Following Abby Lee Miller’s abrupt announcement that she’s quitting the hit reality show Dance Moms, producers have reportedly replaced her with Cheryl Burke.
Laurieann Gibson had already stepped in for Miller in recently filmed episodes, according to Entertainment Tonight.
ET claims that moving forward, at least for the remainder of the seventh season, the dancers will be taught by Burke, a Dancing With the Stars professional dancer.
READ MORE: Abby Lee Miller announces she’s quit ‘Dance Moms’
Miller revealed that she quit the show because she is done with being manipulated, disrespected and used by the show’s male producers.
Although Miller is uncertain under which capacity Burke will serve on the show, she told People that she believes the show will treat her a lot better than it treated her.
“I just know they’re going to treat her a hell of a lot better than they treated me, for now,” says Miller.
“Give her six years, they’ll talk to her like she’s dirt too.”
Miller also told E! News that she would be “thrilled” if Burke had to endure the antics she says she went through on set every day.
“If she had to go what I go through every day, I would be flipping thrilled that somebody else in the entertainment industry who has the career that she has had on Dancing With the Stars, with the costume makers on Dancing With the Stars, with the producers on Dancing With the Stars, and then had to step down to this? Oh, honey,” Miller quipped.
The choreographer admitted to People that there could be a possibility of her returning to the show.
“Never say never,” Miller revealed.
“A lot of things would have to change. Just the way they pull things out of their butts the last minute and it makes the costuming exhausting,” she continued. “They want me to come to meetings, pre-production, but on my own dime.”
Miller said that she is going to miss the “creativity, working in the studio creating and developing a dancer.”
She added: “I love teaching children. I love teaching dance, but I’ve been doing this for 35 years and yet I don’t get the trust or respect that I deserve. I don’t think anybody on my team did.”
READ MORE: Abby Lee Miller of ‘Dance Moms’ pleads guilty to bankruptcy fraud, money laundering
Miller’s decision to quit the show comes as she finds herself in the middle of a bankruptcy fraud case.
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Last June, the former Dance Moms coach pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud and failing to report $10,000 in Australian currency she brought into the United States.
She had been charged with 20 counts of bankruptcy fraud, concealing assets, and one criminal count involving international monetary information.
Authorities later accused her of dividing more than $120,000 into plastic bags and having others in her group put the bags in their luggage so she could avoid reporting the currency.
She is facing up to two and a half years in prison after pleading guilty in October to attempting to hide US$775,000 of income.
— With files from Chris Jancelewicz
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