‘Dirty dancing’ suit
Gal: School ignored harass complaints
A popular Big Apple dance instructor sexually harassed and threatened a front-desk worker at a Manhattan studio — but management danced around the issue when she complained, a lawsuit alleges.
Gabriella Pinheiro, 24, alleges Afro-Cuban dance teacher Stevie Insua “forcibly kissed” her and said unseemly things to her in Spanish because she was usually the only other person who spoke the language, according to her Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit against the Peridance Capezio Center.
“I left [the front desk] to go count a class and [Insua] kind of grabbed me and kissed me and he was laughing about it. I was super uncomfortable,” Pinheiro told The Post, describing it as a “big wet kiss on the cheek.”
“I was the only one at the desk who could speak [Spanish] with him, so I think that made me a target from the get-go,” Pinheiro said.
The Brooklyn woman — who started the work-study position in May 2018 — claims in the suit that Insua once told her she was “welcome to come by and see him whenever [she] wanted” at his apartment.
He also threatened her on several occasions, once telling her “curiosity kills the cat” because she had gone outside to check out Insua screaming at another student, the court documents charge.
Insua — who once taught classes at the prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater — also allegedly cornered Pinheiro in a stairwell screaming, “No complain! No complain!” after she griped to the front-desk manager, who then spoke about Insua’s behavior to the director, according to the suit.
When the Union Square studio’s director heard that Pinheiro was scared and had panic attacks because of Insua’s alleged conduct, the director said she “‘clearly has other problems,’ insinuating Plaintiff was being hysterical and overdramatic,” the court papers allege.
Pinheiro says her manager insisted she not return to work “due to Insua’s harassing conduct.” She left in November 2018.
She is seeking unspecified damages, including for lost wages.
“It’s deplorable in today’s day and age that an owner of a company can condone sexual harassment and shame the victim as physiologically unstable for complaining and seeking remediation,” said lawyer Matthew Blit, who filed suit late Friday on Pinheiro’s behalf.
The studio’s director, Igal Perry, who is not named in the suit, told The Post Pinheiro’s claim is “simply not true.”
Insua didn’t respond to a request for comment.