Paris dancers complain of bullying at the ballet
Performers claim to have experienced harassment and poor management in leaked internal survey
PARISIAN ballet dancers have complained of bullying, sexual harassment and substandard management in a damning internal poll leaked to the French media.
The complaints were compiled in a survey by Paris Opera Ballet’s internal “artistic expression commission” and sent to 132 dancers. It found that 77 per cent said they had been a victim of harassment in the workplace or seen a colleague mistreated, while 26 per cent said they had suffered sexual harassment or witnessed it.
Stephane Lissner, the director of the Paris Opera, insisted that the ballet company had a “zero tolerance” approach to such harassment and invited dancers to report any incidents. But 87 per cent said that the process to report such problems was insufficiently clear or private.
Peter Martins stepped down as leader of the New York City Ballet three months ago over allegations of sexual misconduct. An investigation cleared him of untoward behaviour.
Kenneth Greve, the artistic director of Finland’s National Ballet, was stripped of his managerial position last month, after allegations of inappropriate conduct. There was no mention in the Paris survey of who was behind any alleged harassment.
The survey was also damning for Aurélie Dupont, the dance director, as almost 90 per cent of dancers felt that they “did not have a quality management”. One reportedly wrote: “The current director doesn’t seem to have any management skills or any desire to acquire such skills.”
Ms Dupont was hailed as the ballet’s saviour two years ago when she stepped in as dance director following the shock resignation of her predecessor, Benjamin Millepied, the New York choreographer.
According to Le Figaro newspaper, dancers said Ms Dupont had failed to stamp her authority. One was quoted as saying: “It’s difficult to see her, she speaks little and in a cutting way. We don’t know what she wants or where we’re going.”
Ms Dupont retorted: “I talk to the dancers a lot, but as I want them to progress, what I have to tell them is not always easy to hear.” Management said she had their full confidence.
In an apparent damage-limitation exercise, 99 dancers signed a follow-up petition over the weekend condemning the leak of an “internal survey” without the “dancers’ consent”. But that did little to quell the atmosphere. “[The petition] says everything about the Stalin-like methods doing the rounds at the ballet,” one dancer told Le Figaro. “Not to sign it would have been artistic and financial suicide: no more roles… no more permission to dance elsewhere.”