Lizzo dancers speak out in first interview since lawsuit: ‘I was terrified for my job’
Dancer discussed alleged incident in Amsterdam nightclub
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Your support makes all the difference.Two of the dancers to have brought a lawsuit against Lizzo have given their first public interview since their allegations came to light on Tuesday (1 August).
Follow the Independent’s live coverage for the latest updates on this story
Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez brought the suit against Lizzo, her touring company and her dance captain Shirlene Quigley.
The 44-page filing obtained by The Independent accuses the “About Damn Time” singer of sexual harassment and fostering a hostile work environment.
Lizzo has yet to comment on the lawsuit. Her representatives did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
Davis and Williams began dancing for Lizzo after competing on her Amazon Prime Video reality show, Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, in 2021.
The lawsuit alleges that, during a trip to Amsterdam, Lizzo pressured Davis into touching a nude performer at a strip club, even though it was against her religious beliefs.
“I did not ask for it. I said no multiple times,” Davis told NBC News in a joint interview with Williams.
She said that after facing intense pressure from Lizzo, she “briefly touched” the performer.
“I was very, very mortified, everyone burst into laughter,” she said.
Davis also alleges that Lizzo and her choreographer made “thinly veiled” comments about her weight.
She told NBC that the comments were “never blatant fatphobia”.
“It was very nuanced and very underlying underneath all the other issues that were going on,” Davis said. “I just had this feeling that they had a problem with the way I was gaining weight and looking different and that I wasn’t ‘the same’ as when they first cast me.”
The dancer added that “nobody speaks up because they’re so scared for their jobs... I was terrified for my job”.
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In a separate incident, the suit alleges that Lizzo subjected her dancers to an “excruciating” 12-hour audition after “falsely” accusing them of drinking before performances.
After hitting back at the singer’s assertion, Williams claims she was fired days later. During the audition, Davis claims that she soiled herself as she was fearful of using the restroom during the process.
“If there’s anything that I can do in my power to ensure that dancers or singers or whoever decides to work with her don’t have to go through that same experience, I’m going to do that,” Williams told CBS in another interview.
Other claims in the lawsuit, not all of which are brought against each defendant, include assault, racial and religious harassment, fat-shaming, disability discrimination, and false imprisonment.
“The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralising,” the plaintiffs’ attorney, Ron Zambrano, said in a statement.