Dance student given $60 after sex assault, trial told
Two incidents alleged when girl was 15
Susan Lazaruk, The Province
Published: Tuesday, August 21, 2007

A teen testified yesterday that her former tap-dance teacher gave her $60 after sexually assaulting her.

The young woman, now 19, is the third teen to allege in B.C. Supreme Court that she was sexually assaulted by Van "The Man" Porter, a world-renowned tap dancer and instructor.

Porter, who danced with Gregory Hines in Tap and toured for years with Riverdance, as well as performing on Broadway, has pleaded not guilty to seven criminal charges.

He's charged with three counts of sexual assault; three of sexual exploitation, by someone in a position of trust, of a young person; and one of sexual interference involving a child under 14.

The witness yesterday testified that, during two separate private lessons in August 2003, when she was 15, Porter massaged the insides of her thighs and her vagina for 10 to 20 seconds while she was stretching by lying on her back, with the soles of her feet together as she tried to touch her knees to the ground.

The second time it happened at the studios of the Vancouver Tap Dance Society, she alleged Porter put his hand under her top and massaged her breast through her bra.

"I sat up and asked him what he was doing and [told him] that would not help me stretch," she said in a quiet, calm voice.

"He asked me if I felt uncomfortable and if I felt victimized and I said, 'yes'.

"He said we wouldn't come back to that stretch again. He gave me $60 cash and said it wasn't to give back to my mom [who paid for her lessons], but it was for me."

The teen said it was the last time she took private lessons with Porter, despite his repeated invitations.

She said she gave the $60 to her brother for his birthday because "I just didn't like having it around. It felt wrong to have it."

Defence lawyer Richard Fowler asked why she would agree to return to the same stretch position if she felt she was sexually assaulted the first time.

"Up until the time his fingers went under your top, you still thought it was a stretch?" he asked.

"That's at the point I sat up," she said.

Court also heard Porter was asked to resign from the society a day after it received a third complaint, in March 2005.

Porter, testifying in his own defence, said he married in 2000 and settled in Vancouver in 2001, the year the American became a landed immigrant.

He is scheduled to return to the stand this morning.

slazaruk@png.canwest.com