Sexual Violence in the Dance Community: How Has it Manifested?
As the 2023 dance competition is coming to a close with National events, dancers and choreographers have continued to present incredible, creative works of art to large audiences. However, some wildly inappropriate choreography and pieces by alleged sexual and verbal abusers have hit the stage as well, putting children in compromising situations. This contributes to a culture of sexual exploitation in the dance community, in which those in a position of power take advantage of a power imbalance to force or coerce another person into sexual behavior. The dance community is a place often riddled with job scarcity and a hierarchy of professionals, making it a spot where sexual abuse can easily fester. When dance professionals take advantage of young people who cannot consent to intimate behavior or do not fully understand what abuse can look like, it leads dancers to feel as if they must stay silent, or else their career and livelihood can become ruined by powerful individuals. The competitive dance community may take advantage of children in multiple ways, from improperly judging routines, costuming students in revealing clothing, or even hiring potential criminals to work intimately with students.
Dance competitions post rules and regulations for their events on their websites, aiming to help dance studios and families prepare appropriately for their performances. From descriptions of age, genre, and skill level categories, to breakdowns of their scoring system, to standards of age-appropriateness, dance competitions provide a comprehensive guide to their events. Not every routine entered in the competition follows the given guidelines for an appropriate performance in their desired category. Studios still enter routines with inappropriate themes, from upbeat yet oversexualized choreography, emotionally-triggering storylines, and culturally-insensitive pieces. Sometimes, judges will still reward such dances, bypassing their competition’s own rules. Competitions often leave out guidelines surrounding costuming. Studios may enter dances with age-appropriate technical, meaningful choreography, often in the lyrical or contemporary category, without providing them costumes to match, which may make both dancers and judges uncomfortable. When there are no costume guidelines from a competition, it could be difficult for a judge to raise that question of age-appropriateness and child protection. It also puts judges in an uncomfortable position if they feel inclined to speak on a child’s costume for safety purposes.
NUVO Dance Convention, a Break the Floor-run regional competition, posts standards of appropriateness and “family-friendly” content on their website.
In recent history of competitive dance, there have not only been inappropriate choreography set on dancers, but there have been issues of sexual assault from the professionals responsible for training and teaching the next generation of talent. In the past few years of competitive dance, some popular choreographers have been exposed for various allegations, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, coercion, and drug-related misconduct involving minors to name a few. In October of 2021, reporter Morgan Bocknek, a Toronto Star reporter, released an article detailing recent statements from survivors in the dance community. Following this article, both a Jump Dance Convention and a NUVO Dance Convention faculty member were removed from their respective websites, and have not taught at the convention since, after allegations of coercion came to light.
Following the Toronto Star article, prominent dance photographer Lee Gumbs began receiving Instagram direct messages from others, detailing their own experiences of sexual assault in the dance community. From there, he shared the responses for 24 hours each on his Instagram story, covering all identifying information. He also discussed some of his own experiences of incidents he recalls from growing up in the dance community during the 2000s. From a dance convention owner being “wildly inappropriate” with the competition’s teen national title winner (0:53), to a teacher on the same faculty coercing underage Gumbs into buying marijuana for him in a state where it was illegal, to another convention teacher on a different faculty making sexual comments toward him at a party, adults in positions of power within the dance community have put many students in harm’s way.
Some other sexual misconduct allegations posted on Gumbs’s story are as follows. Please visit this video for more detailed receipts if you would like to learn more about the allegations below. There are more non-sexual abuse allegations than just the ones described below in the video.
Misha Gabriel (Former JUMP & LA-based hip-hop choreographer) asking students to get him marijuana and keeping rankings of which students are “best in bed” (2:27), flirting with underage students, sending explicit text messages to teenage students (2:35), and having a relationship with an underage national title winner (2:44). He also allegedly sent nude photos to underage students over Snapchat–an unnamed student, 16-years-old at the time, said she was “so horrified she threw her phone across the room.” Gabriel also threatened to blacklist an 18-year-old student after telling her friends about suggestive pictures he sent her (Linderman et al., 2022).
Dee Caspary (Former Pace University, Velocity Dance Convention, and West Coast Dance Explosion faculty) accused of sexually abusing underage girls, calling underage girls “hot” while putting them in the front of Velocity Dance Convention performances, inviting underage dancers over and providing them drugs and alcohol, meeting up with underage students after class privately during his days at West Coast Dance Explosion, inappropriate sexual contact with his dance students at Pace University, verbal abuse of Pace students (in which Pace allegedly did not take immediate action). DC is no longer listed on the university’s dance department faculty directory.
