A sexual misconduct scandal is brewing behind the scenes at the New York City Ballet after news came out that two principal male dancers — 29-year-old Zachary Catazaro and Amar Ramasar, 36 — have apparently been fired over allegations that they have been trading explicit photos of female ballerinas. In late August, they had been suspended.
The situation is still developing, and details remain somewhat unclear, but what has been revealed so far is that the whole scandal started with a lawsuit filed by Alexandra Waterbury, 20, one of the student-dancers at the ballet, against the company itself as well as her former boyfriend, Chase Finlay, 28, who resigned from the NYCB in August.
Based on Waterbury’s suit, Finlay started the exchanges and allegedly wrote: “You have any pictures of girls you’ve f–ked? I’ll send you some [hot] ballerina girls I’ve made scream.”
Waterbury went on to explain that the situation behind the ballet’s closed doors was atrocious and that sexual misconduct was a common everyday occurrence there, and she sounded quite disappointed with her overall experience at her team.
The allegations state that certain members of the ballet team have been exchanging explicit photos of female ballerinas, complete with sexual descriptions attached to many of the photos, implying that there had been a physical relationship with each girl involved.
There were apparently videos being exchanged as well, with some depicting actual sexual acts, although this is still not confirmed.
Given the overall sensitive nature of the incident, it is likely that it will take a while for all details to come out and the situation may not even be revealed in full in the end, depending on what exactly has happened.
It is up to the prosecution to determine that now though, and it is not likely that they will be too keen on sharing any information about their investigation.
Catazaro claims he never saw Waterbury’s photos and Ramasar plans to tell his side of the story soon.
