DANCING IN THE DARK: SEX ABUSE SCANDAL HAUNTS THE ROYAL BALLET

By Audrey H. Heart

Investigative Reporter

In two days The Royal Opera House will present the biggest event the ballet world has seen since Nureyev appeared on the London stage for the first time in 1961.

Harry Styles, England's prodigal son, has returned. The 23-year-old virtuoso has been dancing in Moscow with the Bolshoi Ballet his entire professional career. The Royal Ballet's production of Swan Lake will mark his first performance in his homeland. It will also mark the first time he has worked with his legendary predecessor and mentor, Alexander Beauchamp, who was brought onto the production late as guest choreographer, replacing Maurice Charrat.

Styles is the epitome of success with a career that has eclipsed all of his peers. His preternatural abilities, theatricality and offstage antics have catapulted him into the mainstream consciousness. His image is splashed across magazine covers alongside rock stars and movie stars. He is the most highly paid dancer in the world and this is evident in his London flat, a luxury two-story loft overlooking the Thames.

In person, he is regal and calm with lustrous dark curls that rest on his broad shoulders like a lion's mane, and a five thousand quid suit sleek as a second skin.

On the surface he appears to have the perfect life but all is not what it seems. Styles suffers from night terrors, insomnia and chronic depression. His training regimen borders on masochistic and he is on a bevy of pharmaceuticals to numb his constant pain. All these issues, he claims, stem from the abuse he suffered as a teenager at the hands of his former mentor, now colleague, Alexander Beauchamp.

"He raped me."

The words surprise Styles as they escape his lips, as though he'd never dared utter them aloud before.

The revelation is especially shocking in light of their history. Styles was known as one of Beauchamp's prized pupils at The Royal Ballet School. Though Styles is reluctant to admit it, Beauchamp's influence on him is profound. Styles' career is almost a mirror image of Beauchamp's. Both trained at The Royal Ballet School in London before being hired by world famous companies straight out of school where they quickly rose up the ranks to principal dancer and then to the top of their profession.

Styles' dancing is almost always discussed in connection with Beauchamp's as though they are two sides of the same coin.

"I've never seen him dance," Styles says. "There are videos but I won't watch them. The truth is, I'm afraid I'll see myself in him."

But their dancing is where they differ. Beauchamp is a showman, feeding off the audience's love for him. Styles dances only for himself. Watching him feels like intruding into his dark heart.

The abuse began on a trip to Paris. Styles was handpicked by Beauchamp to accompany him to opening night of Swan Lake at the Paris Opera Ballet, a great honor for a young dancer. He was told by Beauchamp that instead of a hotel reserved by the school, he would be staying in the apartment Beauchamp shared with his wife, famed ballerina Irina Beauchamp. When they arrived in Paris, however, he was taken to another apartment, a one-bedroom where he and Beauchamp would stay alone.

"Alexander wouldn't just lie to me, he would tell lies within lies."

As Styles begins to describe what happened to him in that Paris apartment, his partner Louis Tomlinson holds his hand. Like Styles, Tomlinson is a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet and a former pupil of Beauchamp. He is a compact and athletic dancer with bright blue eyes and winning smile that fades when Styles speaks of the past.

There was only one bed in Beauchamp's Paris apartment and he urged Styles to sleep beside him. "It felt wrong sharing a bed with my teacher. I blamed myself for this feeling. I thought I was being paranoid. The second I got in that bed with him he started touching me, then he took off my underwear. I knew what was going to happen next and I was terrified. I'd never had sex before. I'd only kissed a boy once in my life."

Styles' expression is impassive but Tomlinson, his partner, is visibly distraught.

"He wasn't careful with me. I almost blacked out from the pain. He said I would get used to it. I didn't want to get used to it. But as much as I hated having sex with him, I didn't know it was rape. I never said no, I just did as I was told. I thought that meant it was consensual."

The next part of the story is difficult for him. He goes silent for several minutes. The grandfather clock chimes and he jolts. Styles is not a small man but he has delicate features. Seeing his fear is like watching a child's fear. It is primal.