Nick Gonzalez (Former NRG Dance Project and Hollywood Vibe faculty) sexually assaulting underage girls at a studio and at conventions, asking teen students to go out with him and go to his hotel room, sending sexually explicit messages to students as soon as they turn 18.
Nick Lazzarini (Former JUMP Dance Convention faculty) making sexual references to dancers in the senior age divisions (majority 16 and 17 year olds), defending his remarks by saying they’re almost adults, sending nude photos to minors, grooming a minor into a sexual relationship, non consensual fondling/groping, and racist remarks about other students.
Travis Wall (Former Break the Floor faculty) has had six students come forward about sexual abuse, asking underage dancers for nude photos, attempting to groom a teenager into a sexual relationship, and giving hard drugs to a student. He was swiftly removed from the NUVO regional convention faculty, but has been seen attending The Dance Awards Orlando national finals to assist children performing his choreography. Dancers have posted pictures praising him after the competition ended.
Mark Meismer (NUVO Dance Convention) had a sexual relationship in his early 30s with a teenage dance assistant years back (the dancer is stated to be an adult now). He has since been removed from Nuvo’s faculty as of winter 2022.
Chad McCall (Intrigue Dance Convention) soliciting nudes from teenage students when guest choreographing. He has since been removed from Intrigue faculty.
Rachel Miller (Orange County Performing Arts Academy) paying Chad McCall to return to choreograph at OCPAA for multiple years after finding out about what he did through a police report.
Danny Wallace (Former director of 24 Seven Dance Convention) accused of forcing oral sex on a teenage student back in 2004, before he was affiliated with the convention, which did not exist yet. 14 years later, in 2018, the student disclosed his assault to family and contacted Wallace directly. The following season, Wallace departed 24 Seven and a new director was appointed.
The above allegations are just a few of many sexual assaults that have occurred and have been enabled in the dance community. Since the release of Bocknek’s article and Gumbs’s Instagram story messages, other dance professionals have been arrested for child sexual abuse, including two California dance instructors, Mark Chavarria of Chavarria Institute of the Arts and Erik Saradpon of Temecula Dance Company. Even after the alleged sexual predators had been removed from their convention faculty, and some competitions clarified their code of conduct to condemn sexual violence for all to see, many studios have still hired them to set choreography onto their underage students, including dancers still in the Mini age division (age 8-10). Such pieces have even won the highest accolades at competitions this year, such as Runner-Up for Best Dancer and various high score group titles at The Dance Awards Las Vegas, at least three Best Dancer Winners at The Dance Awards Orlando, and national Maximum Velocity Artist at Velocity Dance Convention. After winning these awards, many dance families posted images on Instagram praising such abusers, even sharing pictures of their young dancers in close contact with them. Some users aware of these allegations commented out of safety concerns, but most of these comments on various posts have been deleted as of July 16, 2023.
These results and behaviors suggest that parents, dance studios, and competition companies are not taking sexual assault and other abuse allegations seriously, therefore not protecting dancers who pour their heart into this craft. The minors who may still have to perform pieces from these criminals are not at fault–it is the responsibility of the dancer’s studio and parents to make choices that protect them and lift them up. They deserve to accomplish their goals without the influence of sexual predators. The competitive dance community may have watched results from this summer’s national events and may believe dancers need to perform certain choreography to win awards and expand their resumé–it is absolutely false. Competitive dancers performing pieces from hundreds of different choreographers have been honored with incredible awards, earned amazing opportunities to further their dance technique and performance skills, and have performed all over the world without promoting the work and teachings of alleged sexual predators. This post is not to say that competitive dance and the convention circuit are inherently bad spaces–most convention teachers and competition judges are dedicated to providing an exciting, educational experience for dancers and act as positive role models for the rising generation. The dance community needs to continue taking stands against those who do not have dancers’ best interests in mind, seek out outside choreographers and competitive events that value dancers’ well-being, and promote the work of positive influences, rather than abusers. Competitions need to practice what they preach and embody their codes of conduct in order for anything to change.
If you would like to learn about the initial allegations that this blog post was inspired by, please click here.
Written by: Joanna Fashjian, Summer 2023 Outreach Intern
