On November 10, 2023, allegations of misconduct and workplace safety concerns were raised by former dancers of the Syracuse City Ballet (“the Ballet”), as previously reported. The allegations primarily focused on the conduct of our Artistic Director, Caroline Sheridan, who was immediately put on leave while an HR investigation was conducted. A thorough investigation was carried out by an independent human resources professional and is now complete.

The investigation found no material evidence that Ms. Sheridan created an unsafe work environment or violated our organization’s policies. Despite the apparent lack of substantial evidence to support their allegations, several of the Ballet’s former dancers have waged a misinformation campaign in the media and on the internet, with particular vitriol directed at Ms. Sheridan, management and the Board of Directors of the Syracuse City Ballet. These allegations should be acknowledged as unfounded, and damaging to both Ms. Sheridan as a ballet professional and to the Syracuse City Ballet as an organization. Even worse is that this overshadowed the hard work and dedication of the professional dancers, volunteers, and youth cast who performed a beautiful rendition of the holiday classic, The Nutcracker, earlier this month. We again thank and congratulate all of these performers and behind-the-scenes volunteers for sharing their talents with Central New York.

The Syracuse City Ballet Board of Directors reiterates our previous assertions that the Ballet took immediate action to investigate and mitigate the concerns expressed by our former dancers, and that the former dancers’ refusal to perform according to their contracts amounted to an unlawful strike that directly harmed the Ballet’s efforts to produce The Nutcracker. The Board condemns the malicious attempts to attack Ms. Sheridan on both a personal and professional level over the past several weeks, even while an investigation was being conducted. The ongoing social media campaign is apparently also to promote a new non-profit dance company affiliated with our former dancers, which was illegally formed over a year ago to directly compete with the Syracuse City Ballet. We believe these actions, as well as a live performance scheduled on December 19, 2023 may result in a violation of the non-compete agreements that our former dancers signed with the Syracuse City Ballet (which is a standard practice in performing arts organizations).

Based on this investigation, the Ballet will continue to work to make positive change in our own environment. We are committed to onboarding personnel and training staff members to foster a positive learning environment for both professional artists and youth that engage with our organization.

Like most ballet organizations in communities our size, the Syracuse City Ballet is a non-profit organization with a small annual operating budget. For many small ballet companies, The Nutcracker is the single largest revenue generating performance each year. The unfounded attacks waged against our organization in the weeks leading up to The Nutcracker, including calls to boycott the Ballet’s Nutcracker, did result in substantially lower ticket sales than in previous years. As a result of the decline in ticket sales, we’re actively reevaluating our operating model and will be announcing changes to the remainder of our dance season in the coming weeks. We greatly appreciate the outpouring of support from the community over the past few weeks. We remain committed to principles of artistic integrity, innovation, and inclusion as we strive to bring world class performances to Central New York.