As a dance community, we ought to pay close attention to the current issue being brought up by the media and so many other outlets, where five young girls ages 7-9 performed an overly sexualized dance routine at the 2010 World of Dance Tour Competition in Pomona, CA. The girls were wearing midriff-baring tops, short skirts and black stockings with a little red bow on them (I've seen those stockings being sold on Hollywood Blvd at stores I won't mention). The dance troupe, called Precision Dance from Orange County, certainly showcased a very well-performed dance routine with outstanding dance technique given the girls' ages, but were some of the moves and certainly the costumes really necessary?

The reason this immediately intrigued me is because it reminded me of a Salsa routine performed on-stage by Alex Da Silva, 40+ years old (choreographer of "So You Think You Can Dance?," who is now in jail on charges of multiple rapes), with a 12 year-old girl (not his daughter), where the girl did a hand stand in front of him, wrapped her legs around his hip area (crotch), and he proceeded to simulate playing the 'congas' with her butt-cheeks as she shook in front of him. 

After that Salsa routine was performed on-stage a couple of years ago, there was a lot of talk of how inappropriate it was (by me, mostly) and I was amazed at how many people actually came forth defending the dance as 'just a dance' (including the little girl's father, who justified that it was a way for his daughter to break-thru in the world of dance...oh gosh!). So, certainly, now that this 'Single Ladies' video has surfaced and even news chains like CNN are talking about it with Dr. Phil waging in and stating how inappropriate it is, this is something that we ought to think about as a dance community and start deciding what we want to see from kids in our dance scene.

Watch the little girls going hard on 'Single Ladies':

Video of 9 Year Old Girls going hard on Single Ladies

Needless to say, there have been numerous people in our dance community (including some of the kids' parents) who have come out saying that those who see these children doing anything wrong are 'the problem' and that they are just kids in a dance competition showcasing their talents. In my opinion, this is very sad. 

Watch the Salsa Routine mentioned above (watch at 4:31):

Watch Anderson Cooper (CNN) and Dr. Phil's reaction to the 'Single Ladies' video by Precision Dance: 

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/05/14/ac.phil.dancers.cnn?hpt=C2