abatt

6 hours ago, Emma said:

This is so much more disgusting than I could have imagined. And to think City Ballet knew of these allegations back in June, but only chose to dismiss Chase and suspend Ramasar and Catazaro (just for a season!) after reading the complaint days before it filed. I'm honestly shocked and incredibly disappointed in the leadership. And I feel so much for all of the female dancers.

NYCB did not dismiss Chase.  Chase resigned. 

These events explain why Chase was not in Saratoga or part of the Denmark tour.  Ditto, I believe, for Catazaro.

45 minutes ago, Ilovegiselle said:

I am sad for the company... it will be hard to recover it’s public image after this.  Maybe they’ll lower their ticket price.

Doubtful.  If anything, prices may go up because donations may go way down.  They better start programming All Balanchine All The Time.

Since we have a President who bragged on tape that he can grab women by the you know what and get away with it, the subject incident at NYCB speaks to the coarseness of our times.  Voters didn't care, and maybe the audiences for NYCB won't care either.

2 minutes ago, Fraildove said:

Given what has come out today regarding the lawsuit that has been filed against NYCB and Chase Finley, I feel for the new AD that will be chosen in the regards to the fallout over this mess as well as what I can now imagine the direct moral crusher this is. I can see the board now more highly favoring a woman in the AD position if not simply to reassure their female dancers that they are safe and protected, which has obviously not been the case. All that I can say, besides how disgusted I am, is that I hope the female dancers whose photos were shared without their consent or knowledge were given enough courtesy to be told before this all broke in the court filings and media. My heart goes out to them all.

This debacle tips the scales for hiring a woman to fill the AD job opening.

New York City Ballet is going to have difficulty raising funds from donors.  These allegations just reinforce the idea that the company is replete with adult men behaving like little boys.  I think this incident  helps tip the scale for hiring a woman as the new leader of NYCB.

2 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:

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. 

Not sure if this incident involves criminal  conduct, but this civil lawsuit seeks injunctive relief and damages.   Presumably if there was criminal conduct, Chase would be charged by the Manhattan D.A.'s office.

This is the highest number of people I've seen on a topic at Ballet Alert since joining!

Chase needs to get lawyered up right away.  Any chance of him being hired by another ballet company are up in smoke based on these claims.

Hmm. How long before the NYTimes has an article about the lawsuit. 

7 minutes ago, mom2 said:

I tried accessing the Supreme Court document online - it said that the document is not available for public viewing at this time.  FauxPas, I assume you were able to access it?

I just obtained  a copy of the complaint successfully through the NYSCEF  website. Any member of the public can obtain the complaint on that website. 

https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/Login

3 hours ago, DC Export said:

 

Very much agree. I think Martins' vice grip of control was largely strengthened by the length of his tenure. Nothing wrong with asking an (older) Balanchine original to help steady the ship and infuse the organization with more of its own history. (That would also lend enough time to Woetzel to fulfill his obligations to Julliard.) 

Martins led the company from 1983 through Dec 31, 2017.  McKenzie at ABT ascended to his position as AD in 1992, so he has also has had a very long tenure with no sign that he will be departing any time soon.  How long has Helgi been running SFB?  Long tenures are not uncommon for these types of institutions.

PBS News Hour did a tribute to taylor this evening. You can find the video on the PBS News Hour website.

6 minutes ago, Olga said:

I  Here’s a controversial statment: the Balanchine/Farrell relationship was dysfunctional. 

It was definitely dysfunctional.  (Before my time as a ballet goer).

But things like that do impact audience enjoyment.  When Megan F. had to dance with Andy once or twice following the breakup, some audience members were just as focused on reading their expressions and interactions as they were on the choreography.  Also, following the split long ago of Tiler Peck and Joaquin de Luz, people focused on their interactions and Peck's "coolness"  toward DeLuz in their performances together following the split.  (All is now forgiven, and they now appear to be friends.)   These issues do impact performances, performers and audiences.  Maybe only the balletomanes focus on such matters, but I'm not sure.

