Speaker 1: When it started to go a little too far. He
Speaker 1: would sometimes show up the studio wearing bandages on his hands,
Speaker 1: and he would say that he was mastering how to
Speaker 1: manipulate and start fire from his hands.
Speaker 2: I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about
Speaker 2: the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
Speaker 2: change everything.
Speaker 1: The students reached out to me and they were the
Speaker 1: ones who told me that they got out of a cult.
Speaker 2: That's Alicia. It isn't her real name. We've had to
Speaker 2: anonymize everyone in this episode, and you'll see why in
Speaker 2: a minute.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I don't know where to start. Let's
Speaker 1: go to the beginning. I guess.
Speaker 2: Alicia grew up in the eighties in a chaotic home.
Speaker 2: One of her parents struggled with addiction, so Alisha ended
Speaker 2: up helping raise her older brothers and in a way,
Speaker 2: raising herself.
Speaker 1: I pretty much had to be the provider, maybe cook
Speaker 1: food or meals as much as I could, so that
Speaker 1: was a little stressful as a younger kid.
Speaker 2: When she was seven years old, her dad signed her
Speaker 2: up for dance and it changed her life.
Speaker 1: It definitely saved me.
Speaker 2: In one of her very first classes, Alicia remembers feeling
Speaker 2: out of place.
Speaker 1: I was the little scraggly kid in the back. It
Speaker 1: was funny because one time I went to class and
Speaker 1: I was wearing jeans, and I was like mortified because
Speaker 1: I didn't have my tights or anything.
Speaker 2: But the dance instructor put Alicia at ease.
Speaker 1: She made me feel seen and like it was okay,
Speaker 1: and you know, I was just there to dance and
Speaker 1: no one was looking at me to try to judge me.
Speaker 1: She was awesome, And then after that I was hooked.
Speaker 2: That instructor became a mentor.
Speaker 1: She stayed my role model all the way through my
Speaker 1: dance career at that studio until I pretty much graduated
Speaker 1: high school.
Speaker 2: It was a classical studio, so Alicia trained in ballet,
Speaker 2: tap and jazz from age seven on. She joined every
Speaker 2: class she could.
Speaker 1: It was a way for me to escape what was
Speaker 1: going on at home. It was my way to walk
Speaker 1: into the studio and just be somewhere else, be something else.
Speaker 1: I was able to escape through the music, through the movement.
Speaker 1: It just became my safe space.
Speaker 2: When she went off to college, she kept dancing and
Speaker 2: eventually she began teaching it.
Speaker 1: It became this full circle moment of being able to
Speaker 1: do the things that my mentor had done for me
Speaker 1: give that back to a kid that might have not
Speaker 1: felt seen.
Speaker 2: She returned to her childhood studio.
Speaker 1: After college, I wound up venturing back to my old
Speaker 1: studio that I originally grew up at. I wanted to
Speaker 1: make kids feel empowered, to make them feel good about themselves,
Speaker 1: express themselves in the ways that they needed.
Speaker 2: Alicia had dozens of students. One of the standouts was
Speaker 2: a young dancer named Kim.
Speaker 1: One of our students was Kim. I started working with
Speaker 1: her when she was twelve or thirteen years old. I
Speaker 1: remember her being this fun, quirky, sassy girl.
Speaker 2: But Kim was incredibly talented.
Speaker 1: She just had this natural ability to her, this natural
Speaker 1: flexibility that people only dream of. She was always really
Speaker 1: willing to work hard, and I knew she would go far.
Speaker 2: I knew she was going to make it. Alicia took
Speaker 2: her under her wing. That year, Alisha met another dancer
Speaker 2: we're going to call Kevin. He was Alisha's age, just
Speaker 2: finishing college.
Speaker 1: Kevin. He was cute and I thought it was pretty
Speaker 1: impressive to see someone that could dance as well as
Speaker 1: he could. He had that natural ability and that natural talent,
Speaker 1: and there's something attractive about that, like especially seeing a
Speaker 1: guy dance in that way.
Speaker 2: Kevin wasn't trained in a classical studio. He was mostly
Speaker 2: self taught, and he was mesmerizing.
Speaker 1: Special tea was hip hop, so all the traditional styles
Speaker 1: of hip hop, which would be breaking, popping, locking, b boying.
Speaker 1: It was something that was new to me, being more
Speaker 1: of a traditionally trained ancer, and he definitely made it
Speaker 1: seem effortless.
Speaker 2: They started off as friends, taking classes, going out and
Speaker 2: bonding over their tough childhoods.
