Kendall Vertes on Relationship with Former Dance Moms Cast Members (Exclusive)

Kendall Vertes couldn’t have gone through her journey on Dance Moms alone.

The former reality television star, 22, who appeared on the Lifetime show from 2012 to 2017, tells PEOPLE how she leaned heavily on her former castmates, including Chloe Lukasiak, JoJo Siwa, Brooke Hyland her sister Paige, Brynn Rumfallo and Kalani Hilliker, to get her through the challenging times — many of which stemmed from former dance coach Abby Lee Miller.

“I was so young when it started and honestly blocked out all of the bad memories,” Vertes tells PEOPLE exclusively. “But my favorite memories were just traveling with the girls every weekend to a new place, a new environment, a new destination, and just having each other. We were literally best friends, and we ate together, slept together, breathed together and danced together. We did everything together.”

“Having such a good community of support while being in such a vicious environment is honestly what helped me get through that,” she continues. “But I mean, my favorite memories would be winning a Kid’s Choice Award with my best friend, walking the red carpet, and meeting Justin Bieber when we were 9 and 10. Honestly, anything that involved them and traveling was the best part of all of it.”

Thinking back on her time on the show, Vertes, now a senior at James Madison University, adds that one of her favorite memories with her former castmates includes performing what she still considers “one of the most memorable dances we’ve ever done” — the “Suicide Hotline” routine from season 6, episode 29.

“We actually had to do the dance twice: once for the actual judges and then once for different camera angles,” she says. “And I remember when we stepped out on that stage for the first time to do that dance, when we came off, all of us had tears in our eyes just because of how emotional and how important this topic was to us. A week later, the person who came in to talk to us about their suicide hotline in California actually reached out to us. They said that once the episode aired, their phones were off the hook.”

“Knowing that our dance and something so simple could make such a big impact really changed my perspective on a lot of things, and I just love the fact that we could influence people through dancing,” she adds.

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When it comes to her relationship with her castmates now, Vertes says that they still try to see each other, despite their busy schedules and the fact that they live all across the United States.

“I love Kalani. She’s always been my best friend,” Vertes says. “We literally clicked the moment we met. I still keep in touch with JoJo. I’ll FaceTime her every now and then. She’s actually in Kalani’s wedding, so I will see her in Italy in September. We’ll both be in Kalani’s wedding, which is so fun.”

“I keep in touch with Brynn a lot,” she adds. “Paige and Brooke are also in Pittsburgh, so anytime I go home, we usually like to get dinner or just hang out. Chloe’s in New York, and I’m trying to plan a trip to go see her. So I keep in touch with most of the girls. It’s just hard. We all have such different lives now and are on different paths, but when it works out, it works out, and we always try to meet up with each other.”