Man claims he faced racial discrimination while teaching for Kansas City ballet group
A lawsuit alleging racial discrimination and retaliation was filed against the Kansas City Ballet Association this week.
Tristian Griffin, who is Black, said he faced discrimination while teaching dance to R.O.A.D Scholars in 2019.
R.O.A.D stands for Reach Out and Dance. The scholarship program is a 12-week program for third grade students in Kansas City schools. Participants get free dance wear and two free dance lessons a week. After the program, 30 of the participants are invited to train with the Kansas City Ballet School for two years and can audition for the ballet company’s production of “The Nutcracker.”
According to the lawsuit, Griffin was teaching jazz dance in the choreography styles of Eugene Louis Faccuito and Gus Giordano, two white jazz dancers who are considered pioneers in the field.
Griffin alleges the program’s director of education said he should be teaching choreography like Garth Fagan, a Jamaican modern dance choreographer, instead.
The lawsuit contends that Griffin said he has worked with Fagan who is not a pioneer in jazz dance and it would be inaccurate to characterize him like that to students.
The program director allegedly said “Since you’re an African American male, you should teach about Black jazz dance pioneers, instead of teaching about white dancers and choreographers.”
The lawsuit claims Griffin responded by saying the remarks were unprofessional and then he was fired.
When reviewing candidates for the R.O.A.D Scholarship Program, the lawsuit also claims that the program director told teachers to accept students who had the “ideal ballet body type.”
Griffin’s lawsuit says that most of the children auditioning were students of color who did not have that body type, and he thought the director was purposely trying to exclude children of color from the program.
The Kansas City Ballet Association declined to comment saying the lawsuit is pending litigation and they had not yet been served.
This story was originally published June 10, 2022 at 8:14 AM.