A former star of the Boston Ballet was named in a federal lawsuit that accuses her and her husband of sexually abusing dancers they were mentoring.
Two women, Sage Humphries and Gina Menichino, sued dance instructor Mitchell Taylor Button this summer and made disturbing allegations that he groomed them before he sexually abused them while they were his young students.
The civil complaint, filed Sept. 23 in U.S. District Court in Nevada, was amended last week to add three plaintiffs and to name former Boston Ballet principal dancer Dusty Button, Button's wife, as a co-defendant.
"The is a case about a couple who exploited their position of power and influence in the dance world to sexually abuse young dancers across the country," the complaint said.
The amended suit includes allegations by dancers Rosemarie DeAngelo and Danielle Gutierrez and a plaintiff identified as "Jane Doe 100."
The Buttons, who live in Las Vegas, could not be reached for comment Thursday at any of their publicly listed phone numbers. Their attorney, Marc Randazza, said they deny all allegations.
"Our position remains the same," Randazza said in a statement. "We look forward to clearing both of their names in court."
The anonymous accuser was a minor who was dancing with a contemporary dance company that rented studio space from the Boston Ballet when she met Dusty Button in 2014, the lawsuit says.
The Buttons took an interest in the young dancer, and together they sexually assaulted her, the civil complaint alleges.
Humphries said she was also abused by both Buttons, who the lawsuit claims "regularly used painful sex toys on Sage and would tie Sage up, in order to have sex with her."
"Sage never consented to these violent sex acts," the complaint says.
