Dance students in SA, concerned parents call out grooming behaviour in performing arts schools

She was a teenager perfecting her passion. He was her teacher. Now, a young professional has shared her story of being groomed by her dance teacher when she was only 15.

Members of the SA dance school community are concerned about the rising number of inappropriate teacher-student relationships.. Picture: File

A young woman has opened up about being groomed by her dance teacher when she was just a teenager, as parents of performing arts students call out inappropriate teacher-student relationships in various dance schools around SA.

Concerned members of the South Australian dance community are speaking up about grooming tactics used in various dance schools, with one woman revealing she was groomed into a “relationship” with an adult teacher when she was only 15.

The young woman, who is beginning her performing arts career interstate and did not want to be named, told The Advertiser she didn’t know the relationship she was in as a teenager was wrong until she realised she’d been groomed many years later.

“I had been training (at a major dance school in Adelaide) since I was seven years old,” the young woman said.

“I was very close to my teachers, I had good relationships with them because I’d been a student there so long. The SA dance community is so small so everyone is really tight.”

She said when she was 15-16 years old, she was in a relationship with a teacher – who was in his 20s – for almost two and a half years.

“It’s completely disturbing and makes me ill to think about, but I was too naive and young to see it that way,” she said.

“I’ve been made aware of a lot of similar incidents all stemmed from the same kind of relationship built between a student and a teacher. I think that’s the thing everyone is talking about right now, that breach of trust and crossing boundaries. When teachers sexualise their students in that way.

“As sad as it is, young people in that position thrive off validation, someone believing in them and telling them they’re going to make it and that they’re better than everyone else. That kind of treatment singles students out and that’s how it starts crossing a line.

A young woman has opened up about being groomed by her dance teacher when she was just a teenager.

She said she never reported the teacher to police because it had taken her a long time to realise what he did was wrong.

“I heavily considered it,” she said. “I didn’t realise it was wrong until a lot later on. I was only 16 and it was, as messed up as it is, my first relationship so it was really hard for me to come to the realisation because I still had that attachment and I cared. Even speaking about it is so hard because it’s so conflicting. I trusted that person.

“I think that there’s a lot of things like this that have been going on in the South Australian dance industry for a really long time.”

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a whistleblower in the dance community told The Advertiser there are known predators working with students in dance and performing arts schools, including one who has been known to message his underage students pictures of him in his underwear.

Another whistleblower said parents were “ignoring rumours” to “give their kids a better chance of becoming a star”.

“My kids went to one school where it was quickly known that the teacher was having some kind of relationship with a 16-year-old boy, but no one wanted to bring it up,” she said.

“(Parents) were manipulated into thinking that this particular teacher was the only person that could help their kids become a star, so if they went against him, he would deliberately do things to sabotage that kid.”

Over the past six months, several members of the community have spoken out on their social media pages about trauma they suffered at the hands of their dance instructors.

“There are too many instances where these teachers are just preying on students, telling them they’re so much better than everyone, isolating them, manipulating them into thinking they could be the next best thing and then just taking advantage of them,” the whistleblower said.

“It’s about time someone brings this to light. There’s been so much happening behind the scenes that is just so sickening, and the worst part is so many people are just turning a blind eye.”

*Names of schools and teachers have been removed as no formal charges have been laid.*

Originally published as Dance students in SA, concerned parents call out grooming behaviour in performing arts schools