Sia’s new “Elastic Heart” video is one of the most memorable we’ve seen in recent weeks, but it’s also stirred up some controversy since it appeared online yesterday. In the clip, a ripped and dirty and nearly naked Shia LaBeouf does an intense and menacing interpretive dance, in a giant birdcage, with Maddie Ziegler, the human-pretzel dancer from Sia’s “Chandelier” video. At times, the dance veers close to pro wrestling, and at others, it has vaguely sexual overtones. The problem: LaBeouf is 30, and Ziegler is 12. (You may have seen her on the Lifetime reality series Dance Moms.) As vivid as the video is, it’s understandably disturbed some of the people who have seen it. Sia, who co-directed the video with Daniel Askill, got on Twitter last night, apologizing and attempting to put the video in some kind of context. Here’s what she said about it.

I anticipated some 'pedophelia!!!' Cries for this video. All I can say is Maddie and Shia are two of the only actors I felt could play

— sia (@Sia) January 8, 2015

These two warring 'sia' self states.

— sia (@Sia) January 8, 2015

I apologize to those who feel triggered by #ElasticHeart My intention was to create some emotional content, not to upset anybody. ??

– sia (@Sia) January 8, 2015

For the record: This was, mostly, an actual apology, though Sia dulled its impact a bit by using a hashtag in the damn tweet. It’s not one of these “apologies to anyone who may have been offended” non-apologies. It actually acknowledges that the video negatively impacted real people. See how easy that was? Subtle changes in wording make a difference.

Sia is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live 1/17, and Ziegler will perform with her.