abatt

Brooklyn Mack is substituting for the embroiled Amar Ramasar in upcoming Fall For Dance performances at NY City Center.

I guess we will have to disagree. I don't regard Waterbury as a whistleblower. A whistleblower is someone who informs on an illicit organization. The illicit behavior, however, was committed by an individual on his off hours in his personal life. There is no basis to impose liability on NYCB for the private actions of Finlay and his friends. Time will tell, as they say.

Yes, her claim is against Finlay, and potentially against any of his friends who also distributed her image after receiving it from Finlay. SAB and NYCB are in the suit because they have deep pockets. Hopefully the institutions will be dismissed from the suit. If and when that happens, Waterbury's chance of collecting her damages from Finlay may be an uphill battle. He comes from a wealthy family, but their wealth is not his wealth. He is an unemployed student at the moment. If any members of the company were her friends, I'm not sure they still are. By embarrassing members of the company such as Alexa Maxwell and others by repeating the stories she has heard or says she has heard, all she has done is treat other women poorly. For someone who holds herself out as a representative of "me too", Waterbury has not done any of these women in the company a service.

If and when NYCB wins and gets the case dismissed, they should send a press release touting the victory to every news outlet in existence. I do feel badly that Waterbury hooked up with such a lousy boyfriend as Finlay, but trying to bring down NYCB for this is farfetched, to put it mildly. In the end, if NYCB is victorious, Waterbury will suffer consequences down the road. If I were a potential employer, I would never hire Waterbury because she now has a reputation of being litigious and bringing frivolous claims against the institutions she is affiliated with.

She has been out for some time. I don't know the nature of her injury.

NYCB casting page was updated. Claire is doing all Tall Girl performances for the rest of this week.

It would be under CPLR 3211, not 12(b)(6), because this is a state court action.

Sorry to hear Kikta is injured. She was fabulous as Tall Girl in Rubies on Tuesday.

Her assertions against the institutions of NYCB and SAB seem to be so weak and lacking in merit that I would not be surprised if counsel for NYCB and SAF file a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, rather than filing an answer to the complaint.

Let me add my appreciation of J. Gordon's spectacular performance of his solos in Diamonds. I have not seen the solos performed that well in a very long time. I thought he did good work as a partner for Mearns, but there were some elements that require additional polish regarding the partnering. In particular, the part where she leans all of her weight into him and he has to rotate her 360 degrees looked a little unsteady. But I do look forward to seeing him again in the role. Unity Phelan was a striking goddess in Emeralds. So much more I'd like to say, but alas I must get to work.

Hoxha is replacing Huxley in both performances of Emeralds this week, per the revised casting sheet on the NYCB website.

Hod is great friends with Alexa Maxwell, who is Ramasar's girlfriend. Maxwell is seen in the photo posted previously hugging Ramasar, so she is apparently sticking with him.

Exactly. The employment status of two principal dancers should not be based on public opinion or a popularity contest.

It matters because nobody in the company has been identified as a victim of the distribution of improper images by Ramasar or Catazaro. The alleged victim is Waterbury, who has never been a member of the company. Additionally, Franken resigned. He was not terminated. Bingo.

Firing of a dancer should not be based on feedback from other dancers. Ramasar and Catazaro were working at NYCB for many years, and up until Saturday the company apparently never got negative feedback about them and continually renewed their contracts. Ramasar has been working there for about 18 years, and Catazaro for about 11.

I agree with you completely. The change from a four month suspension to firing had better be supported by some extreme new evidence that was not previously available. I guess the overpaid Kathryn Brown now has some tasks on her plate other than the shut down of the third and fourth rings in order to increase ticket sales of the higher priced seats in the open rings.

Do the AGMA contracts which the principal dancers sign have an arbitration provision? If so, the wrongful termination claims of Ramasar and Catazaro may end up in arbitration.

At present, with an 8 week season certain principals barely get any meaningful performances (while others get way too many). I fear that the shortening of the ABT New York Met season will only make things worse for the principals who are already marginalized, like Lane and Abrera.

Notably, when NYCB programs Other Dances, it always pairs up that ballet with one more short ballet to fill out the program. In contrast, ABT programs short works like Other Dances and Duo Concertante (a few years ago) as though they can comprise one third of a full rep program even though they are very short ballets.

If the donor is a fact witness in the lawsuit, his name will come out in discovery even if he is not a named defendant in the lawsuit. To the extent that any party in the suit wants to rely on discovery provided by the donor (a deposition transcript of his testimony, for example) in motions practice, his identity will be disclosed and become part of the public record. The only way to prevent that would be to get a court order to place certain documents under seal, which seems remote. NYCB does not need this kind of a donor, no matter how much money he was contributing. It will be interesting to see how NYCB and Finlay defend the case. Will NYCB cross claim against Finlay? Will either NYCB or Finlay sue additional individuals as third-party defendants?

I just got an email from ABT announcing the casting for the Family Matinee on Oct 27. Clearly they are trying to stimulate ticket purchases for that performance. Ticket sales overall seem to be dismal for the fall season at ABT.

The media's interest in the story is because of the accusations against the ballet company, so classifying her as a ballerina gives a boost to media interest. Otherwise, this would be merely a dispute between ex boyfriend and ex girlfriend that would get little media interest. I fully intend to go see NYCB this season. However, I would not give any donations until there are significant changes. I also think the suspensions should have been longer.

Maybe now that Martins is gone, some of the ballets as to which Farrell owns the copyright might enter NYCB rep, such as Tzigane.

Contingency fees are most often used in personal injury claims (like slip and fall), malpractice cases and toxic tort cases. I doubt this lawyer took the case on a contingency fee basis. Moreover, part of the requested relief is injunctive relief.

She would be getting medical bills from therapy. I think that apart from any medical treatment she may need in terms of therapy. the real damage is to her reputation. She is a model at a prestigious agency, and the distribution of these unauthorized videos and photos could certainly be damaging to her future earnings as a model. By bringing the lawsuit, she sends a message to her agency and any other agency that she did not and does not authorize the distribution of these materials. Even if she never collects a dime from either defendant, the lawsuit will have been successful in terms of getting her point out front that she did not authorize any of this, and if the court orders Finlay to destroy the videos/photos and immediately cease and desist from ever sending these materials again to anyone.