Why you should boycott Syracuse City Ballet's 'The Nutcracker' this year

Meghan Hendricks | Photo Editor/ The Daily Orange

by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder

Normally this is the time of year where I would whole-heartedly encourage families to attend performances of ‘The Nutcracker’. Not only do these productions spread holiday spirits but also highlights the balletic arts and those who perform it on stage.

However, that is not the case at the Syracuse City Ballet. In fact, I would encourage you not to attend their performances of the show. Why? Because they just fired five of their dancers for speaking out regarding their physical and emotional well-being as well as unsafe working conditions.

For more than a year, dancers with the group have spoken to leadership about issues within the company and the way they have been treated by Syracuse City Ballet staff, specifically artistic director Caroline Sheridan. The dancers brought these concerns to company leadership in the summer of 2022.

“As dancers, we’re used to being pushed both physically and emotionally,” Cara Connolly, one of the dancers fired last week, told Syracuse.com. “Ballet is not for the faint of heart. We’re used to a lot of things other people wouldn’t accept...But we need to trust leadership that they have the experience and expertise so that we don’t injure our bodies.”

The group of dancers also posted about their situation on Facebook.

SCB’s board president Jennifer Tifft responded to the dancers’ accusations in a statement to CNY Central.

"The dancers have been using terms like 'unsafe work environment,' however, there is simply little specific evidence of such,” Tifft said. “Their initial complaint focused on one artistic staff member. That staff member was put on leave, and an independent HR expert was hired to conduct an investigation.

Things came to ahead in the last couple of weeks when the dancers decided to go on strike until the Syracuse board met their demands to improve working conditions.

Tifft said "meaningful changes" by placing the artistic director on paid leave. Apparently that was not enough for the dancers, who had been suffering for more than a year and their strike continued. That’s when the board fired them.

The board says that it did cooperate with the striking dancers, but that it didn't consider the ballet dancers' refusal to work a strike, "there was no lawful strike, because the crux of the complaints and specific issues raised were interpersonal conflicts and differences in artistic opinions with artistic staff. These are not legitimate safety concerns."

The board also states that they did not fire the dancers, "we terminated the contracts of five dancers, and put a sixth on leave after they refused to work per the terms of their contracts."

Syracuse City Ballet will perform ‘The Nutcracker’ this weekend as scheduled.

I am truly disappointed that rather than working to solve the problems within the company and provide a safe environment for their dancers, the leadership at the Syracuse City Ballet would rather dismiss those who suffered under such conditions. I also find their use of semantics to describe the situation, incredibly disgusting and disrespectful.

On a positive note, the support the dancers have recieved has been outstanding. They posted a statement on Facebook.

So while I typically hate calling for boycotts, if the leadership at the Syracuse City Ballet thinks its easier to fire dancers who speak out against toxic and dangerous work situations within its doors, spend your money to see ‘The Nutcracker’ elsewhere.