Ballet School Head Fights Sex Charges : Teacher Accused of Molesting Former Girl Student at Academy

Parents who sent their children to the Phyllis Cyr Academy for ballet classes in Huntington Beach the last 14 years did so because they believed Anthony Sellars was the best teacher around.

Sellars, a former professional dancer who owns the academy, has taught thousands of students and many of them have gone on to the best ballet companies in America, including the Joffrey, American Ballet Theatre II, the New York City Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet.

But now, Sellars’ career has been threatened by sexual molestation charges involving one of his former girl students. And many parents have shown up for every one of his court appearances to show their support for him.

They expect to turn out in strong numbers again today, when testimony at Sellars’ trial in Westminster Superior Court is scheduled to begin. Opening statements were made Tuesday.

“It wouldn’t change my opinion even if he were to get convicted,” said Pat George, who has sent two daughters to study with Sellars, and whose husband, Ed George, is one of Sellars’ attorneys. “I know he’s innocent,” she added.

A few of the parents who sent their sons or daughters to study with Sellars have turned against him since the charges were revealed. Yet even those parents conceded he is a brilliant teacher, who is dedicated to his students.

Sellars, 36, was charged last fall with four counts of oral copulation with a 15-year-old student. The charges allege that all the acts took place between January and June, 1984, when the girl took private classes at the academy with Sellars.

In his opening statement Tuesday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael C. Koski told jurors that the girl had “a crush” on Sellars. He said she “acquiesced” to the alleged sexual acts.

The girl, who is scheduled to testify against Sellars, never complained about him to the police, Koski said. Instead, he said, officers came to her after learning her name during an investigation.

The student, who continued taking classes during 1985--after she claims the sex acts stopped between her and Sellars--eventually agreed to cooperate with the police, Koski said. At one point, she telephoned Sellars while a Huntington Beach police detective listened in on another line, Koski added.

Sellars said he has been devastated by the charges against him. But the allegations have also bitterly divided parents who once shared car-pool duties to take their children to the Phyllis Cyr Academy.

Parents who support the dance instructor said the others have either been duped into believing the allegations, or have ulterior motives. Some hint, for example, that a few parents are angry toward Sellars because their children did not get better dance assignments.

However, members of the anti-Sellars faction, while fewer in number, believe the parents supporting the dance instructor are naive.

“We feel betrayed, because Mr. Sellars was just like one of our family,” said one mother, who asked not to be identified.

Sellars, in a brief interview three months ago, said he has been buoyed by the support from most of the parents, as well as the faith shown in him by his wife, Terri.

Teaches Classes

Terri Sellars, a former professional dancer, helps him run the academy and teaches many of the classes herself.

“If I believed a single word of what was being said against him, I wouldn’t be here,” she said, standing outside the court Tuesday during a break in jury selection.

The Phyllis Cyr Academy is one of the largest such schools in the United States. Approximately 2,000 students, under the direction of six instructors, work out of five teaching rooms at the facility.

Sellars began teaching there 14 years ago and bought the academy five years ago from Phyllis Cyr, a well-known figure in the ballet field.

Although Sellars has been limited by his attorneys in what he can say about the case, except to emphatically deny the charges against him, the dance instructor said, “Accusations such as this are the quickest and easiest way for a student to ruin a teacher.”

Supporters Speak

His supporters, however, are not so restrained.

“We know he’s innocent because we are there (at the academy) all the time,” said Linda Pansini of Huntington Beach, who has two daughters studying with Sellars. “It’s like a second home to us. We know what goes on there.”

Supporters also point out that the former girl student is lying because there is no such thing as a private class at the Phyllis Cyr Academy. Ed George, Sellars’ co-counsel, stressed that point during opening statements at the trial Tuesday.

“The door to the room where these acts were supposed to have taken place has no lock on it,” George said. “People are in and out of there all the time, passing through to get to another studio. The girl was taking an individual class from Mr. Sellars, but it certainly wasn’t private.”

However, Koski told jurors that there is only one window to that room, and that the shade on it was pulled down the nights the girl alleged Sellars molested her during the private classes.

Koski’s only supporting evidence for the girl’s statements has come from Huntington Beach Police Detective Don Howell, who was listening in on a telephone call between the girl and Sellars last year. Howell’s tape recorder failed to work, but Koski told jurors that the detective listened to the conversation and remembers Sellars acknowledging there had been sex acts between the girl and him.

However, George and Albert Ramsey, Sellars’ other attorney, said their client has another version of that conversation which jurors will learn about later.

After jury selection Monday, Sellars rushed back to the academy and taught two classes. He headed back there Tuesday night after the opening statements in court.

“We have to keep going,” Sellars said. “We can’t stop classes because of this.”