Top dance boss: Bitter trans row forced me out of my own troupe
A CHOREOGRAPHER claims she has been unlawfully forced out of her own dance troupe for saying there are just two sexes – male and female.
rosie Kay, 45, has raised thousands to fight her claim for constructive dismissal.
She blames the ‘cowards’ running her dance company for accepting accusations of transphobia made by ‘brainwashed’ young dancers after a row at a disastrous ‘luvvies’ party she threw in august.
Miss Kay, from the Borders, told The Daily Mail that the chairwoman of the trustees of the rosie Kay Dance Company, Frances Clarke, had gone through ‘extreme’ protrans rights training by lobby group Gendered Intelligence before launching two inquiries into the allegations. Miss Kay founded her eponymous troupe in Birmingham 18 years ago, and has created a series of acclaimed shows – but on Tuesday she walked out.
She said: ‘I have a case for constructive dismissal and my online crowdfunder has already raised thousands. The trustees of the company I founded are meanwhile spending thousands which I raised for dance, on lawyers, to act against me.
‘But I refuse to submit to an investigation which does not acknowledge that my belief in the importance of biological sex is protected under law.’
She continued: ‘I don’t know what happened to young people during Covid – how they got captured by gender ideology. These young dancers, whose job is their body, are denying the reality of biology. Sadly they’ve been brainwashed, they believe something I don’t. They’re entitled to do that – but I believe I was entitled to give my opinion, in my own home.
‘I said you can change sex in your imagination, but not in your actual body. The trustees are cowards for going along with the complaints, and starting this Kafka-esque twopart investigation process.’
Miss Kay’s trans row took place with young dancers, aged 22-27, she had hired in the summer to work on her new show romeo + Juliet at the Birmingham Hippodrome.
In a studio warm-up some time before the party, she told the six male dancers to do ‘boy jumps’, and the three females ‘girl jumps’, using terms for classical ballet steps.
In a coffee break one of two selfproclaimed ‘non-binary’ dancers in the troupe – one male, one female – complained this had ‘misgendered them’. She apologised.
Then in august she threw a party at her home in Birmingham she shares with theatre designer husband Louis and their son, seven.
after lentils and grilled salmon, drinking continued convivially until 2am. Miss Kay then said she was planning a show based on Virginia Woolfe’s 1928 novel Orlando, in which the eponymous hero/ heroine switches between male and female.
But it turned nasty when they began discussing the term ‘non-binary’ – after she expressed her view that there was ‘no such thing as a “third sex” beyond male and female’.
She was called a ‘bigot’ and formal complaints were
made. The board of trustees officially informed the arts Council and Charity Commission of complaints of transphobia against Miss Kay, and said the matter should be considered by an external human resources consultant.
a spokesman for the rosie Kay Dance Company refused to discuss Miss Kay’s claims in detail, saying in a statement: ‘We are surprised by this account and strongly resist this interpretation of events.’
‘Sadly, they’ve been brainwashed’