but her and I have a great relationship and I think it was just time.”

Celeb Secrets: Despite you leaving the show, does this mean that you will carry on working with Abby at all?

Gianna: “Yeah, I actually still teach at the dance studio. You know, ALDC is still a running studio and we have tons of students. So, I still teach there on a weekly basis.”

Celeb Secrets: Cool, that’s cool. Do you feel like you’ve ended this chapter of your life on a happy note?

Gianna: “It was a really difficult decision and it was hard for me the first couple of days to take it all in, but I think everything has to come to an end…. I mean I’ve been on this show for about five or six years now, and I think it was just time.”

Celeb Secrets: We did speak with Abby Lee at the Kids’ Choice Awards about Dance Moms, and this was before anything was announced, and she was like, “I quit,” and we were like, “What? This is crazy!” We were so shocked, and our readers were too. And then things came out saying that production was not treating her right and you know the whole nine yards. You could confirm that stuff like that happened, correct?

Gianna: “Well, yes and no. You know, ultimately production made all of the decisions with creative and the talent and you know everything creative–dealing like with the routines and the costumes usually; and, I think she’s just used to calling the shots in the dance studio, so it’s kind of clash between her and production.”

Celeb Secrets: And, people really don’t see that on TV.

Gianna: “No, no. People actually see nothing actually.”

Celeb Secrets: Now when you guys finished the season, Chloe did come back. Where you initially happy when you saw that Chloe was coming back?

Gianna: “Yeah, I actually didn’t know about it, which was the funny thing.  So, on the very last episode…Abby and I were not even in the vicinity of the building. Production actual trapped us, so like we did the routines, we did awards , we said our goodbyes and then, Abby and I were taken out of the building. And then I’m like reading on social media that, “she’s back, she’s back, she’s back.” I actually didn’t see her or see any of this, I just know that we started filming again and I saw her at competition kind of against us. It was really weird how I found out she was back, cause I had to read about it.”

Celeb Secrets: And how do you think she’s changed since her comeback?

Gianna: “I think she’s definitely grown up. I have not gotten the chance to work with her because for quite sometime she was on another team. But, I did see her, I saw her mom, I saw her sister. Everything.”

Celeb Secrets: And what do you think now the future holds for ALDC now that you guys are totally off the air?

Gianna: “ALDC was very successful before the TV show, and I think it’s only gotten more popular since the TV show. And like I said before, it’s still a running dance studio; we still do have a competition team of many kids, it’s not just the five or six that you see on the TV show. So, I’m still going to be teaching there.”

Celeb Secrets: What would be your advice to aspiring dancers who didn’t have the platform or window to showcase their craft, like you guys had your students do?

Gianna: “I mean there are so many dancers in the world that aren’t as lucky and that aren’t as fortunate as these what, five or six dancers that we have had come through. But, I think if you really love it, then keep doing it. Like I always tell people, I was on a competition team for Abby, just as you see on the show, it was exactly the same, but my mom wasn’t crazy. (Laughs) And I wasn’t the number one all of the time. I wasn’t so to say, the Maddie of the group, but I knew I loved what I was doing and I knew I had to stick with it because I loved it so much, not because I was you know like the big winner and everyone was watching.”

Celeb Secrets: We are Celeb Secrets and usually I ask people maybe like a secret or fun fact about themselves, but what’s maybe like one thing when you guys were on Dance Moms that people didn’t see that they would be really surprised to know? 

Gianna: “Let me think, there’s probably so many. Probably, I guess people think that we get a week of rehearsals and routines, like we go through an entire week of rehearsals. In reality because of child labor laws and because we do follow them so strictly, we only get about three or four hours a day of rehearsals. So, when you see like Kalani rehearsing her solo, she probably only gets like an hour to learn that routine; when on the show it probably shows like three or four days of vigorous rehearsal.”

Celeb Secrets: Oh my gosh, that’s crazy!

Gianna: “It takes an entire day to shoot and waste my rehearsal time. (Laughs)”

Celeb Secrets: Well Gianna, thank you so much for chatting with me, and seriously, best of luck with you and everything at ALDC.

Gianna: “Thank you so much!”