Break the Floor founder, celebrity dance instructors face sexual misconduct allegations as the prominent company’s crisis deepens

Once a dancer himself, Stroming said he was already making improvements. With stronger policies, he and his executive team would secure the sprawling organization that hosts as many as 300,000 aspiring dancers each year.

Instructors accused of predatory behaviour had been fired, Stroming assured. He vowed to make Break the Floor a safe space for the next generation of dancers — the same goal, he said, that he had when he launched the dance company more than 20 years ago as a charismatic 19-year-old.

But as Stroming grew the company from a dance convention into an industry powerhouse, he also allegedly perpetuated a culture of sexual misconduct and silence, where dancers were assaulted, harassed and manipulated, according to interviews with dozens of former and current staff and students.

A joint investigation by the Toronto Star and the Associated Press has found alleged sexual misconduct stretches back to the dance company’s early years, and involves some of its most prominent instructors — and Stroming himself.

Stroming was allegedly involved in a series of inappropriate relationships with students of the dance program he was running, according to more than a dozen former staff and students.

Of these sources, four say Stroming sometimes brought young Break the Floor participants to parties or company events, where they were introduced as his girlfriend. Seven sources say they saw Stroming interact with students in ways that appeared intimate and inappropriate.

These alleged relationships took place between 2000, a little after Stroming launched the company, and around 2008, when Stroming would have been in his late 20s.

One staff member said Stroming showed him a nude photo of one of the students. A dance instructor alleges Stroming offered her $500 to come to his hotel room.

All of these sources spoke on the condition of anonymity in fear of retaliation and damage to their careers in the professional dance community.

One dancer said she met Stroming when she was a 16-year-old high school junior attending one of Break the Floor’s first events with her parents. Stroming was three years older, she said, a magnetic 19-year old running the whole show. At her first company event, when she was 17, she and Stroming had oral sex, she said.

A year or so later, shortly after her 18th birthday, Stroming flew the dancer out to New York, where he told her he had lined up dance auditions, she says. That night, they had sex in his apartment. The next morning, Stroming left abruptly for Las Vegas and handed her $40 for a cab ride back to the airport. She says she didn’t attend any auditions and returned home devastated.

The Star/AP spoke to the dancer’s father, who said that in the years following, she told him about what happened with Stroming.

Stroming declined interview requests and did not respond to the specific allegations. But during a 2020 in-house training, a recording of which was reviewed by the Star/AP, Stroming addressed his own past misconduct.

“I was definitely inappropriate myself in a lot of ways,” he told his staff. “As a student I was in inappropriate relationships with teachers, and vice versa, and just looking back I was like, oh wow, I think a lot of us don’t even realize at first the power that we have in the dance world.”

In a written statement he told AP/Star “I have been very upfront that when I first started the company at 19, over 20 years ago, there were issues of inappropriateness.”

The reach of California-based Break The Floor Productions extends across the entertainment industry to some of the biggest names in music, television and social media. Alumni and faculty have danced onstage with Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, at the Oscars and the Super Bowl. Company instructors have appeared on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” Lifetime’s “Dance Moms” and Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance.”

In hotel ballrooms across the United States and Canada, Break the Floor sells the dream of Hollywood fame to ambitious young dancers hoping to launch careers on television, in movies and on stage.

Stroming started the company after he came to fame in the 1990s, performing in an off-Broadway show “Tap Dogs,” described in The New York Times as a “beefcake tap-a-thon” where “six husky hoofers show off more than their fancy footwork.”

He had been heading it uninterrupted for 22 years, presiding over its consistent growth, when a 2021 Star investigation revealed allegations of widespread sexual harassment and predatory behaviour by Break the Floor coaches over their younger students.

A Toronto-born teen alleged a famous choreographer propositioned her for sex just hours after judging her at a 2012 Break the Floor convention. An Ottawa dancer working as an assistant for the company said the same choreographer, then 31, groped him in public.

