COURTS : Ballet Teacher Acquitted of Sex Charges

A jury, apparently troubled by conflicting testimony from a police investigator and the alleged victim, acquitted a Huntington Beach ballet teacher of charges that he sexually molested a teen-age girl during private dance lessons.

Anthony Sellars, 36, a former professional dancer and operator of the Phyllis Cyr Academy, said he “would just like this whole thing to be dropped now. . . . I feel very relieved that the right decision came out because it means I can go back to my wife and my baby son . . . and my friends at the studio.”

The four counts of oral copulation were based on allegations of incidents occurring while teacher and student were alone in a studio.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael C. Koski said, “I think we presented as good a job (to the jury) as we could.”

“Thank the Lord!” Sellars said he told himself as the verdict was read.

In the future, Sellars said, private lessons will be held only when a student’s parent or guardian is present.

He said that a window shade blocking a large viewing window into the studio will be removed and that video cameras will record all lessons.

Sellars has taught thousands of students. Many went on to join the leading ballet companies in America, including the Joffrey, American Ballet Theatre II, the New York City Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet.