Ballet School Accused of ‘Size Bias’

A prestigious ballet school has been accused of violating San Francisco’s new law against size discrimination for rejecting a young ballerina allegedly deemed too large.

In a complaint lodged with the city’s Human Rights Commission, 8-year-old Fredrika Keefer and her mother, Krissy Keefer, say the San Francisco Ballet School dashed Fredrika’s dreams because she did not fit criteria requiring applicants to have “a well-proportioned, slender body.”

“I wasn’t skinny enough,” the fourth-grader told reporters Thursday as news of the case broke. “Almost all the girls in S.F. Ballet are kind of skinny, and they’re really tall. And I’m too short, I guess.”

The Keefers’ complaint is the first filed under a 7-month-old San Francisco law that added body size to city laws that ban discrimination based on race, color, religion, age and a host of other factors.

The Keefers contend that the San Francisco Ballet School, run under the auspices of the San Francisco Ballet, violated that ordinance when it rejected Fredrika--who is described by her mother as “short and muscular.”

Krissy Keefer, who directs two dance groups in the city, said her daughter’s size was clearly the reason she did not gain admittance to the 325-student school.

“My daughter is exceptionally talented,” Krissy Keefer told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Anyone who sees her perform is impressed by her talent.”

In its response filed Thursday with the Human Rights Commission, the school rejected the Keefers’ complaint, saying it was “patently untrue” that Fredrika was rejected for unlawfully discriminatory reasons. More than 1,400 students applied to the school last year and 403 were accepted.

“The school has published criteria for acceptance . . . and Ms. Keefer, along with many other children who auditioned, did not meet those criteria,” school lawyer Emily Flynn said.

“Furthermore, contrary to Ms. Keefer’s allegations, height, weight and gender are not part of these published criteria, and Ms. Keefer offers no credible evidence that such factors played any role in her case.”

The school, established in 1933 as a training ground for future ballet dancers with the company, begins accepting students at age 8.

The school is subject to the San Francisco city ordinance because it receives $550,000 annually from the city Grants for the Arts program. An official at the Human Rights Commission said it would seek to mediate the dispute before deciding whether to begin a formal investigation.

While Fredrika’s case grinds through the city bureaucracy, she is concentrating on her next gig: the lead role of Clara in the holiday season “Petite Nutcracker” ballet being put on by a dance theater where she attends classes.