This investigation, in partnership with the Associated Press, has found the alleged misconduct goes even deeper, and involves some of those responsible for turning Break the Floor into a dance industry empire.

While not all of the complainants in this story were involved with Break the Floor at the time of the alleged incidents, those accused of wrongdoing have played key roles in growing the company’s reach and popularity.

One dance instructor, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of professional consequences, said she warns the children and teens she brings to conventions to be watchful and aware of the potential for abuse of power. About two decades ago, when she was a 20-year-old dance teacher accompanying her students to a Break the Floor event, she said she refused Gil Stroming’s $500 offer to join him in his hotel room.

In the wake of the Star’s first investigation, Stroming said the company has worked hard over the last year and a half to make Break the Floor “a better and safer environment.”

“I believe that we are doing more than most organizations to combat this head on,” he said.

Then, in early February, amid a flurry of new allegations against Break the Floor instructors on social media, Stroming disappeared from the company’s website. So did his brother Jeff — the company’s chief production officer — and mother Jackie, known within the company as the “Chief Mom Officer.”

Hours later, Gil Stroming told his staff and customers he had sold the company for an undisclosed amount to Los Angeles real estate investor and producer Russell Geyser and was stepping down as CEO. He said the fact that the sale occurred at the time of mounting allegations was a coincidence.

Geyser said the allegations have nothing to do with the current company, and that people involved with alleged misconduct no longer work for Break The Floor. In his first 10 days as CEO, he said he “let four people go” because of “credible allegations” of misconduct.

Break The Floor hosts conventions in cities across North America, putting on events in hotel ballrooms every weekend over the course of a six-month season. Hundreds of studios and schools from smaller communities bring teams of dancers to the events, branded by Stroming as JUMP, NUVO, 24 Seven, RADIX and DancerPalooza. The ultimate goal is winning first place under the spotlight at the annual Dance Awards.

In addition to competitions with cash prizes, Break The Floor’s conventions — which cost between $200 to $350 USD per student — offer dozens of workshops, under strobing lights and thumping music. They typically end with parents on the sidelines shooting photos of their beaming children in leotards and makeup, striking poses alongside famous choreographers and dancers.

Jeremy Hudson, now a professional dancer, came of age on the convention circuit and won Outstanding Dancer of the Year at the first JUMP Nationals in 2004. Break the Floor helped launch his career, but his alleged assault by a dancer who went on to play a key role at the company continues to haunt him.

At 16, Hudson looked forward to the festive weekend gatherings. But he said he felt uncomfortable when a dance teacher, Mark Meismer, then in his early 30s, repeatedly told him how attractive he was. He accepted a sought-after opportunity to assist Meismer as they toured various studios and conventions together. Hudson was still working with Meismer when he joined Break The Floor’s NUVO convention as part of its original lineup of instructors.

“He called me his convention boyfriend,” recalled Hudson. “I didn’t know how inappropriate that was.”

Meismer allegedly asked the young dancer, then 17, to come to his home.

Hudson said he was optimistic: This might just be his lucky break into professional dance. After all, Meismer was already an icon. He’d toured with Britney Spears, Madonna and Paula Abdul.

But at Meismer’s house, they didn’t discuss work. Hudson alleges Meismer pushed him against a wall and performed oral sex on him. He remembers Meismer shushing him; someone was asleep in a nearby room, Meismer allegedly warned.

In the years that followed, Hudson said Meismer continued to pursue him for sex. In dance studios, Hudson said Meismer would guide him into bathroom stalls for oral sex. On planes, Meismer would grope him in his seat, Hudson alleges. To surprise him, Hudson said Meismer would buy them matching outfits.

“I just didn’t know myself enough to understand how harmful it was,” Hudson said.

Hudson is now a famous dancer, with a resume that spans mega tours with P!nk, Lady Gaga and Kylie Minogue, and appearances in more than a dozen films including “La La Land” and “FAME.” For 17 years, he kept to himself about what happened with Meismer. But after speaking with the Star/AP in February, Hudson went public and shared his experience in an emotional Instagram video, without naming Meismer.

