'So You Think You Can Dance': Rudy Abreu Accused of Sexual Misconduct With 14-Year-Old Girl

He competed in Season 11 of the reality competition series.

By Brenda Alexander

One So You Think You Can Dance alum is facing concerning allegations; Season 11 contestant Rudy Abreu is accused of sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl.

In a TikTok video that has garnered millions of views, 22-year-old dancer Charley Bennett detailed her experience working as an assistant at a touring dance convention where Abreu worked as an instructor. Bennett was 14 at the time and says that she was a fan of Bennett from his time on the show. She says Abreu "slowly began to bond with all the assistants," who ranged from ages 8 to 18. 

"His way of bonding, I guess, was following us on Instagram, Snapchat and all of our Finstas [fake Instagrams] at the time," Bennett said in the video. "He was on So You Think You Can Dance, he was dancing with JLo and he was following us on Instagram, and that was cool. We thought he was a cool mentor and a cool teacher, and that's how boundaries and lines get crossed really young."

9th Annual World Choreography Awards
(Photo: Paul Archuleta / Getty Images)

She claims things progressed from there, becoming more sexual in nature in his interactions with her. While on tour with the convention, she alleges Abreu sent her a Snapchat message describing all the ways he wanted to undress her "in detail," and later sent her a nude picture of himself in an airplane bathroom and asked for one in return. She says she sent one back out of fear of what would happen if she didn't. In a separate incident, Bennett says Abreu insisted she look at a hole in his shorts, where the tip of his penis stuck out. "He asks me to look at that before he puts it away," Bennett claimed.

When Bennett was 15, she and three friends flew to Los Angeles to assist Abreu with a dance. She stayed with him and his girlfriend who he'd reportedly been with for two years at that point. 

She claimed he offered her weed and alcohol and touched her inappropriately and told her later, "it's time to go to bed, because he just can't contain himself." She says he groped her several times.

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"I distanced myself, I think, after this interaction," she said. "I felt gross that his girlfriend wasn't there, and that now he was touching me and it was just making me really uncomfortable." She said of their final interaction that he said in front of a group of people: "Gosh, I can't wait until she's 18."

This isn't her first time addressing sexual misconduct in the dance community. In 2020, she claims to have spoken to Abreu's representatives at McDonald Selznick Associates.

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