abatt

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.

I don't think the behavior here can necessarily be attributed to alpha male overcompensation of straight men who are in a profession where large numbers of men are gay. There are examples of men behaving like infantile, disgusting idiots in their dealing with women in every occupation. Finlay and the others don;'t get a free pass in my book based on some psychological analysis of their occupational stresses.

I feel sorry for Chase's mother. Some of you may know that she could frequently be spotted in the orchestra, and was always very nice. Her son is an adult and made his own bad choices, but I still feel sorry for his mom.

This may be completely true, and it's possible NYCB has no legal liability or exposure in connection with Waterbury's claims. However, the damage to NYCB's public image is already done and won't easily be undone, regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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