“I took the word of this choreographer, and thought he was helping me build a dance career. Which in fact, he wasn’t,” Hudson said in his video, viewed over 6,300 times.

Meismer was recently removed from NUVO’s website and abruptly left the tour. He is no longer with the company, according to Break The Floor. Meismer did not respond to repeated requests for comment. His representatives at MSA Agency also said they had no comment on his behalf. Break the Floor would not confirm if he was one of the four that were let go in the days after Stroming sold the company.

Marci A. Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania professor who founded CHILD USA and is the author of “Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect its Children,” said dance is one of the last forums where adults have unsupervised access to younger students.

“Dance organizations create wide opportunities for adults to single out a child, groom them and then get them alone to sexually abuse them,” she said. “The dance world, it’s not like it’s different than any other world, it’s just that they’ve been able to keep their secrets longer.”

Hamilton also said perpetrators in many youth-focused organizations use hotel rooms away from home to exploit the power imbalance between teachers and students.

That’s what Gary Schaufeld alleges happened to him. He was a teenager in 2004, assisting a successful tap dancer named Danny Wallace, who was not with Break the Floor at the time. Schaufeld said Wallace asked him to assist him at an event in Ontario, along with another female dancer, and they were sharing a room in an Ottawa hotel.

Schaufeld had fallen in love with tap at seven years old, and this opportunity offered a chance to raise his profile and learn from one of the best. Wallace was already a star in the dance world and would later go on to be hired by Gil Stroming to direct Break The Floor’s 24 Seven.

One night, Schaufeld said, Wallace pushed him up against the wall and forced oral sex on him.

“I was frozen in my own skin, I didn’t know what to do,” Schaufeld said.

Afterwards, Schaufeld said Wallace told him never to say anything; it would be bad for both of their careers. And so Schaufeld stayed quiet. But for many years the secret ate away at him. His mental health deteriorated. He stopped eating and sleeping, and suffered from panic attacks, he said. In 2018, 14 years later, he decided to tell his family, and then confront Wallace directly.

In an interview with the Star/AP, Wallace denied Schaufeld’s allegations and said nothing physical ever transpired between them, though he said he remembered having an “inappropriate attraction” to Schaufeld. He referred reporters to his lawyer, who did not respond.

In a series of text messages between Schaufeld and Wallace, reviewed by the Star/AP, Schaufeld laid out his accusations and Wallace said that although he couldn’t remember anything, he “couldn’t be more sorry.”

“I’m not a monster but I feel like one,” Wallace wrote, adding that he has “a lot of hazy memories and a huge list of regrets/mistakes” from that time period.

Wallace did not respond to questions about those texts.

Schaufeld stopped dancing years ago and has no plans to return to the studio.

“It was my church,” he said, but now “the whole dance scene feels dirty and tainted.”

By the mid-2000s, dance exploded into the mainstream with the debuts of popular television shows “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing With The Stars.” They brought fame to dancers Nick Lazzarini, the first-ever winner of America’s Favorite Dancer in 2005, Travis Wall and Misha Gabriel, who would all later become big-name attractions as Break The Floor instructors.

New students poured into dance studios, along with a growing number of health and fitness aficionados. Gil Stroming’s company capitalized on all of that studio growth, a dance industry that reached some $4 billion in value by 2021, employing more than 120,000 people, according to market research from analysts at IBISWorld. He added new conventions and new locations, branching into Mexico, Costa Rica and Canada. But as his company grew, the alleged sexual misconduct continued.

Stroming picked up Lazzarini at the height of his fame to join the convention circuit, teaching hundreds of thousands of aspiring young dancers. In 2019, Stroming quietly fired him after he posted, then quickly removed, a video that appears to show himself masturbating on Instagram, as the Star previously reported.

