"An internal administrative investigation carried out within the Ballet du Capitole has in fact, after the unanimous opinion of the joint consultative commission, led the establishment to put an end to the missions of Mr. Kader Belarbi as director of dance", explains Toulouse. metropolis, which exercises its guardianship over the theater, in an email to AFP.
Mr. Belarbi, 60, choreographer and former star dancer, has been directing the ballet of the national theater-opera of the Capitole de Toulouse since August 2012. He deplores a dismissal decision "as brutal as vexatious" and says he is "victim of a settlement of gross account dictated by a real intention to harm".
In his press release, he mentions a complaint "as late as it is incoherent" filed against him with the public prosecutor by a "dancer no longer part of the ballet", without specifying the facts referred to in this complaint.
According to a source close to the ballet, the facts would be "humiliating acts", corroborated by several testimonies.
In turn, Mr. Belarbi filed a complaint with the Toulouse prosecutor's office "for slanderous denunciation" against the dancer and against "those who deliberately exploited this unfair questioning".
According to Yves Sapir, CGT delegate at the Théâtre du Capitole and, as a member of the joint advisory committee, bound by a duty of reserve, the internal investigation highlighted "personnel management problems" on the part of of Mr. Belarbi, "interpersonal difficulties" between the latter and the rest of the company as well as a problem of staff management, the ballet being subject to "very high turnover".
Born on November 18, 1962 in Grenoble, Kader Belarbi attended the dance school of the Paris Opera before joining the ballet in 1980 and becoming a star dancer there in 1989 at the age of 27.
After his career as a dancer, he became a choreographer and "is the author of around forty ballets", according to his biography still available on the Capitole theater website.
© 2023 AFP