Warning: This article includes accounts of alleged sexual misconduct that some readers could find distressing.
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. 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.
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.
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.” He had been heading it uninterrupted for 22 years, presiding over its consistent growth, when a 2021 Star investigation revealedby Break the Floor coaches over their younger students.
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 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.
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. 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.