It went like this: A teacher would insinuate himself into a circle of young women. Train his attention on one in particular. Find reasons to touch her, spend time with her, get her alone. Cross boundaries, with devastating consequences. And because the women were manipulated, threatened, isolated, and ashamed, they didn't talk about what happened. They didn't know there were others. Until they did. And they filed a lawsuit.
The man is Mitchell Taylor Button, a former dance instructor known to his students as Taylor. He's the husband of Dusty Button, who was a prima ballerina of the esteemed Boston Ballet and a wildly popular dance influencer on Instagram until her career came crashing down in the wake of allegations that she and Taylor sexually abused the young women in their sphere of influence.
The legal case, first filed in July 2021, is ongoing (the Buttons have filed a motion to dismiss in which they deny any wrongdoing; when reached by Cosmopolitan, their attorney declined to provide additional comment). The accusations at its center are harrowing, detailing a predatory pattern of grooming, coercion, molestation, sexual assault, and, in some cases, battery, perpetrated over the course of at least a decade.
The arc of these stories—among the seven plaintiffs in this case and in broader narratives that have played out in recent years on the global stage—is painfully familiar. Hollywood. Media. Gymnastics. Now, another subculture of silence is crumbling.
 It went like this: A teacher would insinuate himself into a circle of young women. Train his attention on one in particular. Find reasons to touch her, spend time with her, get her alone. Cross boundaries, with devastating consequences. And because the women were manipulated, threatened, isolated, and ashamed, they didn't talk about what happened. They didn't know there were others. Until they did. And they filed a lawsuit.
The man is Mitchell Taylor Button, a former dance instructor known to his students as Taylor. He's the husband of Dusty Button, who was a prima ballerina of the esteemed Boston Ballet and a wildly popular dance influencer on Instagram until her career came crashing down in the wake of allegations that she and Taylor sexually abused the young women in their sphere of influence.
The legal case, first filed in July 2021, is ongoing (the Buttons have filed a motion to dismiss in which they deny any wrongdoing; when reached by Cosmopolitan, their attorney declined to provide additional comment). The accusations at its center are harrowing, detailing a predatory pattern of grooming, coercion, molestation, sexual assault, and, in some cases, battery, perpetrated over the course of at least a decade.
The arc of these stories—among the seven plaintiffs in this case and in broader narratives that have played out in recent years on the global stage—is painfully familiar. Hollywood. Media. Gymnastics. Now, another subculture of silence is crumbling. |
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