Photo scandal hits City Ballet
New York City Ballet fired two principal male dancers Saturday morning after they were named in a lawsuit in which a woman accused a third dancer of inappropriately sharing texts of sexually explicit photographs.
City Ballet said it moved to act after assessing the conduct of the dancers and its impact on the company.
The company dismissed Amar Ramasar, one of its brightest stars, and Zachary Catazaro after they were implicated in a photo-sharing scandal that has roiled City Ballet and now created a significant gap in its male roster just before its fall season begins.
The third dancer,
Chase Finlay, resigned last month. He was accused in the lawsuit of sending explicit pictures and videos of Alexandra Waterbury ,ayoung woman he had been dating, to his friends without her consent, and asking others to send back explicit photos of their own.
City Ballet had initially moved last month to suspend Ramasar and Catazaro without pay until next year. The company had investigated the allegations against them and determined that they had “engaged in inappropriate communications, that while personal, off-hours and off-site, had violated the norms of conduct” it expects from dancers.
The company said in a statement Saturday that after hearing the concerns of dancers, staff members and others in the City Ballet community, it had decided to fire Ramasar and Catazaro.
The two dancers released statements in which they expressed their sadness and characterized their firings as a rush to judgment by the company. The dancers’ union, the American Guild of Musical Artists, said it planned to challenge the firings. Ramasar said he had been disciplined for “nonwork lawful activities between consenting adults” without an understanding of all the facts.
“The ballet already suspended me,” he said, “but now, due to pressure caused by a lawsuit filed against it (but not me), has expelled me to appease people who have no idea what really happened. In the days ahead, I will be telling my story.”
Catazaro said he had not played any role in any sharing of “Alexandra Waterbury’s personal material.” He said the private communications he was involved in had taken place during off-work hours and that “the intent was not to harm or embarrass anyone.”