aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Australian choreographer, Czech star, in Texas court

This hardly interests me but I’m going to the Czech Republic in 10 days so expect to see increasing references here in the coming days to anything Czech:

WITNESSES will testify that renowned Australian choreographer Stanton Welch made a series of unwanted homosexual overtures to one of his principal dancers at the Houston Ballet, the dancer’s lawyer has revealed.

The openly gay Welch and the Houston Ballet are embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal after being sued by 27-year-old rising Czech star Zdenek Konvalina, who bears a resemblance to, and has been compared with, the legendary Rudolph Nureyev.

“A number of specific incidents took place over a period of time, some of which were witnessed by other members (of the troupe) whose testimony we have,” Konvalina’s lawyer Ed Hennessy told The Weekend Australian.

“These were verbal overtures which Zdenek made very clear were unwelcome but they continued.”

Houston Ballet president Jay Jones, who stands by the company’s artistic director and vowed to vigorously fight Konvalina’s sexual harassment lawsuit, has intimated that Konvalina’s agent, Eddy Toussaint—himself a former prominent dancer and choreographer—only introduced the sexual harassment allegations during contract negotiations for his Czech client.

Gay dancers??? Oh my!

Straight and gay instances of harassment are exactly the same and should be treated similarly. I know there’s a problem (and that the “casting couch” is both real and alive and well) but, generally speaking, the courts aren’t well equipped to deal with it.