RWB School love pas de deux stirs anger

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This article was published 20/07/2004 (8021 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A sexual relationship between a teacher and student at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School has parents and students crying ethical foul.
Some parents are calling for the dismissal of the teacher, Jorden Morris, the RWB School’s associate director, who became involved last winter with a young woman he had been teaching for two years.

The woman turned 19 in June and has been in residence at the school for four years. She graduated from the professional division in May and plans to return in September for the school’s aspirant program, designed for classical ballet students who are making the transition to professional careers.

“I can see how people would have moral issues with the age difference,” she said, admitting that she has not told her parents about the relationship. “But it doesn’t bother us. It shouldn’t be an issue for them.”

Morris, 37, is second-in-command at the RWB School and is technically not responsible for the aspirant program, which remains under the umbrella of school director Arlene Minkhorst, to whom he reports.

But most parents and students who spoke to the Free Press dismiss the technicality and argue that RWB teachers should not be romantically involved with students under any circumstances.

“He should be gone,” said Wendy Eeckhout, whose daughter, Shannon Ferguson, 18, was in the professional division’s top level, 7, in the season ended in May.

“He is in a position of power, and the school’s position has been to sweep the whole thing under the carpet.”

Eeckhout, who lives in Merritt, B.C., was a guest at an RWB class in February while visiting Ferguson.

She recalls an incident where Morris embraced the woman in view of her classmates, and she placed her head on his chest while he spoke at length to the other students.

“It was totally inappropriate behaviour,” said Eeckhout, who helps co-ordinate a dance program at a Vancouver arts school.

“All the other kids were quite uncomfortable.”

Ferguson concurs with her mother’s assessment.

“They could have waited until she graduated,” she said. “It would only have been a matter of weeks.”

Ferguson confirms that a group of professional division students went to Minkhorst in May, but she dismissed their concerns as unworthy.

Around that time, a group of RWB parents delivered an anonymous letter to Minkhorst detailing their objections.

Neither Morris nor Minkhorst returned phone calls yesterday. But the RWB’s chief operating officer, who oversees both the school and the professional company, admitted that she has seen several anonymous e-mails and at least one letter.

“I can’t deal with complaints unless people will say who they are and take responsibility,” Judy Murphy said. “But nobody will come forward.”

Several parents told the Free Press they fear identifying themselves because of potential reprisals against their children, who have dedicated their adolescence to becoming professional ballet dancers.

But Murphy insisted yesterday that nothing of the sort would happen.

“If people have issues (with staff members), my door is always open,” she said. “There will be no reprisals.”

Murphy, who joined the RWB last year, acknowledged that the RWB has no official guidelines governing teachers’ personal relationships with students.

“I can’t say why that is,” said Murphy, who joined the 65-year-old organization at the beginning of 2003.

“I believe it is something we will be looking into.”

The RWB School, founded in 1970 by longtime director David Moroni, boasts an enrolment of about 100 students annually in its professional division. The vast majority of students come from out of town. The school is generally regarded as the country’s second most important dance training institution, behind Toronto’s National Ballet School, and it receives several hundred thousand dollars annually in federal and provincial grants.

Minkhorst was promoted to director in 2003 upon Moroni’s retirement.

The annual cost per student is about $12,000 for tuition and $8,000 for residency.

Morris enrolled in the RWB School in 1981 and served as principal dancer, the top company rank, from 1992 to 1999. He served as artistic co-ordinator for a year, then accepted a position as ballet master with the Boston Ballet. He returned to the RWB in 2002.

Thirty RWB School students have been tapped to perform in the company’s annual Ballet in the Park at Assiniboine Park’s Lyric Theatre, July 28-30.

The program is headlined by a piece of Morris choreography, Grand Défilé, set to the music of Joseph Haydn. The lead role will be taken by a student just promoted into the professional company.

morley.walker@freepress.mb.ca