fondoffouettes

David Prottas is filling in for Ramasar tonight in Carousel. Has Prottas filled in before? (I haven't been following the Carousel discussion very closely.)

And it looks like Finlay just deleted his Instagram account altogether.

The "pissed" quote is actually attributed to Finlay: "There are text messages between Mr. Finlay and Ballet Principal. Mr. Ramasar, during which Mr. Finlay acknowledges that these women who were unknowingly and unlawfully photographed "might be a little pissed" because they were "taking it to the level of showing each other pictures of other women." But it does implicate Ramasar as the recipient of photos taken without the subject's consent. And I don't know what to make of this sentence, which follows the bit where Craig Hall says he wants to masturbate to images of Waterbury: "In response, an image of a soloist at NYC Ballet was circulated while she was changing when she was not looking at the camera" This is so vague. Who took this image? Who circulated this image? Craig Hall? Finlay? It's not linked to Ramasar (at least in the way I read this poorly written complaint).

My intention was only to delineate what Ramasar and Catazaro are being accused of from what Finlay is being accused of. None of it is appropriate for the workplace. But only Finlay's behavior, as described in the report, is potentially criminal. There's too little detail about Ramasar and Catazaro's involvement to assess the severity of what they did.

Right. It's entirely unclear from the complaint whether Ramasar and Catazaro were sharing photos with or without women's knowledge. The complaint conjures a "frat" environment in which you assume that the women in the photos didn't know their images were being shared, though. Even if the women did know their images were being shared, it's still extremely problematic, to say the least, for coworkers to be circulating sexually explicit pictures of one another.

I was surprised myself to find that there are virtually no details about Catazaro's involvement besides the fact that he simply shared images. And so many of the alleged activities are attributed to anonymous dancers. I need more information about Catazaro and Ramasar's involvement before I write them off.

I've read through the complaint, and it nowhere states that Catazaro or Ramasar made crude statements about colleagues; it only states that they sent and received images to/from Finlay. The crude comments are all attributed to Finlay, unnamed principal dancers and an unnamed donor. There is only one direct quote from Ramasar, directed to Finlay: "I love you! Text me those photos/videos!!;)." Catazaro is only mentioned once in the whole document, with no detail beyond the fact that he sent and received images. This isn't to excuse Ramasar or Catazaro, but there just isn't much about them in the complaint besides the fact that they engaged in image-sharing. It accuses neither of them of taking or sharing photos without the subject's consent. Why are Catazaro and Ramasar named but not the other dancers and the donor mentioned in the complaint?

If she’s 19 now and left SAB in 2016, as stated in articles posted above, then she would have been underage when she was in contact with Finlay or any other company dancers who may have taken class at SAB. It’s unclear to me how old she was when she started a relationship with Finlay, though.

Yeah, his story was from two hours before the initial story was posted on here, so I'm guessing it hadn't broken yet. I think Mearns (presumably coincidentally) posted hers right around the time the story broke. I can't find a single post from a NYCB dancer after that time, though some have posted stories of rehearsals.

It seems like it's been radio silence from NYCB dancers today on Instagram. I wonder if they are either in shock or have been asked to stay off social media for a while. There was an image (a behind-the-scenes shot from a photo shoot) posted by Sara Mearns five hours ago, and nothing since then from any of the dancers as far as I can see. And these are people who are usually constantly posting...

I'm guessing it must be the (straight) Craig Hall who married Erica Pereira. It's in this thread:

Right -- he hasn't been charged with anything yet (as far as we know). Also, while New York State's "revenge porn" bill was killed earlier this summer, NYC has criminalized it: https://gizmodo.com/revenge-porn-is-officially-punishable-by-law-in-new-yor-1823039186

Yes, I think it would be a crime. I believe it falls under the "Stephanie's Law" that was passed in New York more than a decade ago.

Right. If the allegations are true, how could the "religious dancer" they talked about "double teaming" possibly feel comfortable dancing with these men?

These details are disgusting. If Waterbury was filmed in sexual acts without her knowledge/consent, this constitutes criminal activity. I guess Finlay is "lucky" there's only a civil suit at the moment. Right. It calls into question any credibility they may have in relation to creating a workplace free from sexual misconduct. And people will now have even less faith in the outcome of the Martins investigation. I agree that the inconsistencies between the two news stories make it difficult to ascertain to what degree non-dancer employees and patrons were involved. How old is Waterbury? The story mentions she's a teenager.

She has confirmed that her marriage is indeed over.

I think it's standard practice to not have paid employees on the board of trustees. The whole idea is that they are an impartial governing body, not involved in day-to-day operations of the company and with nothing to gain personally from decisions made by the board; a current NYCB dancer on the board would have too many potential conflicts of interest to serve. I think there are some exceptions when the head of a company, like Kevin McKenzie, also serves as a trustee. But I imagine he has to recuse himself from certain discussions to avoid conflicts of interest. But as to who would be advocating for these dancers, I think it would be AGMA, right? Are NYCB dancers members of AGMA?

The font is really tiny, but Joseph Gordon is tagged in this Instagram story showing him rehearsing with Mearns. I was really hoping he might be the new partner!

I’m not sure it was an official suspension, but there was that time that Nilas Martins was caught with cocaine while in a car with Ramasar up in Saratoga, and then Martins was pulled from that summer season. These articles seem to indicate he may not have danced again until the winter season. He was already 40 at the time and bowed out quietly three years later, I believe. https://www.google.com/amp/www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/dance-article-1.264938%3FoutputType%3Damp https://www.google.com/amp/www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/ballet-dancer-pleads-guilty-cocaine-charges-article-1.237922%3FoutputType%3Damp

I feel like you can't go wrong either way, but I'd be very curious to see Lane. She was lovely in this at BAM, but she was often paired with Gorak, who struggled with the partnering. And I got the sense that the fed off of one another's nerves (in a bad way). So, I'd be very curious to see how she does with Hoven, who's capable of partnering much larger dancers than Lane. I wonder if they will go for the leap into the torch lift, rather than doing it as a dead lift. I look forward to hearing reports!

I appreciate the historical pics and videos John Clifford posts, but his self-promotion is getting to be a bit much. A recent post mentioned how his age shouldn’t preclude him from leading a company. Another encouraged people to email the firm that’s handling the NYCB AD search. And then there’s this most recent post.

Fingers crossed that a Forster/Shevchenko Nutcracker leads to the same casting in a Swan Lake this spring.

There must be some website or app where you can put your face on that particular book cover. I found another one here: https://me.me/i/im-legend-biography-ashir-diganta-21329786 The name at the bottom of the book cover is apparently a Bangladeshi news company. But this could still be her playful way of announcing she’s writing a book. Or someone created this as fan art, maybe. I do hope she tells her story.

I'd be hard-pressed to name a male dancer at ABT more bland than Stearns. He's technically competent, but he seems to generate little chemistry with his partners and his acting really doesn't register across the footlights in most instances. At his best, he's a charming, if not compelling, stage presence. I have to imagine he only has a guest artist contract, despite being labeled a principal. I wonder if the same may be true of Hallberg. So while they are certainly taking up some performance slots, and some of ABT's money, I think they are less of an impediment to others advancing than if they had full principal contracts.