When a dancer in Streb Extreme Action — a company that mixes kinetic daredevilry, stunts and modern dance — broke her back in a performance in May, a longtime member put out a call for contributors to come to a fund-raising evening.
Terry Dean Bartlett, Streb’s former associate artistic director.
Streb Extreme Action rehearsing in its Williamsburg, Brooklyn, studio.
Now that member, the associate artistic director Terry Dean Bartlett, finds himself out of the company. Mr. Bartlett has come forward to accuse its founder and director, Elizabeth Streb, of dismissing him for spreading negative publicity by announcing the fund-raiser.
But Ms. Streb denied that the firing had any connection to the fund-raiser and said that Mr. Bartlett had already crossed the line with improper behavior during the company’s public rehearsals and performances.
The acrimonious dispute is an unusual airing of dirty laundry in the modern dance and performance-art scene, in which finances are always precarious. And it comes at a crucial time for the company. New York City and the Brooklyn borough president’s office have approved $1 million in grants to allow Streb to buy its building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, part of a former mustard factory. What’s more Ms. Streb has backing from producers to create an Off Broadway show based on the company’s work.
Streb Extreme Action is a daring, sometimes near-violent performance style that borrows from dance, extreme sports and Hollywood-style stunt work. Bodies slam face down onto mats or narrowly avoid swinging cinder blocks. The company promotes the daring nature of its pieces and does not hide that its performers often suffer minor injuries, like black eyes, cuts, twisted ankles and broken fingers.
In May, deeAnn Nelson, 28, was hurt performing a relatively benign piece. She slipped as she was running up an inclined board and tumbled to the floor from about six feet above the ground. She underwent surgery and had a metal rod placed in her back and will be in a brace for a number of months. The company said it was its first major accident.
Mr. Bartlett quickly sent out an e-mail message to his contacts in the dance world, proposing a benefit to help Ms. Nelson pay expenses and erroneously saying that she lacked health insurance, a mistake he corrected in a subsequent e-mail message. The benefit took place on July 2 and was a success, nearly filling the house at Dance Theater Workshop and raising more than $6,000. When Mr. Bartlett announced the fund-raiser, Ms. Streb disavowed it, saying that neither she nor Ms. Nelson had been consulted.
On June 19, Mr. Bartlett said in an interview, Ms. Streb called him in and said he was fired. “She was telling me at that moment that it was because I had on occasion had outbursts with her or responded back to her in kind when she had yelled at me or the dancers,” he said, “that I just wouldn’t kowtow to her.”
But the real reason, he added, was that he had alerted people about Ms. Nelson’s serious injury.
“Apparently I had let the cat out of the bag that somebody had been injured in her company, even though it happened in a public performance,” he said. “She wanted to keep that a secret apparently,” especially with the building purchase and commercial show pending.
Mr. Bartlett said Ms. Streb asked him to sign a confidentiality agreement that would have barred him from talking to the news media in exchange for two months’ severance pay. He refused. He also said Ms. Streb ordered him not to discuss the accident with a reporter.
In an interview Ms. Streb scoffed at the notion that she had fired Mr. Bartlett for bad publicity or for having arranged the benefit. She said he had been on notice since a performance review in January listing specific problems.
“There’s certain behaviors I don’t allow here,” she said, without going into detail. “We had different ideas about what comportment should be in public spaces.”
She also said she had objected not to the benefit but to its announcement without consultation. Ms. Streb said she did not attend because she was out of town; several of her performers took part.
She also said that the nondisclosure statement was requested by her board and was standard, and that Mr. Bartlett had asked for more money in severance than the company could afford. Mr. Bartlett, in the interview, acknowledged he would have considered accepting a 10-month severance agreement.
Mr. Bartlett has deep knowledge of the Streb technique and of the company, having taught many of its dancers and overseen many shows. Ms. Streb called him a dedicated performer who gave 100 percent. “It’s a complete heartache not to have him here,” she said, especially before the Off Broadway production.
Despite the accident and the firing, Ms. Streb said, the building purchase and the Off Broadway production are moving forward smoothly.
“I think it’s incredible news,” she said about the planned show, which is at least a year away from opening. “It’s such an amazing venture, and I found the right team.” She spoke in an interview this week at her building, filled with metal beams, ropes, a trapeze apparatus, mats and folding metal chairs.
The show, which Ms. Streb calls a “move-ical,” is being backed by WestBeth Entertainment, which has presented the British comedian Eddie Izzard and the current rock musical “Escape From Bellevue.”
Ms. Streb said that Mr. Bartlett’s absence would not impede the commercial venture.
“The production,” she said, “is bigger than any one individual.”
