In 2018, a group of male dancers were fired from the New York City Ballet as a result of a lawsuit stating that they had been sharing private, explicit photographs of another female dancer, Alexandra Waterbury, between themselves. Not only did Waterbury state that she was unaware that these photos had been taken, she had not given permission for her boyfriend at the time, Chase Finlay, to share them with his friends (who she had also previously worked with). Many other female dancers also had their privacy violated by this group of men. As a result of the situation, the group of men were fired from the ballet company with no pay.
Less than a year on, The American Guild of Musical Artists (a union dedicated to protecting and supporting dancers and other performers) decided that the termination of Amar Ramasar and Zachary Catazaro (two of the men fired) was unjustified and too severe as it had nothing to do with their work, and so demanded that they be allowed back into the company. The texts were sent in May 2018 when, in the state of New York, it was not yet formally against the law to share explicit private photos of another person. This meant that, technically, at the time of the event the men did not break the law and, therefore, cannot be charged. As a result of this, the New York City Ballet was forced by an arbitrator to reinstate Ramasar and Catazaro back into the dancing company. Although Catazaro declined the offer to return to the group, Ramasar returned and began starring in the new Broadway revival of West Side Story.
So why is this relevant now? Over the last year a petition went up online to remove Ramasar from the new production of West Side Story, and has gathered over 50,000 signatures, bringing the issue back to light. In addition to this, Waterbury posted some pretty brutal comments on Instagram stating that Ramasar should be on “a sex offender list” and told him to “literally break a f*****g leg” (not in a good luck way).
The story has brought up a lot of arguments regarding the question of how long someone should be ‘punished’ for. It has been around 2 years since Waterbury filed the initial lawsuit, sparking the whole situation, so should he be forgiven? In my opinion, he shouldn’t be forgiven. There are no rules or regulations in place to restrict him from being hired by new shows but, by casting a controversial dancer, I can only assume that this new production of West Side Story was trying to gain more publicity. This production was supposed to be edgy and controversial, so casting somebody who embodies this only brings in more buzz about the show. He may be talented, but if he has gotten away with such a serious offence before, nothing is stopping him from doing it again (and there seems to be no obvious protection for the women in this new show he is in).
Prior to the Broadway shut down, a group of #MeToo protestors had been protesting outside of the theatre on a regular basis. This sparked a response from the producers of the show, who have defended Ramasar and insist that he is a “valued colleague” who is “doing brilliantly” and will not be replaced with another actor. Whereas, the Actor’s Equity (a union representing those involved with live theatre) released a statement saying that they were working with the production to ensure the safety of everybody involved with the show. Of course, any updates on this situation fizzled out with the termination of live performances in March, leaving the case open-ended.
As of earlier this year, the case has been left with a court date (there has been no updates on this since March) as well as Waterbury continuously speaking out in defence of dancers or performers who have been victims of sexual harassment in their workplace. Despite this being a disgusting case where young women are yet again a victim of workplace sexual harassment by fellow male colleagues, Waterbury is using her new-found voice for good and is not letting the public forget about this issue. I personally think that Waterbury is doing everything she can to find justice for herself and other victims of these men, however the system has failed them and privileged the men (as usual). Hopefully this case will pick up again when live theatre re-opens and Waterbury will get the justice she has been fighting so hard for.
Useful Resources:
Petition to remove Ramasar from the new production of West Side Story:
Twitter account of protestors:
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