Speaker 1: He would ask me questions about my upbringing and wanted
Speaker 1: to know a lot about what happened growing up, and
Speaker 1: he was very attentive with that. I told him my
Speaker 1: life story and that I didn't have the best upbringing
Speaker 1: and Howie had to grow up pretty quickly. And then
Speaker 1: it turned out that he wound up having the same
Speaker 1: type of family issues.
Speaker 2: They both had a parent that struggled with addiction, and
Speaker 2: Kevin seemed genuinely interested in hearing about Alicia's background. Alisha
Speaker 2: was amazed to meet someone who shared her love for
Speaker 2: dance and also had a traumatic upbringing.
Speaker 1: For the first time, I felt seen and I felt
Speaker 1: heart in a way that others couldn't really understand, and
Speaker 1: it felt very validating. But I didn't pick up on
Speaker 1: his signals about, you know, getting a little bit more
Speaker 1: than just friends.
Speaker 2: After a few months, Kevin confessed his feelings for her.
Speaker 2: He bought flowers, wrote love notes, and made mixtapes.
Speaker 1: He even got me this necklace. It was like a
Speaker 1: little diamond pendant necklace that he said symbolized me shedding
Speaker 1: my last tear and that he wouldn't ever hurt me
Speaker 1: so I would never have to cry again. And that's
Speaker 1: when I took the leap of faith and we started
Speaker 1: up the relationship. He just seemed like this very kind,
Speaker 1: very sensitive person, and he seemed like a hopeless romantic
Speaker 1: despite all the mistreatment that he experienced at home. So
Speaker 1: it was pretty much the same thing as me.
Speaker 2: Kevin had big career ambitions. This was the late nineties,
Speaker 2: and he wanted to work with pop stars like in
Speaker 2: Sync and Britney Spears, but he was struggling to find
Speaker 2: long term work. So Alicia brought Kevin into the studio
Speaker 2: where she worked to teach hip hop.
Speaker 1: I approached the studio owner and he thought that it
Speaker 1: would be a good idea, so Kevin had a couple
Speaker 1: of classes to start with, and he was great at it.
Speaker 2: Kevin's classes became a hit. Alicia's student Kim enrolled. Kim
Speaker 2: had her sight set on becoming a professional dancer, and
Speaker 2: Kevin saw the same potential in her that Alisha did.
Speaker 1: They started to have a bond in a relationship, and
Speaker 1: he wanted to help her as well.
Speaker 2: The studio was like a little family. Mentoring Kim and
Speaker 2: students like her brought them closer. Kevin and Alicia spent
Speaker 2: every day all day at the studio. She was really
Speaker 2: falling for him.
Speaker 1: He would bring out the best of me, and he
Speaker 1: let me be myself like I was able to be
Speaker 1: fun and quirky, and he encouraged that. You know, I
Speaker 1: never felt self conscious around him. He would always look
Speaker 1: at me in ways that made me feel like I
Speaker 1: was the only person.
Speaker 2: A few years into their relationship, he surprised her with
Speaker 2: a trip to New York, made a reservation at a
Speaker 2: famous restaurant, Windows on the World. It was on the
Speaker 2: top floor of the World Trade Center, and that night
Speaker 2: at dinner.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, he got down on one knee,
Speaker 1: and then I look up behind me and my best
Speaker 1: friends standing there recording, and he popped the question. He
Speaker 1: was very nervous, but he said that he wanted to
Speaker 1: be my partner for the rest of my life. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I even remember hearing the rest of
Speaker 1: what he said, because I just started crying and I
Speaker 1: was just overwhelmed with joy, and it just felt like
Speaker 1: such a special moment.
Speaker 2: She felt like she was marrying her best friend getting married.
Speaker 1: I always pictured having somebody that is going to make
Speaker 1: me feel safe, because that's something that you know, just
Speaker 1: growing up with childhood trauma is one thing that you
Speaker 1: don't always feel all the time.
Speaker 2: The wedding day was emotional, even though Kevin had a
Speaker 2: tense relationship with his family, they all came to celebrate him.
Speaker 1: I started walking down the aisle and I saw him.
Speaker 1: I became emotional because I could just see our future
Speaker 1: together and us building this great family, and he started
Speaker 1: getting emotional. So it was just us trying to get
Speaker 1: through our vows and being so choked up. I was
Speaker 1: a little embarrassed by that because I thought I could
Speaker 1: try to compose myself, and you don't want to have
Speaker 1: like an ugly cry in your wedding pictures, But it
Speaker 1: almost felt like that.
Speaker 2: Some of their DAN students even came to the ceremony,
Speaker 2: like Kim and her mom.
Speaker 1: Just looking out and seeing her and some of the
Speaker 1: other students that were so excited for us to get together.
Speaker 1: It was great to be able to include them in that.
