Lifetime Yanks Dance Moms Episode After Uproar Over Tween Showgirls Routine

Network plays damage control after airing a reality-show episode featuring youngsters staging a salacious dance number

Is Dance Moms sexualizing youngsters for your viewing pleasure?

Hoping to stem a growing storm of criticism, Lifetime has axed a highly provocative episode of its reality series that aired on March 6 after outraged parents and critics objected to a segment featuring tiny tween dancers dressed as Las Vegas showgirls and performing a racy routine.  

And you thought Toddlers & Tiaras was bad.

A rep for the network confirmed the shocking episode has been wiped from the schedule but declined further comment.

The Dance Moms brouhaha started after dance instructor Abby Lee Miller choreographed a performance in which the girls, whose ages range from 6 to 13, sported burlesque outfits that were see-through in the back and featured ridiculously oversized pink feather plumes to cover up their front.

For the routine, the kids were then taught to shimmy around and effectively make like "Lady Marmalade." (What's next, the cancan?)

The episode sparked an immediate backlash from child psychologists and various parent groups that suggested the Sin City–like display could encourage pedophiles. 

Guess that's one demographic Lifetime can do without.

The controversy also bore out Katherine Heigl's long-running complaints when she wrote on her blog in January that the show was "demeaning" and "belittling," and that "all these girls were missing is a pole!"