It's not only the current debacle and the Peter Martins debacle that give the public an overall negative vibe about the company. It's also the public split of Tiler Peck and Robbie Fairchild, with R. Fairchild departing the company soon thereafter.   Also, Megan Fairchild has given interviews recounting her split with Veyette and the fact that they don't speak. All of this publicly reported negativity becomes a cumulative fatigue of infighting and dysfunction swirling around NYCB.  

7 minutes ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

RIP, Paul Taylor.  Thank you for the countless hours of joy your dances and your dancers put into my life. Thank you, too, for the times your dances provoked me, annoyed me, puzzled me, and made me think.

Well said.  His dances evoked a range of emotions.  Promethean Fire still always causes me to shed a tear each time I see it, because I closely associate it with my own experiences on Sept 11.  Esplanade and other dancers always bring great joy. 

Unfortunately, NYCB is becoming equally known for its dysfunctional internal upheavals and disputes as for its stellar dancers and rep.  It's starting to get embarrassing, and I can't imagine that this is good for business.

The company's next full season in New York City will be in October 2019.  I wonder if the schedule will be chock full of his masterpieces.  He was a great American artist.  I looked forward to seeing his company annually here in NYC.

52 minutes ago, tarantella2000 said:

I just wish, that in cases like these that the companies, together with the dismissed or suspended persons, would come out with a joint statement to quell any interpretations. 

 

 

I don't think they owe a thing to the public except to give their best performances when they are on stage.  Additionally, if the conduct at issue was so awful, hand it over to the police department. If it was a civil infraction like libel or slander, let the person complaining bring a lawsuit. If it is merely unsavory conduct that does not rise to the level of being a felony or even a misdemeanor, why is NYCB the enforcer of promoting civil behavior. What gives NYCB the right to monitor speech or punish speech that occurs on a personal device?  These are very troubling questions, in my opinion.

9 minutes ago, Rock said:

Boy you said it Kathleen. Harrison Ball, Harrison Cole, Joe Gordon, Roman Mejia - and others as well. 

 

Harrison Ball hasn't danced in quite some time due to injury.  Anyone know if he is now ready to return? 

Now that Finlay is gone, that substantially increases the possibility that Joe Gordon will get promoted sooner rather than later.  And maybe Harrison Coll will finally get out of the corps.

2 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

The complainant may not have been the person or persons to whom the communications were sent. 

Exactly.  The person who was the recipient of the improper communications was not necessarily the person who wrote the letter of complaint to NYCB.

Sports figures get suspensions all the time.  It's not the end of the careers of Catazaro and Ramasar, although how they would ever be able to work alongside the person who reported them is hard to imagine.   Finlay's resignation, however, seems like a death blow to his career. 

Given the circumstances surrounding his departure, I'm guessing ABT would probably not be interested in hiring Finlay.

  I think it must be something more than just dating that led to this. Interesting that two of the three decided to take the suspension, but Finlay quit.  Based on his instagram postings, Finlay is dating someone who is not a dancer at NYCB.

Does this mean we'll be seeing a lot more of Veyette?  Gulp.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/arts/dance/in-city-ballet-shake-up-one-dancer-out-and-two-suspended.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&action=click&contentCollection=arts&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

This is a shock.

https://pagesix.com/2018/08/28/serena-williams-responds-to-catsuit-ban-by-winning-us-open-match-in-a-tutu/

12 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

If Peck turns up in a diner in Iowa, we'll know something is afoot! 😉 But of course you are right. Still, it sounds like his some of his aspirations — e.g. to do more dance-based theater and storytelling on Broadway rather than restaging Swan Lake — wouldn't mesh well with a full time AD position at a major US ballet company.

I've seen two separate interviews with Justin Peck in which he directly states he's not interested in becoming AD because he prefers to continue his creative work in choreography.  He said this in an interview he did with CBS Sunday Morning several months ago, and he said it again in the recent NY Times article regarding the Broadway revival of Carousel.  Unless he's playing hard to get, I take him at his word that he is not interested in the job.