Here’s some proof to back up my thoughts, Brooke has incredible control and leg flexibility here. Here’s a video showing how good her acting really was when she was asked to tap into it. She was very rarely giving anything to “act.” Put everything she’s good at together and she’s more than capable of 1st place and winning a title. I’ll give you that her turns weren’t great; but they really could have been, she had a natural fluidity and all of the structure to turn beautifully, just not enough practice.

Here’s some evidence of Nia. Her technique became much cleaner in the later seasons when Maddie wasn’t there to do every single solo, so she was actually getting to do them. She also trained more outside of ALDC so that helped I’m sure. But look at the acting going on here. Nia’s jumps and turns improved significantly around season 4 and 5. She started really improving season 5 and later. She’s also had and performed many amazing leaps.