The Star’s prior investigation uncovered allegations that Lazzarini had subjected at least six dancers to unwanted sexual advances at Break The Floor events. Three of these dancers were under 18. One said Lazzarini groped him through a hole in his pants. Another told the Star Lazzarini texted her a nude selfie when she was 16. A third said he and Lazzarini exchanged nude photos when he was 17.

Two dancers said they complained about sexual harassment on the job to Stroming directly. Both said Stroming dismissed their concerns. One, who says he was groped, said Stroming told him that “wasn’t actually sexual harassment” because the young dancer had recoiled before Lazzarini allegedly almost touched his genitals.

Lazzarini has denied subjecting anyone to unwanted sexual advances. After receiving questions regarding the allegations, Lazzarini sent text messages to three of the dancers who spoke to the Star, saying to one, “I will do my best to be a better person” and apologizing to another, “I’m so so sorry I ever made you feel uncomfortable.”

Lazzarini’s next job, teaching students at the Titans of Dance convention, ended in October, 2021, shortly after the Star published that story.

Wall, an Emmy-award winner, was also removed from a BTF tour following the Star’s earlier reporting. One dancer alleges he was 16 when Wall gave him ecstasy and methamphetamine, and now believes Wall was grooming him for a sexual relationship. This was in 2008, when Wall was at the height of his fame, having become a staple on television after placing second on “So You Think You Can Dance.” Wall has denied these allegations.

After the Star’s October 2021 story published, dancers came forward with more than 15 additional accusations, about Stroming and Break The Floor faculty. Many described an overtly sexual environment. Others shared specific allegations that choreographers used their positions of power to manipulate them into sexual situations.

Misha Gabriel allegedly sent a nude photo on Snapchat to a 16-year-old dancer who says she was so horrified she threw her phone across the room. The profile of Gabriel — who’s performed with Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé and more — has disappeared from the company’s website, though there was no formal announcement of his departure.

Lilli Maples had taken classes with Gabriel since she was 10 years old. She said once she turned 18, Gabriel, 29 at that time in 2017, invited her to his hotel room in a text message with a shirtless photo. After Maples showed the screenshots to friends who shared them on social media, Gabriel sent her a message threatening to ruin her career, she said.

Gabriel, when asked about Maples’s accusation, said in a written statement that he had been drinking heavily that night to control fears about serious health problems in his family. He said he must have passed out and has no recollection of sending the text. He apologized and said that he himself was a victim of abuse as a teen, and that his texts to Maples were a “one time ever brief exchange” that he would “never consciously have sent.” He said the texts have been “misinterpreted and taken out of context.”

The AP and Star have not seen these messages because Maples said they’d been deleted. Maples’s mother, however, told the news organizations that she saw the photo when it appeared on shared photo albums on their family’s home computer.

As for the other allegation from the then-16-year old, Gabriel denied sending the photo, saying he would never engage in “inappropriate behaviour that would ever lead to sending something like this” to a teenager.

Sexual abuse pervades the dance world, according to child advocates and industry leaders.

The combination of hypersexual dance content and the close contact between adult teachers and the young dancers creates an atmosphere ripe for abuse, said Jamal Story, co-chair of the National Dance Committee for The Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA).

“Professional dancers suffer a wide swath of sexual predation from irritating flirtation to full out devastating attacks. And what’s egregious about seeing it in the context of conventions is that it happens to kids. Nowhere in the world of education should students feel they are underneath the predators,” he said.

At least four people removed from Break The Floor for alleged misconduct have continued to work with students in other settings.

Earlier this year, after Geyser took the helm as CEO, Break the Floor implemented procedures to “protect children,” including, among other things, a hotline, background checks for new staffers and a commitment to commission independent probes into allegations.

The company also published a new code of conduct. It banned inviting students to hotel rooms and said instructors shouldn’t call students their “daughter” or “son.”

The code of conduct also requires educators to report any suspected child abuse: “If you witness anything concerning, it is your duty to report it to the appropriate authorities.”

Morgan Bocknek is a Toronto-based podcast producer for the Star, based in Toronto. She is also a Star contributor. Follow her on Twitter: @mobocks