"He would call me his pet," Styles relayed with a profound sense of shame. "Once, he was so rough with me, I couldn't get out of bed the next morning. I felt like I was being torn in two even when he wasn't inside me. He brought me a heating pad and a First Aid Kit and told me he was in love with me. 'I'm in love with you, my pet.' I cried for hours after that. I thought if this was love then love was the ugliest thing in the world."

Styles was raped so many times on that trip he lost count. He was kept in the apartment for three days.

"I was so naïve. I actually believed I was going to go sightseeing on that trip. Even after our first night together, I thought maybe he just got carried away and everything would go back to normal. It didn't."

Beauchamp would leave the apartment for short periods of time and Styles remained there alone.

"He brought me food but I wouldn't eat it. He brought me something else too."

Styles' pale hands clench into fists. "It was a snow globe with the Eiffel Tower inside. He got it from a street vendor on the Champs-Élysées. He bought it to mock me. I threw it across the room and screamed into my pillow. He said it was just a joke and that I was being moody. Then he chastised me for wanting to go sightseeing in the first place. He said I sounded provincial. He said staying in bed all day with an older lover was much more sophisticated."

The abuse as Styles tells it only got worse when Beauchamp took him on another trip, this time to Kiev.

"Up until that point a part of me honestly did think he cared about me, in his own sick, twisted way. After Kiev I knew for certain that he did not."

Once again The Royal Ballet School arranged a separate room for Styles, in the dormitory of the Kiev State Ballet School. Beauchamp made him stay with him at his apartment near the Maidan Nezalezhnosti.

Igor Shevchenko, the landlord, thought he saw the pair coming and going from the same unit. A vandalized desk confirmed his suspicion. "The boy was working for Mr. Beauchamp, so I thought nothing of it at the time." Shevchenko has been running the low-rise, turn of the century building for close to thirty years and has seen many high profile residents with assistants in tow.

"One thing was a little strange. The first morning of their stay, the boy had trouble walking. He looked ill. Mr. Beauchamp carried him up the stairs. I remember thinking that it was very kind of Mr. Beauchamp to carry him."

In Kiev, Styles claims he was assaulted by multiple men.

The first encounter took place in a studio at the Kiev Opera House. There were five men, including Boris Polzin a choreographer with the Kiev Ballet, and the Artistic Director, Vladimir Antonov. Polzin has had seven sexual harassment lawsuits filed against him by dancers with the company. Three of the complainants were minors. All cases were settled out of court. Antonov was accused of sexually assaulting a child dancer who played Fritz in the Kiev Ballet's 2012 production of The Nutcracker. The complainant retracted his statement.

Styles believes the problem is systemic. Dancers are taken from their parents at a young age and taught to depend solely on adults in the industry. Instructors, choreographers and directors abuse their power knowing that young dancers will keep quiet or else risk damaging their careers. It is a vicious cycle of silence that is impossible to break. Almost impossible. Styles aims to break the silence by coming forward now.

He looks at his lap. "You know, when Alex called me his pet I thought it was a term of endearment. It was only in Kiev when I realized he meant it literally. He saw me as an animal."

Styles' deep voice shifts again when he says Beauchamp's name. He refers to him by many names: "Alex," "Alexander," "Beauchamp" and "my teacher," as though he were different people to him at different points in their relationship and not simply one man.

"In the Kiev apartment he kept me in his bedroom at night with the lights off. Some nights it was just the two of us, but there were a few nights where he brought other men to the apartment. He told me to stay in the bedroom and keep quiet while he entertained his guests in the living area. After what happened the first night at the opera house, every sound on the other side of the door made me shake: the clinking of their glasses, their laughter, the music they played... Not even Beauchamp's pills could calm me.

This time was different but no less terrifying. He sent the men in one at a time, to give them privacy, I guess. A courtesy. I didn't know who they were. I didn't even know their names. At first I hid in the closet. But they would just drag me out of there, so eventually I just gave up and lay on the bed in a drugged up stupor.

