The Back to the Barre podcast hosted by Dance Mom’s stars Christi Lukasiak and Kelly Hyland gives listeners a behind-the-scenes look at the show and the host’s personal perspectives.
The podcast is super nostalgic for me because I grew up hearing Christi and Kelly’s voices on the original show. The show’s format also allows me to relive a show that I have enjoyed watching and rewatching my whole life in a new, interesting way.
Rather than rewatching the same scenes and hearing the same dialogue, you get a new perspective and hear a lot of behind-the-scenes details that could not be spoken about on the show without breaking the fourth wall.
The podcast follows the Dance Moms series starting with season 1 and onward. It is formatted as a recap and fans are encouraged to rewatch the episode that they will be recapping that week.
I think the recap format was the best way for these two to go for this podcast because it allows fans who have not watched the show in a long time, or ever, to understand what is happening and which scenes the two are discussing. It also helps to guide their conversations and keep the two on-topic.
I also love it when they have guests come onto the show. They have had other moms, producers, and even their daughters and other girls who danced on the show. These episodes are always some of their best and listeners can get an entirely new perspective that they normally don’t when just listening to Christi and Kelly.
Lately, a lot of the episodes have been split into two-parters, so listeners have to wait another week to hear the pair discuss the second half of the episode. I understand doing that for longer episodes that have a lot of behind-the-scenes details to explain, but nearly every episode in the past couple of months has been a two-parter.
I think it is great how Chirsti and Kelly find different ways to connect with their fanbase through different Q&A sessions on the podcast and with paid content such as their Patreon channel where they release an aftershow that they call the “After Party.”
The After Party provides listeners with content where the two discuss their personal lives and their children who were on the show, updating fans and stepping away from the Dance Mom’s show.
However, I will say that I hate how many paywalls are in place for their content. Most of their roughly one-hour podcast episodes can have around six ads and with their Patreon subscription and now a new series with two of the other Dance Mom’s stars: Melissa Gisoni and Jill Vertes, it’s becoming a bit annoying.
I completely understand that this is how they earn their income, but it would be nice for them to include more content for everyone, rather than hiding all of their special content behind paywalls.
While I love hearing from Christi and Kelly and enjoy the content within the episodes, I can’t help but have my opinion clouded by some of the money-grabbing strategies. When I think about the two-part episodes, I wonder if, for them, that’s double the ads for them to monetize off of.
Overall, I recommend listening to the Back to the Barre podcast, but I wouldn’t recommend purchasing any of their content that is behind a paywall.
