What Happened To Sophia Lucia From Dance Moms?
Reality television in the early 2010s was seriously unparalleled, with drama and staged fights taking precedence on our TV screens. Not that we don't love reality TV now, but the 2000s and 2010s introduced us to infamous series like "Jersey Shore," "Vanderpump Rules," and, of course, "Dance Moms." With Abby Lee Miller yelling at 8-year-olds every week, Lifetime's "Dance Moms" was one of the wildest series. It begged the question, "Should this be allowed?" Regardless, the show left a legacy for the girls that starred in it. "Dance Moms" also had a very prominent guest between 2012 and 2013: Sophia Lucia. She was introduced on "Dance Moms" as a way to finally be Maddie Ziegler's competition, something Maddie hadn't really had on the team before.
While storylines came and went on the show pitting Maddie against Chloe Lukasiak or other guest dancers, Ziegler hadn't been scared of losing her top position in Miller's eyes like she seemed to be when Lucia was on the team for five episodes. Lucia was a dynamite turner and had a technique that was worlds ahead of Ziegler. Lucia went on to even say that competition owners started asking her not to compete. She had gone professional so young and had such a reputation for beating everyone that dancers would drop out if she was on the roster. And while Lucia was once the master of winning competitions and training professionally, she is no longer interested in dancing herself. But she loves teaching.
Sophia Lucia is a dance teacher and loves it
Sophia Lucia is often described as a "dance prodigy" or "phenom." She's been an exceptional dancer since she was little. According to the Joffrey Ballet School, Lucia started dancing at age 2 and was professionally trained in several dance styles including ballet, tap, ballroom, and more. In 2013, she broke the (still undefeated) Guinness World Record for most consecutive contemporary dance pirouettes at age 10, with 55 turns completed on her third try. Outside of "Dance Moms," Lucia also appeared on Zendaya and Bella Thorne's show "Shake It Up" in 2012 as a dancer. She then starred in Hallmark's "A Nutcracker Christmas" in 2015.
Lucia still dances and models, but the 20-year-old teaches more nowadays. In August 2021, Lucia posted a video of her teaching turns, writing, "Official first day on the new job! Excited for this season! Working on the basics." Lucia now teaches all age levels and dance genres at Adage Dance Studio.
As for Lucia's current relationship with ballet or professional dancing, she seemed to experience a lot of toxic and abusive behavior from her teacher while training, potentially at the Master Ballet Academy. Lucia posted a TikTok (shared on Reddit) about the "things my ballet teacher said to me every day for two years." She went on to say she was called "piggy," told to lose weight, and even try a cigarette to achieve this. She captioned it, "and people ask why i didn't enjoy the ballet world."
Sophia Lucia said Dance Moms was 'not real'
It's unfortunate that Sophia Lucia had such a toxic experience while dancing ballet professionally, but she's moved on to things she fully enjoys. She started classes at New York University in 2019 and was interested in sports psychology. She said she got everything she could get out of dance, which is why she's not interested in new dance jobs. And Lucia has been blunt about "Dance Moms." "It's a reality TV show which means it's not real," Lucia revealed on Instagram live. "There's so many things that have to go into it. People have to make it interesting to watch, you know. If there was no drama, if Abby was never mean on the show, would you really have watched 'Dance Moms?' No. You didn't watch 'Dance Moms' for the dance, you watched 'Dance Moms' for the drama. 'Cause what was put on the show was not real dance training."
While on the show, it was apparent that neither she nor her mom, Jackie Lucia, were about the drama. Even though Abby Lee Miller was "very sweet" to Lucia when they met, she says she doesn't know her personally now. "I haven't seen her in years and she's never done anything to me except for DM me, criticizing the posts that I have on my feed or wanting something from me after she's criticized me," Lucia said. "And I have screenshots. So lovely, And I'm like, I don't owe you my career."