Even though Abby Lee Miller may be putting her health at risk to do it, she has returned to Dance Moms for Season 8.
And as the new trailer makes very clear, she is back. The new season looks as dramatic and toxic as ever.
Longtime viewers will be reassured that nothing has changed once they hear Miller scream that a child dancer "sucks."
The trailer for Season 8 begins with an intense start.
"As a dancer, you put your heart out there every day," Miller warns the gathered group of children.
For dramatic effect, she is holding a life sized model of a human heart in her hands.
Miller warns: "Somebody is going to stab it."
To drive home the message, she mimes driving an imaginary knife through the heart.
For a year, now, Abby Lee Miller has been fighting Burkitt lymphoma, a type of cancer that has impaired her mobility and threatens to paralyze her.
Despite grueling treatments of chemo and radiation therapy, she has returned to television.
"I fought hard to be here," Miller emphasizes on the Season 8 trailer.
She uses her story to convey a powerful message to the hopeful dancers.
She affirms: "You have to FIGHT to be a champion!"
Of course, the controversial Dance Moms stars is infamous for her toxic attitude and particularly for the way that she treats children.
"Stop crying! Stop it!" she yells cruelly at one moment during the trailer.
Obviously, no one should ever speak to a child — or an adult, for that matter — with those words or in that hostile tone.
At another point, Miller insists: "You don’t know what you’re doing!"
"Your kid doesn’t have a chance," she taunts a parent in another scene. "She sucks!"
Miller also delivers some important messages about kindness and teamwork.
"Jealously has poisoned this team." Miller laments in another moment.
Speaking of a young male dancer, she says: "How dare any of you run this kid off the team!"
We agree! Kids shouldn’t be antagonizing a young dancer until he drops out.
That’s Miller’s job.
"It’s not about you!" Miller yells in another part of the trailer.
"It’s about the dancing," Miller explains. "It’s about the team."
"This is my livelihood,” she says.
“It’s fine to do whatever I want to do," Miller announces. "And I will do whatever I want to do."
She then issues a warning: "Watch out!"
We of course wish Abby Lee Miller the best in winning her cancer battle.
That does not mean that it’s endearing to see her bullying children to the point of tears. Nothing makes that okay.
Of course, the trailer also reminded everyone of the true villains of Dance Moms: the actual dance moms themselves.
They’re the ones who signed their children up for the show in the first place. They know who Miller is.
After a while, you stop getting mad at the child-eating alligator and start getting mad at the parents who keep tossing their kids in the gator’s lake.