Chase Finlay breaks silence in Dancing With Shadows podcast interview

Chase Finlay, former New York City Ballet (NYCB) Principal and the eye of the storm of the company's scandal in 2018, broke silence in a podcast titled Dancing With Shadows.

Ballet critics called Finlay "The Golden Boy" and he was the epitome of the title role of George Balanchine's Apollo. However in 2018, he and NYCB was sued by then-girlfriend Alexandra Waterbury, who trained at School of American Ballet. He had taken sexually explicit pictures and movies of her and shared them with his male colleagues and friends without her consent. The lawsuit grabbed headlines across the world (Here are articles of The New York Times in 2018 and 2020). He soon checked himself in a behavioral health treatment center in Texas due to his substance use disorder, depression, and anxiety.

Dancing With Shadows is a documentary podcast, which focuses on the complex shadows of the NYCB. In the Episode 6, released on 18th March 2025, presenter Kelly Anderson speaks with Finlay. The full-hour interview is his first to give since the scandal. I felt saddened and surprised to hear how clearly candidly he spoke.

I confess I started listening this podcast from Episode 6. But I will listen to it from the first episode.

Waterbury is currently studying law.