Bunheads Preview: ABC Family's Ballet-Focused Drama Premieres Monday

Summer is upon us and looking at the primetime line-up, it's a good time to be a dance enthusiast. While Fox has already begun airing the latest season of dance competition series So You Think You Can Dance, The CW recently premiered their ballet-focused reality series Breaking Pointe. And coming to ABC Family this Monday night is Bunheads, an original drama series about a Vegas showgirl who finds a fresh start in a new town after getting married and soon befriends a group of young ballet dancers.

Bunheads stars Sutton Foster as Michelle Simms, a woman who was exercising her dancing talents as a showgirl in Vegas, until she found it was time to move on and accepted the marriage proposal of Hubbell Flowers (Ferris Bueller's Day Off's Alan Ruck). When she moves to Paradise, CA, she soon learns that Flowers still lives with his mom (played boy Gilmore Girls' Kelly Bishop). While that's not exactly the best way to start off a marriage, Fanny Flowers runs a local dance studio, which is probably how Michelle ends up meeting the girls in this clip…

I'm thinking Michelle will end up teaching dance at this studio at some point, or otherwise finding some way to work with the girls on their ballet dancing. Michelle's new mother-in-law, who owns the dance studio, is described as strong-headed and imperious, so perhaps it won't be as simple as getting a job there right away, but I expect the common appreciation for dance will bring them together even if they don't get along so well from the start. I also like the hint that this is a woman who may be returning to something she was once really good at. There could be real potential for a story like that. We'll find out when Bunheads premieres on ABC Family this Monday night (June 11) at 9:00 p.m.

Kelly West
Assistant Managing Editor

Kelly joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006 and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before moving over to other roles on the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing feature content on the site. She an expert in all things Harry Potter, books from a variety of genres (sci-fi, mystery, horror, YA, drama, romance -- anything with a great story and interesting characters.), watching Big Brother, frequently rewatching The Office, listening to Taylor Swift, and playing The Sims.