RWB fires veteran instructor

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/04/2015 (3290 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Besides the Jets, it’s one of the things that puts Winnipeg on the global map. Founded in 1939, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is the oldest continuously operating ballet company in North America. The internationally renowned troupe has toured in more than 40 countries, won accolades and brought audiences to their feet in some of the world’s most prestigious theatres.

Today, the 26-dancer company is one of only two in Canada that regularly performs opulent classics such Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty.

Budding ballerinas from around the world fiercely compete to gain admittance to the RWB’s prestigious ballet school.

On Thursday, as the 75-year old company was poised to announce its 2015-16 season, officials instead were doing damage control after explosive allegations surfaced involving a veteran dance instructor accused of taking nude photos of young female dancers at the RWB in the 1980s and 1990s.

The RWB has fired 28-year instructor Bruce Monk as a result.

“Bruce Monk is no longer with us. We made the decision Tuesday,” RWB executive director Jeff Herd said Thursday.

Herd said the women — who may have been minors at the time the photographs were allegedly taken — have not contacted the RWB and are not members of the company or employees of the RWB.

Const. Jason Michalyshen confirmed the investigation Thursday by Winnipeg police, but said the historical nature of the case complicates the investigation.

“The laws that we currently have in place are very different now, and we certainly have heightened regard with respect to these types of offences and potential for charges,” Michalyshen said.

“I certainly do acknowledge that times have changed, laws have changed, and we have to look at all of those circumstances with respect to how we move our investigation.”

Investigators are consulting with the Crown’s office to determine how to proceed.

Herd said Winnipeg police first contacted the RWB Jan. 7 about allegations Maclean’s magazine will publish in detail in this week’s edition. “Based on the information they brought to us, we placed Bruce on administrative leave Jan. 8,” said Herd, who would not discuss why he fired Monk Tuesday or disclose any details of possible severance.

Herd said police indicated to ballet officials none of the alleged incidents took place in an RWB facility, and there is no indication anything inappropriate involving RWB members has happened in recent years.

“We’re confident it is in the time frame in the article,” Herd said.

While Monk has been well-known for his photography, Herd emphasized the RWB has never assigned Monk to take individual photographs of dancers and students, and it has never been part of his duties to be alone with any student.

“Anything (photographs) for the ballet is in a structured environment,” Herd said. “We’ve never asked him to do ‘alone’ photography. “Bruce was an instructor with our school in the professional division. He worked predominantly with the older kids, 15 and up.”

Herd said the RWB does not know when or where the alleged photographs were taken — only that it did not happen within RWB facilities.

Former students of the ballet were not surprised at the allegations surrounding Monk. It was only a matter of time, one former dancer told the Free Press.

Maclean’s magazine’s website says its issue that will be on sale this week will detail the allegations in a cover article entitled Scandal at the Ballet.

The magazine reports four women have come forward to Maclean’s and to the police, raising allegations of nude and semi-nude photos having been taken of them when they were in their teens and students at the RWB. According to Maclean’s, Monk called the allegations ridiculous.

Later Thursday, when the RWB held a news conference to announce its upcoming season, Herd said he had not been aware of allegations about any form of behaviour involving Monk before this January and could not say why it would take years for such allegations to emerge.

“That’s a very interesting question. We know of Bruce’s work in the building, we know of Bruce’s photography relative to dance. Unless we’re searching for something, I’m not sure that we would see it,” Herd said. “We had no inkling of that kind of activity going on in our environment. We do keep a very close eye on our environment, so it was an awful surprise.”

Herd said photographers are a constant presence at the RWB and Monk’s photographic work was separate from his instruction.

“I’m not sure that he was walking around as an instructor with his camera. My belief is that they were often very separate. His training during the day was very scheduled so I’m not sure he’d be having a lot of free time,” Herd said. “In my mind, there was a very clear definition of when he was a teacher and when he was a photographer.”

However, an Internet search turned up photos by Monk that show young women in various states of undress. It’s not known if these women were students at the RWB School, but many appear in ballet costumes.

Herd said the safety of RWB students is a constant concern. The school has mostly glass walls, which means students have little privacy or opportunity to be alone, he said. Students are alone in their residences, but there are security cameras in the halls, he said. Students also have access to counsellors and medical professionals, he said.

Herd said he could not comment on any aspect of the police investigation, other than to say the RWB is co-operating.

Monk had taught and choreographed at the RWB for 28 years. “Monk has also been a fine-art dance photographer, able to glide unnoticed through the wings during performances and capture images that probably no outsider could,” the Free Press noted in a 2010 story.

“I’m kind of invisible, because I’m there all the time,” Monk, then 56, told the Free Press. “You stop being observed and just become the observer… you can catch those between-the-heartbeat moments when people, in some cases, are working so hard, they can’t be anyone other than themselves.”

The Free Press article reported Monk studied photography at the Ontario College of Art while completing his ballet-teacher training at the National Ballet School. It said his accomplishments behind the lens aren’t well-known here, but his work sells internationally through his website.

 

— with files from Kathleen Saylors

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca