It's a Good Friday Clarification from Zachary Catazaro

Full text:

Please see below in reference to my reinstatement as Principal Dancer at NYC Ballet..... thanks to everyone who helped me along the way ❤️
“I am grateful and relieved that the arbitrator has found the New York City Ballet’s abrupt termination of my contract to be wrongful and unjust. After considering the situation I have decided to respectfully decline my reinstatement and I will not be returning to NYCB.
NYCB has been my home from the age of eighteen and I’m thankful for the many opportunities that were given to me there. I would like to thank all of the dancers, ballet masters, and staff who have guided me through my time there. Most of all I would like to thank all of the patrons who have watched me perform and shown their support.
In light of all the facts that were presented, I feel vindicated knowing that the arbitrator has found NYCB’s decision to be wrong.
As I continue my career elsewhere, I look forward to challenging myself as an artist and renewing my spirited passion for dance.

Good to hear: The arbitrator has found the New York City Ballet's abrupt termination of my contract to be wrongful and unjust. So there ya go. We're not happy about his decision to leave NYCB, and we hope to see him dancing in New York again soon.

 

Comments

[Julie Hale]

It's a GREAT Friday!

[Haglund]

Catazaro will do well wherever he goes. I think he's always had a strong attraction to the big story ballets, and he has plenty of career years left in which to dance, if not soar in them.

[Julie Hale]

Haglund, did you see this?

https://twitter.com/coopnytimes/status/1119258102002532353

[Haglund]

All good news. Can't wait to see Amar back on stage.

Most of the defendants' counsels are due in court on Monday to argue for dismissal of the Waterbury suit. This arbitrator's decision isn't going to make it easy for AW's attorney who recently filed answers to the various dismissal motions that were all but ridiculous.

[yukionna]

Thrilled to read that Amar will be back! The only thing I’m worried about is how management will handle his return.

[Haglund]

True, yukionna. The management's response was really low class: "Catazaro intends to resign from the Company, effective immediately, and NYCB supports that decision." In other words, they're glad to be rid of him. Then they go on to describe how Amar will return, making it crystal clear that they DO NOT SUPPORT that decision.

While Amar will be welcomed back with open arms by the audience and by most of his partners and colleagues, there will still be the Bouders, the Lovettes, the Pazcogins, and others who will be gunning to get rid of him. And with Devin Alberda hovering over everyone and snapping pictures freely of everyone and everything, Amar may worry about Alberda standing behind him when Amar is using his phone snapping away. Why any workplace would allow that type of intrusion by an employee with a camera is a mystery. Maybe they, like the NYT, rely on him as a snitch and want him to capture as much detail as he can so they can potentially use it against dancers.

Apparently NYCB has no rules against dancers freely going to the press to provide speculation and gossip framed as fact. NYT prints it without any due diligence whatsoever.

It is interesting, though, how the NYT chooses what to cover and how to frame it. This past week Plaintiff Waterbury, who is suing because she was videoed without her knowledge and permission, published an I-Gram story with a surreptitiously produced video which she made of a BLIND professor in her classroom strumming a baseball bat like a guitar and singing. She posted the video with a chic little comment to elicit laughter from her followers. In other words, she blind-videoed a blind person without permission and then published it to get laughs. The NYT isn't interested in her behavior that possibly runs parallel to one or more of the defendants. But it's something that I would definitely show to a jury.

[GaryS]

WOW. WTF NYCB???? I would suggest that the NYCBallet board be more concerned with whomever in management handled the situation, rather than with dancers running around taking dirty pictures. Someone should loose their job, and I dont mean another dancer. If Catazaro were not concerned about getting a job in another ballet company, I would advise he sue NYCB for defamation of character.

[Nicole N]

Gary S. I second that advice! NYCB has behaved abominably and this is a reason I don't go to see them anymore. I absolutely adore Daniel Ulbricht but I can no longer muster a facade of supporting a company whose "power people" I actually loathe. ANd I will never, ever pay to see Ashley Bouder again even though I love Stars and Stripes, but she is the only one dancing the lead female role??!!! It is like ABT putting Misty in ballets that people want to see, so one is forced to see her flop her way through or not see the ballet at all. Awful, just awful!