abatt

Why couldn't ABT just announce that Marcelo had resigned, and leave it at that. By adding all of this additional, info to the press release, they damaged Marcelo's reputation for no apparent reason. Since ABT became "aware" of the incident on Saturday and Marcelo resigned on Thursday, I doubt the investigation had barely begun. This is political correctness and cover your a-s overkill to the extreme on the part of ABT. Disgusting. Additionally, unless Marcelo had done something questionable/criminal/offensive at work or there was a complaint of another employee of ABT against Marcelo, ABT had no duty to investigate Marcelo. This is political correctness run amuck.

As an aside, Vishneva left open the possibility that she might return in the future as a guest artist to ABT. Now that Marcelo is gone, that will never happen. She only dances with Gomes at ABT.

It's also not hard to imagine that he was given an ultimatum to resign with his full pension and benefits unharmed, or be terminated with all the risks that might entail for his earnings and reputation. This entire thing seems to have unfolded with breathtaking speed.

That's true. None of the men at ABT on the roster can adequately fill his spots. I hope Marcelo thought hard before he resigned, and also sought legal advice. It would be tragic if he was forced to make a hasty decision to resign without proper legal consultation. I truly hope that he gets his full pension and benefits from ABT after 20 years of stellar service, and that some other organization or group hires him.

Wondering whether they will reassign Marcello's roles to other ABT dancers or go out and look for some guest artists.

I also cannot imagine ABT without Marcelo. He is one of the very few male dancers I'm interested in seeing at ABT. This is horrible for Marcelo and for his audience.

This is horrible. I have no idea what Marcelo did that led to this result. However, if someone does something bad that has nothing to do with his employment or any former or present employee of the company, why does ABT feel that it needs to be the enforcer of Marcelo's punishment for this purported bad act. If there was criminality, then the criminal justice system should be utilized. If it was a civil wrong, then the person(s_ involved should bring a civil suit against him. Who appointed ABT judge and jury of wrongs unrelated to his employment? What a sad day for Marcelo and ABT.

If Martins in ousted or forced out via immediate retirement, would Darci continue teaching and coaching at SAB. She is much younger that Martins. Considering that this mess is compounded by the problems of daughter Talicia, this must be a very difficult time for Kistler.

Kathryn Morgan has expertise in dance, but she is not qualified to provide any advice to anyone regarding codes of conduct or other legal issues. She should stop, right away.

Crossing people's names off of cast lists was within Martins' rights as AD. That part of the story involving the Boals is a a red herring.

This story seems to be morphing out of sexual abuse and towards physical abuse of a non-sexual nature.

And here's the latest from the NYTimes https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/12/arts/dance/peter-martins-ballet-new-york-city-physical-abuse.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&action=click&contentCollection=arts&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront

Abi Stafford has of course had her share of injuries, plus the absence due to maternity leave. However, these factors are only part of the story as to why we have seen very little of her during the course of her career. I think she showed a lot of promise early on in terms of very strong technique. However, she never really matured into an interesting artist. I think her absence from the stage has been largely because Martins gave up on her and doesn't cast her much even when she's healthy. I can't really disagree, because I'm generally not excited or motivated to attend when I see her name listed on a casting sheet. Will she be cast more during Martin's absence? That remains to be seen. I'm wondering how long this "investigation" will take, and how long this leave of absence will continue. Is Martin's on paid leave or unpaid leave? Justin Peck is going to be tied up with Carousel on Broadway in the very near future. I can't imagine that he's going to be available to spend a lot of time on being an interim ballet master during the winter season.

Did you mean Watts and Woetzel, rather than Watts and Boal?

I'm not a huge fan of Martins, so whether he's in or out of a job doesn't really matter all that much to me. Certainly, he is far from a perfect human being or a perfect artistic director. However, it appears that in the current culture, some who are denied roles or promotions are given a free pass to use the media to cry foul. Sometimes not being promoted or not getting a role is simply because you're just not that good and/or your peers are better, rather than because of sexual harassment, age discrimination, racial discrimination or some other purported discriminatory or inappropriate conduct.

I think we may be reaching a point where all interactions and meetings between ballet master and employees must be videotaped and kept on file indefinitely, or a third party must always be present, such as a union monitor.

I found the accusation in the NYTimes laughable. I'm referring to the corps member who asked Martins what she had to do to get promoted to soloist, and he reportedly replied that she had to make him notice her. She twisted those words in her mind and took that as a proposition for sex. Having been an audience member of NYCB for about 20 years, I know exactly what those words convey in the context of NYCB dancers: awesome technician and/or charismatic stage presence. Without more - a LOT more - this accuser's allegation is simply not a reasonable interpretation of his alleged words. I'm no great fan of Peter Martins, but this one is a real whopper.

If non sexual touching during a coaching or training session is going to be taken to extremes, then that will spell the end of ballet. Political correctness or fear of lawsuits will doom the essential partnering that is central to ballet.

True, but once the headlines start and it makes the news, people often start to feel more comfortable about saying me too.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/sports/olympics/ioc-russia-winter-olympics.html I was so saddened to read this. This is so unfair to Russian athletes who did nothing wrong and have never taken any banned substances. As a figure skating fan, this is especially disheartening because some of the top women figure skaters in the world right now are Russian.

There is a tendency for accusers to come forward after the first accuser speaks out. We'll see if anyone else comes forward to speak out against Martins. If it is only this one "anonymous" complaint, he probably will not be in danger

I think the next AD of NYCB could be either Wheeldon or Justin Peck.

Wow. It's been a BAD few months for the Martins household. Daughter Talicia arrested and in drug rehab, and now this.

I think the alleged pedophilia component is the most important and troubling aspect of the Levine controversy. One of the accusers (in Illinois) claims that the inappropriate conduct started when the victim was 15, and sexual abuse took place when the victim was 16. The age of consent in Illinois was 17. Not sure about the ages of the other alleged victims.

I haven't been closely analyzing every detail of this debacle, but it appears that the claims against Levine involve conduct that did not occur on the Met Opera premises. Moreover, the claimants are not former or present employees of the Met. It's my understanding that there are no claims against Levine of sexual misconduct made by any current or former employee of the Met Opera. The Board member who directed an alleged claimant to contact the police and then took no further action did exactly the right thing. This situation is completely different from the one involving Matt Lauer, where Lauer is accused of improper conduct as to victims who are NBC current or former employees, and some of the improper conduct took place either at NBC's premises or while employees were on assignment for NBC as part of their employment. IN the case of Lauer, NBC has potential substantial liability for Lauer's misconduct. The only common thread here is that both the Met and NBC are dealing with a public relations nightmare. Once Levine was branded in the media as a pedophile, the Met had no choice but to cut him loose based on the public relations aspect. So who will they find to conduct Tosca on New Year's Eve? I think this Met Tosca is cursed. Jimmy Levine was conductor number 2, after Kristine Opolais's husband withdrew. Original singing leads of Kaufmann and Opolais were replaced by Grigolo and Yoncheva. Who will be conductor number 3 inserted into this new production with less than one month before the performance.