Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dance teacher charged with sex abuse
Prosecutors say Orlando ‘Dance Moms’ instructor assaulted his students
It happened in the dance studio during one-on-one lessons, one girl said, where her instructor would place his hands on her bottom as she stretched. She and another student said it also happened late at night on Snapchat, in messages asking for nude photos and twerking videos.
On multiple occasions, they said it happened in his bedroom.
“Why are you so nervous?” one student said he asked her in early December, as he laid on his bed with his pants pulled down, having brought her back from the dance studio to his apartment. “Don’t be nervous. I love you.”
After he forced her to perform a sex act on him, he drove her back to the studio, she told investigators.
“None of this happened,” he told her, according to court records. “Erase this from your memory, and don’t tell anyone.”
Kevin Cosculluela, a 25-year-old instructor for Peaches Dance and Music Orlando who appeared on the Lifetime show “Dance Moms,” was arrested by Orange County deputies Jan. 20 on charges of sexual activity with a 16- or 17-year-old child, solicitation of a minor, lewd or lascivious conduct and illegal use of a communication device.
Cosculluela has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His next hearing is set for May 5. His attorney declined to comment Wednesday.
The charges come after an investigation by Winter Garden police, Orange County deputies and the Department of Children and Families uncovered accusations of manipulation and sexual battery by two teenage girls who took lessons with Cosculluela.
One of the students told investigators she idolized the dance instructor, who she considered famous and important because of ”Dance Moms,” a reality show about dance kids, their trainers and parents.
He would take his students out to lunch, watch movies with them, celebrate their birthdays and connect with them over social media.
But he could be scary sometimes, too, she told investigators.
If she didn’t do what he wanted, the girl said Cosculluela would ignore her during lessons or threaten to halt them altogether. He would yell and swear, and ignore her for days on end, she said.
Other times, she said he sent messages telling her that he loved her.
Under the pretense that they were driving to Taco Bell one afternoon in early December, the girl said Cosculluela brought her to his apartment and led her to his bedroom, where he forced her to perform a sex act and told her never to tell anyone what they’d done.
He ignored her for days after that, she said, until a week later, when he called and asked her to come to his apartment to help decorate for another student’s birthday. Again, she said, he sexually abused her.
The girl told investigators she was too afraid to tell Cosculluela “no,” because he would be angry. The threat that he would ignore her, yell at her or take away her dance routine was always looming. When he was angry at her, he’d ask: “Do you want me to go to jail?”
The girl confided in another teenage dancer at the studio who said she had similar experiences with the instructor.
Both had begun on friendly terms with Cosculluela, until the conversations became more frequent and intense.
At that point, the girls said Cosculluela asked that they text over Snapchat, where the majority of their increasingly sexual conversations went unsaved and are unrecoverable.
The second student told investigators she went to Cosculluela’s apartment on about 10 different occasions. She said he asked her to send him naked photos over Snapchat and had told her he loved her, too.
“They put him on a pedestal, so they were willing to take whatever he did so they could keep him in their lives,” Detective Bethany Rising wrote in Cosculluela’s arrest warrant.
An employee at the dance studio and friend of Cosculluela’s told investigators that he didn’t see any inappropriate behavior between the instructor and his students.