On the fourth night, once they'd all had a turn with me, Alex invited me to sit and drink with them in the living area. I didn't want to go. I was so drowsy and sore and I was afraid they might want me again. Alex scooped me up and carried me, naked, into the other room and placed me in the middle of the floor. All the men sat around me and stared. I drew my knees up under my chin. Alex kicked me like a dog. He found my modesty annoying.

Truth be told, he found everything about me annoying. He desired me and hated me in equal measure. Back then I wasn't sure what I did wrong but now I realize that most boys wanted to please him because he was famous. They wanted to be him. I was new to the world of ballet and didn't know enough about him to worship him the way they did.

I didn't recognize his friends either but I knew from the way they were dressed that they were important men. The gawked at me as I sat naked and shivering on the floor. One man didn't like seeing me this way. It made him uncomfortable. He hadn't been kind to me in the bedroom. He'd dragged me out of the closet by my hair and spit on me. Oddly, in this context he felt shame.

The man removed his red velvet dinner jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders. It was still warm and its satin lining felt nice against my skin. Then something strange happened. The men stopped looking at me and started looking at the flashy jacket, it's shiny onyx buttons and silk black collar."

Styles is dressed in similarly ostentatious fashion now, in a double-breasted suit with a paisley print.

He laughed. "I think that night is what made me fall in love with clothes. They deflect attention from me. I can hide behind them."

Tomlinson, his partner, comes back carrying a tea set. He prepares Styles' tea exactly the way he likes it and cautiously places the hot teacup in his hands.

He is an attentive partner and dotes on Styles. They were best friends at The Royal Ballet School and recently reconnected. The two are inseparable now. Tomlinson stretches his arm and Styles fits snugly beneath it without missing a beat. It's like their relationship is an intricate dance choreographed by their love for one another.

"Louis is the reason I'm coming forward now," Styles says. "He believes me."

But will anyone else believe him? Beauchamp has been working on The Royal Ballet's current production of Swan Lake for six weeks and has been tapped for a permanent position with the company. It's impossible to know how the dance community will react to Styles' revelation about the beloved idol.

"I know not everyone will believe me. That's okay. I'm telling my story for all the boys who can't tell theirs."

Styles admits that there will be a backlash. The Beauchamp Styles describes seems at odds with the man the world knows and loves. Alexander Beauchamp is a philanthropist and a patron of the arts. After he retired from dancing he devoted much of his time to volunteer work, particularly the mentorship of underprivileged children. He is congenial and counts many celebrities and royalty among his closest friends. On stage he is known for dancing the parts of all the great heroes, like Spartacus and Prince Désiré.

Styles on the other hand has popularized the roles of villains on stage—Von Rothbart and Ivan the Terrible. Offstage, he has a reputation for being difficult, volatile and self-destructive. Though famous, he has few friends and countless enemies within the industry.

Tomlinson who has been silent the entire interview erupts passionately: "Beauchamp is a good person when the world is watching but it's what you do when no one's watching that matters." He takes the teacup from Styles and kisses his hands. "Harry is the most selfless person I have ever known. He doesn't show everyone his heart but I've seen it. I know who he really is."

If this is true, there is perhaps no greater example of who Beauchamp really is than the gift he gave Styles upon their recent reunion.

Three weeks ago, Styles found a gift from Beauchamp in his dressing room. It was sitting on his vanity in an unassuming black box. There was a card next to the box that read: "for my pet"

Styles pulls the gift out of his pocket. It's the snow globe with the Eiffel Tower inside. Just the sight of it torments him. He furrows his brow in anguish. It is the perfect symbol of his suffering: cold, unchanging and suspended in time.

He shakes the snow globe and watches the plastic snowflakes fall over the plastic tower. He's still never been sightseeing in Paris.

"I'll take you someday," Tomlinson says.

Styles turns to his partner. "Really?"

"We can go to the top of the Eiffel Tower and see the whole city."

For the first time during the interview Styles looks hopeful. "I'd like that."