Ballet hit with harassment suit

It's not often (not that Houstonist knows of, anyway) that ballet becomes the stuff of a TV movie — but it looks like we have the beginnings of a second-rate movie in our own backyard. Houston Ballet principal dancer Zdenek Konvalina has filed suit against the Houston Ballet Foundation alleging "unwelcome, unsolicited and untoward sexual advances" from ballet artistic director Stanton Welch and claiming that the ballet retaliated against him after he complained about the matter.

Houston Ballet Foundation President Jay Jones said the ballet first learned about Konvalina's complaints during contract negotiations in February 2005. An internal investigation was done, but Welch "flatly denied it," Jones said, adding that the ballet will "defend [the claims] vigorously." As the Chronicle points out, this isn't the first time Welch has been accused of sexual harassment: In 1998, when he was a choreographer with the Australian Ballet, a dancer there had similar complaints. Jones said the Houston Ballet knew about that when it hired Welch in 2003, but it couldn't find any corroboration for the story, and it took Welch's continued employment with the Australian Ballet as a good sign.

Konvalina's suit asks for unspecified monetary damages. He will perform with the Houston Ballet until June, when his contract expires; he'll join an international company in the fall.