Posted on 12/08/2017 11:17:51 AM PST by nickcarraway
Peter Martins, who picked up the mantle from the famed choreographer George Balanchine to lead New York City Ballet over the last three decades, is taking a leave of absence in the wake of a sexual harassment accusation, the company confirmed on Thursday night.
City Ballet and its School of American Ballet had started an investigation into Mr. Martins, 71, after receiving the accusation of past harassment, which was made in an anonymous letter. The two organizations jointly retained Barbara Hoey, the chairwoman of the law firm Kelley Drye’s labor and employment practice group, to conduct the inquiry.
The specifics laid out in the accusation are not known.
Mr. Martins requested a temporary leave of absence until the investigation is concluded, according to the company. The ballet’s board of directors granted the request on Thursday night.
Several former and current ballet dancers said in recent interviews that Mr. Martins was known for sleeping with dancers, some of whom received better roles because of their personal relationships with him. Two dancers said he had a bad temper and could be physically rough on occasion, pulling dancers around by the neck during rehearsals.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I don’t remember him, but he looks amazing. That picture really shows the physical demands of ballet, which is one of the reasons I started liking football, oddly enough. Athletes are athletes.
I was lucky enough to take a six week summer workshop with him in MA when I was a teenager. His wife ( a figure skater) had us all over to their rented beach house for lunch. It was great fun!
Dancers are far MORE athletic, than any kind of sports' athlete and the training is brutal, stinky, sweaty, and yes...very unglamorous!
Nobody wears makeup at lessons/practice, hair looks terrible, practice clothes are sweat stained, even when washed thoroughly, and kind of "ratty".
Men don’t wear tu-tus...except for one kinda weird ballet company, were ALL of the dancers are men and yes, some dance on point! Oh...and they aren’t queers!
Descended from the Scots-Irish, no doubt. Where do you think all that clog dancing came from?
With Villella or Flatley?
That’s not clog dancing... its.... ELVIS KARATE!!!!
Well, it’s not ballet, that much is certain.
Its only ballet after a bottle of Jim Beam.
And pulling lines from old movies, to reply with, is neither funny nor clever and just makes those who do it ( with the exception of the "shocked, shocked" line from Casablanca )look silly.
Psssssssssssssssssst...the men are wearing tights and ridiculously exaggerated "dancer's belts".
I bet he’s a Democrat.
But I love seeing the young dancers around Lincoln Center - always the girls have their long hair in tight buns and have that duck walk along with the proud carriage.
He’s probably not even a registered voter. Ballet people aren’t the brightest.
Absolutely not!
I remember when I was about 6 or 7, my Dad recruited us kids to be part of some big Christmas performance by his company in Downtown Houston. We children were supposed to be elves and the star was a blonde lady whom I was supposed to poke in the side to demonstrate she was alive.
In rehearsal, I was so scared I could hurt her that I hardly touched her at all and she demanded I poke her harder so the audience could see. I was still *very* timid and they finally chose another boy to be the poke-er who had no qualms about it. So much for my Al Franken moment. I’ve approached women as if they were hand grenades every since.
This will send shockwaves through the ballet world.
But to balance things out conductor James Levine, who I wouldn't have thought gay unless "gay" means jolly, has three men making accusations about being abused by him when they were minors.
"DUCK WALK" ? LOL...it's how you're taught to walk in toe shoes. I guess it just becomes a habit. It's something I've never really thought about, until just now.
Yes, I’ve seen that; the N.Y. Post has had stories about this, for several days running, now. And yes, I was/am shocked !
LOL...great story! :-)
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