Dance Moms Viewers Disturbed After 11-Year-Old Performs JonBenét Ramsey Routine

On a recent episode of Dance Moms: A New Era one dancer made the ill-advised choice to do a dance inspired by the tragic tale of JonBenét Ramsey.

As Studio Bleu continues to work its way into nationals, 11-year-old Ashlan and her mom Lisa want to make sure that she gets a spot in the season-ending show. And the way to do that, new Dance Moms instructor Miss Glo surmises? Assign Ashlan a dance on JonBenét Ramsey.

But, Glo conveniently left out all the bits the horrific murder, and asked the girl and her mom to do some research. The two followed suit, going so far as to give Ashlan the timestamps of Ramsey’s murder investigation.

“You’re going to be a glitz pageant girl. That’s who JonBenet was, but then she got kidnapped and murdered,” Ashlan’s mother was seen telling her.

For those unfamiliar with the Ramsey’s story — she was a child beauty pageant queen who was infamously murdered when she was just 6 years old. The case continues to captivate and confound the public as it remains largely unsolved.

“Oh my gosh, this is really not for me, but I’ll do anything for the win,” said Ashlyn, before she’s seen getting dolled up to embody the child pageant star.

Glo really wanted Ashlan to get into character, so before she hit the dancefloor, she gave the 11-year-old some troubling yet motivating advice: “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?”

While Ashlan did her best to sell the disturbing performance — which saw the girl grasp at her throat — viewers were left confused and angry.

“How was the audience supposed to deduce that was about JonBenet Ramsey? It was weird,” one Reddit user commented. “It was extremely disturbing,” wrote another, “They could’ve easily done a beauty pageant routine without exploiting Jonbenets murder.”

“The dance didn’t even remotely tell the story of of JBR either. Not even in the slightest!!!” added another.

“My 9 y.o. discovered the new Dance Moms series and I didn’t think I could be shocked by any of this s–t but they are doing a routine based on THE JEANBENET RAMSEY CASE,” exclaimed one mom. “They filmed in real time as the excited lead read the story on the internet and you could see her soul die.”

“This has to be the most disgusting example of child exploitation on prime time tv: a little girl on an epi of Dance Moms assigned to re-enact Jonbenet Ramsey’s murder,” wrote someone else. “We have become a disgusting society using the actual murder of a child for entertainment.”

In the end, Ashlan only ended up getting fourth place, making a shot a nationals seem almost out of reach. After getting chewed out by Glo about her performance, she told her mom, “”I kinda know how JonBenét felt. I’m never good enough.”

Dance Moms: A New Era is streaming now on Hulu.