DISTURBING

Ballerina Sues New York City Ballet Over Nude Photos

Alleges NYCB was a “breeding ground” for sexual degradation of female dancers.

A 19-year-old ballerina has filed a lawsuit against the New York City Ballet alleging that male dancers created a “fraternity-like atmosphere” in which they shared sexually explicit photos taken of her and other female dancers without permission. The woman, Alexandra Waterbury, described the ballet as a “breeding ground” for the degradation of female dancers. Waterbury filed the lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan against both the company and her ex-boyfriend, Chase Finlay, a principal dancer with the ballet until last week, when he abruptly resigned. Waterbury alleges that Finlay secretly took explicit photos of her and then shared them with fellow male dancers and donors, all while the company allegedly did nothing to stop it. In one instance cited in the lawsuit, an unnamed donor to the ballet allegedly wrote to Finlay to suggest the pair buy “like half a kilo [of cocaine] and pour it over the girls and just violate them… I bet we could tie some of them up and abuse them like farm animals.” Two other principal dancers, Amar Ramasar and Zachary Catazaro, were also accused in the lawsuit of exchanging intimate photos of women with Finlay. They were reportedly suspended without pay last week for having violated unspecified “norms of conduct.” The company has denied condoning any misconduct and said it “has taken the appropriate disciplinary actions for the dancers involved.”