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Drug and harassment allegations plunge Bejart Ballet into turmoil

Switzerland's prestigious Bejart Ballet Lausanne company faces a probe as allegations of drug use, harassment and abuse of power raise the question why nothing apparently changed after an earlier investigation raised similar issues.

Drug and harassment allegations plunge Bejart Ballet into turmoil
Bejart Ballet dancers perform at Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" in the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, on April 3, 2013. credit: YURI KADOBNOV / AFP

The company, founded by the late legendary French choreographer Maurice Bejart, was placed under audit on June 4 over allegations touching on its “working environment and inappropriate behaviour”.

The Maurice Bejart Foundation announced the audit just a week after revealing that the affiliated Rudra Bejart ballet school had fired its
director and stage manager and suspended all classes for a year due to “serious shortcomings” in management.

While the foundation has revealed few details of the allegations facing the two institutions, anonymous testimonies gathered by trade union
representatives and the media paint a bleak picture.

Swiss public broadcaster RTS reported that a number of unidentified former members of the Bejart Ballet Lausanne (BBL) company had written to the foundation, describing the “omnipresence of drugs, nepotism, as well as psychological and sexual harassment”.

Many of the accusations allegedly focus on Gil Roman, who took the helm of BBL when its founder died in 2007.

Roman did not respond to AFP requests to the foundation or BBL seeking comment.

‘Denigration, humiliation’

The French choreographer faced similar allegations during a secret audit a year later, but was permitted to stay on and continue as before, according to RTS and the union representing the dancers.

“We cannot understand what might have been in that audit that would have allowed them to clear him completely,” Anne Papilloud, head of the SSRS union that represents stage performers in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, told AFP.

“The accusations back then were word-for-word the same as today: harassment, denigration, humiliation, insults, temper tantrums, drugs,” she said, citing former company members who had contacted the union in recent weeks and had said they were around during the 2008 audit.

One dancer told RTS on condition of anonymity that it was common for Roman to publicly humiliate dancers who made a misstep, while another said he often asked dancers to bring him marijuana.

“Drugs were part of everyday life at Bejart Ballet,” the broadcaster reported her saying.

Papilloud meanwhile told AFP that the “vast majority of the testimonies I have heard have been about psychological harassment”.

Drug-use had been mentioned, mainly linked to how the drugs “provoked outbursts of anger”, she said.

She said she had also heard a small number of complaints about sexual harassment, although not involving Roman.

‘Terror’

But what stood out most in the dozens of accounts she had heard in recent weeks was the sheer “terror” people described.

Their reaction to what they had been through was “extremely strong”, she said, “almost at the level of post-traumatic stress”.

Papilloud said that as a union representative she had long been aware that BBL was considered a difficult place to work, with low pay compared to the industry standard and little respect for working hours.

But the recent revelations of “an extremely toxic working environment” had come as a shock, she said.

Over 30 current and former BBL members had contacted the union following the upheaval at the Rudra Bejart ballet school, she said.

The school, which halted classes and fired its long-time director Michel Gascard and stage manager Valerie Lacaze, his wife, was reportedly fraught with psychological abuse and tyrannical over-training.

One student described how she had found herself surrounded by teachers and other students who “humiliated and belittled” her, the president of the foundation’s board, Solange Peters, told RTS.

One teacher present at the time reportedly compared the scene to a “lynching”.

The revelations about the school appeared to have “opened a Pandora’s Box”, spurring alleged victims of similar abuse at BBL to come forward, according to Papilloud.

“We have really been inundated,” she said, adding that many hope that “this time, things can change”.

Following close communication with the foundation, the union too is hopeful that the current audit will be handled differently than the last one, with more openness and independence, Papilloud said.

“I think this will not be an audit where things are swept under the carpet.”

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EXPLAINED: Could people in Germany soon be working until the age of 68?

A dramatic warning issued by an expert commission to the government has said that Germany faces a “financial shock” if it doesn’t raise its retirement age soon. So will we all have to work for longer in the near future?

EXPLAINED: Could people in Germany soon be working until the age of 68?
An elderly man uses a computer. Photo: dpa | Andreas Gebert

A report issued this week by the Economy Ministry’s advisory council warned that Germany will have to deal with “shocking increases in financing issues for the statutory pension system from 2025 onwards”.

The council said that the only solution was the unpopular step of raising the age of retirement to 68. But the proposal has been met with fierce criticism from left-wing parties.

What is the current retirement age in Germany?

The age of retirement in Germany has been slowly increasing since the year 2012, when a government reform raised it from 65 to an eventual age of 67.

Currently, the age of retirement is being raised by a month each year. People who were born in the year 1956 and are celebrating their 65th birthday this year will have to wait until they are 10 months past their 65th birthday before they can celebrate their retirement.

READ MORE: How does Germany’s pension system measure up worldwide?

Then, starting in the year 2024, the age of retirement will be raised by two months every year until it hits a ceiling of 67. That means that people born in the year 1964 will have to wait until their 67th birthday before they can start to enjoy the third phase of their life.

Why are government advisors calling for it to be raised even further?

As Germans live longer while also having less children, the demographic makeup of society is changing dramatically. While the proportion of working age people to retirees is currently three to one, it is expected to increase to three to two by the year 2060.

That means that there are ever fewer working age people paying into the state pension system to support a pay-outs for an ever larger population of pensioners.

The expert commission’s report predicted that, should current demographic trends continue, the proportion of the state budget that would flow into the pension system would rise from the current size of 26 percent to 44 percent by 2040.

“That would break the federal budget and would not be financeable even with massive tax increases,” warned Klaus Schmidt, who led the commission.

He further warned that increases in state financing of pensions would come at the cost of investment in digital infrastructure and education.

How has the report been received?

It has been met with stinging criticism from left-wing parties.

The left-wing Linke party described it as “an anti-social act of cheek” and promised to “defend the rights of pensioners with tooth and claw.”

They point out that one in five Germans still don’t live to their 69th birthday.

“The numbers speak for themselves: the higher the retirement age, the fewer people who will ever be able to enjoy their pensions,” the party’s social affairs expert Sabine Zimmermann said.

SEE ALSO: Germany plans reforms to avoid double taxation on pensions

The party say that, because life expectancy is higher the more one earns, raising the retirement age effectively means redistributing wealth from the poor to the rich. They want the retirement age to be brought back down to 65.

Praise for the report came from the Federal Employers’ Association, who said that “this conversation needs to be had, and it needs to be had honestly”.

The association warned that if action wasn’t taken on pensions, then Germany would soon have more people receiving benefits than paying into the system.

Are the report’s findings likely to be implemented?

There is almost no chance that the reports finding will be implemented by the current government.

With a national election just over three months away, the coalition won’t want to back a policy proposal likely to unpopular on the doorstep.

The Social Democrats have out and out rejected the report. SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz accused the expert commission of getting its maths wrong.

Describing the report as a “horror scenario” that was intended to create fear, Scholz said that “I won’t discuss any further increase in the retirement age.”

READ ALSO: Old age poverty in Germany set to rise significantly

The CDU also distanced themselves from the findings.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) said that the retirement age should remain at 67, adding that ‘“that has been my opinion for years”.

After the election, the tone from the CDU could change though, as warnings about the financial viability of the current system have come from various quarters in recent months.

Similar proposals to increase the age of retirement have come from economic institutes and the Federal Bank, all of which predict that the current arrangement is not sustainable in the long term.

The Federal Bank’s proposal goes even further, encouraging the government to push the retirement age up to over 69.

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