If you’ve ever tried to guess Dance Moms star Maddie Ziegler’s age, chances are you probably got it wrong. Maddie, who is just 14 years old, seems like she’s been in the spotlight forever. Over the course of the past six years, Maddie has learned everything from choreography to life lessons from her dance teacher, Abby Lee Miller. But all of that came to a halt when she met Sia. The pair have become quite the duo and Maddie literally can’t say one bad thing about her singer-songwriter mentor.

Maddie has appeared in several of Sia’s music videos, danced on the Ellen Degeneres Show alongside Sia’s vocals and they’ve walked red carpets hand in hand. Maddie sat down with NewsCorp and talked about their relationship. She said, “I didn’t know exactly who she was that well, being 11. So when I met her I was [like], ‘Wow, she’s so incredible’. I thought I would do this one video and never see her again. But we became a dynamic duo.”

Maddie continued, “It has evolved so much from “Chandelier”. I was 11 and doing this crazy style, these crazy dances and now I understand the meaning behind all of the videos. You are trying to tell a story through your facial expressions and movements and it is so emotional. I’m not as afraid now to be weird and do quirky stuff.”

Okay, so we know she’s not intentionally trying to throw shade at Abby Lee, but we can’t help but think about it that way. It was Sia who was the one that seemed to actually break Maddie out of her shell and this mold that makes young dancers believe they can only dance a certain way to be successful. Abby’s style at the Abby Lee Dance Company was focused on winning competitions. Sia has given Maddie the platform to move her body in ways that she would have never done at the ALDC. In doing so, it seems like Maddie has found herself a bit more. It’s pretty inspiring if you think about everything Sia has done for the rising starlet.

Of course, Abby trained Maddie in her early days when she wasn’t a household name. She taught her what it meant to have discipline, work hard and to point your toes all at the same time. But, it takes someone pretty special – someone like Sia – to help Maddie grow as a human being and discover she can do the things she never thought she would.

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