Sinead O'Connor isn't the only one writing Miley Cyrus an open letter. Dancer Hollis Jane took to her personal blog to talk about Cyrus' MTV Video Music Awards performance, the Daily News reports. Jane said she was one of the dancing bears in the controversial performance with Robin Thicke.
She decided to blog about the experience after getting verbally attacked for a Facebook comment she made. Jane said her friend put up a status congratulating their little person friend for playing his guitar in one of Cyrus' performances instead of donning a ridiculous costume.
The status sparked a debate and Jane's comment stirred the pot even more. The dancer wrote that she agreed with the status and said she felt like little people needed to stand up for themselves and demand less degrading gigs.
"I was a bear in Miley Cyrus' VMA performance and it was my first time doing anything like that," she wrote on the Facebook status. "In that costume was one of the most degrading things I felt like I could ever do."
In her blog she explained that she has been trying to become a professional actress and she believes taking roles of dancing bears won't help little people break into an "almost impossible industry." Jane opened up about performing with the "We Can't Stop" singer for the VMAs saying one day she walked out of the rehearsal "shaking and crying."
"I had never been in a performance where I was purely meant to be gawked or laughed at. I will never forget that performance because it is what forced me to draw my personal line in the sand," she wrote on her blog. "After our first dress rehearsal in the costumes with the crew, publicists, performers etc watching us, I walked out of the Barclay Center shaking and crying. Thankfully, my best friends, Kelly and Kerri, happened to be NYV to visit me."
"They were waiting for me and I walked up to them and broke down," she continued. "I love being the center of attention but that was something different. I was being stared and laughed at for all the wrong reasons. I was being looked at a prop... as something less than human."
Jane said Cyrus' performance made her feel "ashamed of being a little person" for the first time in her life. When she was asked to join the 20-year-old singer for her tour Jane said she had to decline.
"I wondered if it was worth feeling less than human again. And frankly, it wasn't," she explained.
Cyrus has been unapologetic about the performance and recently discussed it on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" saying that everyone knew what was going to happen on that stage.
"Everyone there knew except some other people in the audience," she said. "I saw a lot of faces that were kind of like... Should we be laughing at this? Is this supposed to be funny... It was supposed to be funny... it was supposed to be funny somewhat, obviously."
