'Dance Moms' Alum Nia Sioux Reveals The Disheartening Reason She Didn't Film The 2024 Reunion Special

"Dance Moms" star Nia Sioux caused a stir in the summer of 2024 when she, along with former co-stars Maddie and Mackenzie Ziegler, opted out of the show's long-awaited reunion special. At the time, some of the women who did participate, such as Jojo Siwa and Kalani Hilliker, seemed to take issue with Sioux and the Zieglers skipping the sit-down gathering. While Sioux initially said she ditched the reunion simply because she "didn't want to" do it, she's now revealing the deeper, more heartbreaking reason for keeping the iconic reality show in her rearview.

On the "Relationsh*t" podcast with Kamie Crawford, Sioux explained why she decided to opt out of the reunion special.

"I made it very clear from the beginning [that] I was not doing it," she said. As she continued, Sioux stated that simply rehashing old drama wouldn't have brought her the same closure it may have given the other women.

But that's not all. Sioux revealed that for her to achieve true closure, she would have needed to speak about her specific experience as a Black woman on the show, which is a topic she believes would have been undermined and swept under the rug.

"They're not going to cover that," she said. "There's no way they would. There's no way they would."

As the only Black dancer on the primary cast, Sioux and her mother, Dr. Holly Hatcher-Frazier, often highlighted the microaggressions and differing treatment they received on the show.

According to Sioux, glossing over those unique experiences during the reunion simply wasn't an option for her.

"That's not good enough for me," she said. "I don't wanna just go and sit there and not be able to speak my full truth. I don't want to water down my story; I don't want to edit or censor things out. Like, this is what happened. This is how I felt, and I know that it would be diminished."

She continued, "People wouldn't validate it, and people wouldn't be OK with that, and I wasn't down with that."

In a clip from the reunion special, viewers could see some of the cast members voicing their concerns about Sioux and the Zieglers opting out of the program.

Sioux initially responded in May 2024 with a TikTok video, saying, "Yeah, it's pretty plain and simple. I just didn't want to do it."

She added, "Some people think it's because I'm in school. I am in school, but it wouldn't have been an issue. I just didn't want to do it, and that's a good enough answer and that's a good enough reason."

Elsewhere in her original TikTok video, Sioux explained that while she'll always be grateful for the "Dance Moms" platform, she's in a much different place in her life now. "Truly, I love my life. I have a fabulous life and I'm truly enjoying it," she said before speaking about her relationship with some of the original cast members.

"I love the girls, and I'm really happy for them, and I'm really happy that they get to share how they felt or their experiences, but that's just something I decided that I didn't want to do, and that's okay," Sioux said. "Also, I never said that I wouldn't do a reunion show in the future or talk about my experiences in the future, but right now, at this moment, was not the right time for me to do that."

Online, Sioux was met with an outpouring of support, with comments seemingly validating her earlier statements.

"Not only would it have been cut out, but I'm positive JoJo would have invalidated her experiences the same way she invalidated ALL the other girls," someone wrote. Another commented plainly, "Nia was treated so poorly on that show."

Others shared about how eager they were to hear Sioux's story, with one posting, "THIS is the story I WANT to hear! I'm definitely purchasing her book because this should be discussed! Nia was an OG and treated the absolute worst out of EVERYONE."

In an interview with PEOPLE, Sioux shared that her upcoming memoir, "Bottom of the Pyramid," will give fans the behind-the-scenes tea they didn't know about.

“I felt like my story wasn't told the way it should have been told, and what better way to reclaim that title and turn it into a positive than naming my book ‘bottom of the pyramid?’” she said.