Dance Moms: A New Era, the reboot of the hit reality show, premiered on August 7 and is already causing controversy after what fans are calling a “disturbing” dance routine featured on a recent episode.
An episode of the new season, which is streaming on Hulu, includes a scene where 11-year-old dancer Ashlan is assigned a routine that would see her mimicking JonBenet Ramsey, the six-year-old child beauty pageant princess who was found strangled at her home in Boulder, Colorado, in 1996.
“I want you to research JonBenet; I want you to know all about her,” head instructor Gloria Hampton tells Ashlan.
In another moment, Ashlan’s mother, Lisa, tells her daughter, “You’re going to be a glitz pageant girl. That’s who JonBenet was, but then she got kidnapped and murdered.”
An uncomfortable-looking Ashlan responds, “This is really not for me, but I’ll do anything for the win.”
After rehearsing the number, Ashlan then takes to the stage to perform the routine at a competition. Hampton reminds the young girl, “Remember, it’s a really sad, tragic story. So you’re playing this young child who was put on display at all these pageants and your parents want this fame and stardom for you – but is that what they really want?”
Dressed in a white leotard and tutu, Ashlan performs the dance, which includes a moment where she mimics being strangled.
Fans were appalled by the routine and took to social media to share their outrage.
“Did anyone find the JonBenét Ramsey dance insensitive and disrespectful?” wrote one user of the Dance Moms Reddit forum, citing a moment from the episode where some of the moms joked that Ashlan’s make-up made her “look like how [JonBenet] looked after she was strangled.”
“My jaw was literally on the floor. Seems extremely disrespectful to that poor little girl,” the user continued.
“It was extremely disturbing,” agreed another fan. “I think a dance about Jonbenet could never truly be done in taste. Simply because there is no happy ending, it’s just emphasizing a horrific murder of a child. They could’ve easily done a beauty pageant routine without exploiting Jonbenets murder.”
“I think it was in super poor taste and also somehow had literally nothing to do with the case at all. They could have made it about pageant kids in general,” said another.
“Yeah, this almost made me stop watching the show,” wrote another. “I understand it’s a well-known case and has been referenced before (ie. Black Patsy) but the way they handled it was so wrong, and asking a young child to research a case that involves the SA of a child is absolutely grotesque.”
Another added, “I was disturbed. Had I been in the audience and not known it was going to happen I’d have sat there with a huge WTF look on my face.”
“Absolutely gross. Every adult involved in getting a little girl to do that should be deeply ashamed!” said one YouTube commenter.
“That adult telling a child to research and learn “everything” about Jonbenet is sooooo messed up. No child should be exposed to that kind of trauma, let alone pressured into a interpretive dance about a child brutally murdered in her own home,” wrote another.
Speaking with Inside Edition ahead of the new season, Hampton said, “I’ve been doing this for years. Last season we took 450 dances to a dance competition for five weeks and then at nationals. So I’m used to doing costuming for thousands of children and 450 dances.’
She added, “Music, I am really inspired by music. I think it leads me to what I want to do. I hear something and I get inspired by that and I have a vision. It is interesting. I really have a vision in my head when I hear something that I like.”
Dance Moms: A New Era, Streaming, Hulu