A new round of dance and drama is coming early next year with "Dance Moms" season 6 set to premiere on Jan. 5. Filming for the new season is well underway and tons of spoilers about the new episodes and competitions have made their way online.

When the show returns, there will be the so-called Mini Elite Competition Team. These are the fledgling young dancers under the supervision of dance instructor Abby Lee Miller that older dancers from the group will train.

Among the tutors are sisters Maddie and Mackenzie Ziegler, Kendall Vertes, Kalani Hilliker, Nia Frazer and JoJo Siwa. No word on the would-be students although it is believed that the new recruits for "Dance Moms" season 6 will make up the group of learners.

According to Design and Trend, there's a big reason why a Mini Elite Competition Team was introduced. The site reports that these youngsters will be the next batch of stars in the Lifetime hit series and that they will be the ones that will effectively fill the void when the rest of the key cast members are out.

Miller's alleged star student Maddie, who has a big following from the show, won't be present in all "Dance Moms" season 6 episodes. The "Chandelier" dancer won't appear during the initial episodes of the season because during production, she was on the set of her upcoming film "The Book of Henry."

Reports say that the filming for the Colin Trevorrow-directed drama flick will be complete in two weeks so it is expected that Maddie won't be around that much in the next shooting days as well.

The last time she was able to take part in a "Dance Moms" season 6 episode was last Oct. 31, where she placed her second in the teen division and overall. Just recently, the Abby Lee Dance Crew graced the Sheer Talent Competition event in Phoenix.

As suggested in the press release, "Dance Moms" season 6 will also be dealing with Miller's legal issues.