Speaker 2: Once they were married, Alicia encouraged him to visit his
Speaker 2: parents more often. They didn't live far, but Kevin still
Speaker 2: harbored resentment about his childhood. When he was around his family,
Speaker 2: he was a shell of himself.
Speaker 1: And he would sulk and he would change his whole
Speaker 1: personality on the way there because he was upset about
Speaker 1: even having to go there, and he was going to
Speaker 1: have to put on a fake face and pretend that
Speaker 1: everything was okay.
Speaker 2: So they kept their visits to holiday weekends.
Speaker 1: Those were the only times that we would go over there.
Speaker 2: But when he was at home with Alicia, Kevin was
Speaker 2: animated and loving. They started daydreaming about raising kids together.
Speaker 1: He always knew that I wanted to have kids and
Speaker 1: have a family of my own. That was one of
Speaker 1: the things that we always talked about.
Speaker 2: They already knew they both loved kids. They were surrounded
Speaker 2: by them every day. One of their star students, Kim,
Speaker 2: had become Alicia's teaching assistant, and Kevin was helping Kim
Speaker 2: get her dance career off the ground, so.
Speaker 1: We kind of played the dual role of mentoring her,
Speaker 1: and then eventually she started assisting some of his classes
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: By this point, Kevin had been with the studio for years.
Speaker 1: He just became the staple at the studio, and all
Speaker 1: these kids just flocked to him, you know, for guidance
Speaker 1: and inspiration. The kids loved him, the parents all loved him,
Speaker 1: but there was one person that didn't quite love him,
Speaker 1: and that was my mentor. They didn't seem to be
Speaker 1: clicking for some reason, and I thought that was unusual.
Speaker 1: They just were not really on the same page.
Speaker 2: Kevin's theory was that this older teature was jealous of
Speaker 2: how popular his classes were.
Speaker 1: And not too long after that, that's when one of
Speaker 1: the kids started saying something to their parents about a
Speaker 1: conversation that Kevin had with them in the classroom.
Speaker 2: A parent complained about something Kevin said to a student.
Speaker 2: We don't know what it is because Alisha never got
Speaker 2: the full story. Kevin denied saying anything inappropriate, but the
Speaker 2: studio owner decided to keep an eye on Kevin, and
Speaker 2: a few months after.
Speaker 1: That, the owner decided that he was going to let
Speaker 1: him go. He said that there were some artistic differences
Speaker 1: and that it was time to.
Speaker 2: Part Kevin called Alisha outraged.
Speaker 1: Kevin pretty much made me feel like they were ganging
Speaker 1: up on him, and that no one understood him and
Speaker 1: they were jealous.
Speaker 2: It seemed like a horrible misunderstanding. And she believed Kevin
Speaker 2: when he said this was rooted in jealousy, especially considering.
Speaker 1: The parents and the kids were still very supportive of Kevin.
Speaker 1: They couldn't believe what happened, and they started attacking the
Speaker 1: studio owners, saying to him that he didn't know what
Speaker 1: he was doing, he didn't know how to conduct business.
Speaker 1: How can he let him go?
Speaker 2: At first, Alicia assumed she would keep her job and
Speaker 2: Kevin could find a new place to work. But for him,
Speaker 2: this was a matter of right and wrong, and he
Speaker 2: wanted Alisha to be on his side.
Speaker 1: He said, this environment was supposed to be my second
Speaker 1: home and like my family, and look how they're treating
Speaker 1: my husband. So I had no other choice but to
Speaker 1: support him at that time, so then I had to
Speaker 1: leave the studio as well. I was heartbroken because here
Speaker 1: was this community that just felt like such a safe
Speaker 1: space for me, someplace that I grew up at for
Speaker 1: pretty much my whole life. At this point, everything that
Speaker 1: I had worked hard for, you know, now it's all gone.
Speaker 2: Heartbroken, Alicia turned in her keys and left the studio
Speaker 2: she'd grown up in.
Speaker 1: At the time, I felt very hurt because I felt
Speaker 1: like no one really came to me and said anything.
Speaker 1: Looking back, I realized the only version of the story
Speaker 1: I was getting was Kevin's story. So of course I'm
Speaker 1: going to believe him. He's my husband, but he was
Speaker 1: hiding something from me, something bigger, something darker.
Speaker 2: After Kevin was fired from the studio, his favorite students
Speaker 2: rallied around him. He'd been working with many of them
Speaker 2: for years, and they wanted to keep taking his classes.
Speaker 2: The next step seemed obvious for Kevin and Alicia.
Speaker 1: That's when I was saying to him, oh, I always
Speaker 1: wanted to open up my own dance studio. I decided that, hey,
Speaker 1: now we had the opportunity to create that safe space
Speaker 1: of our own, so we could do it the way
Speaker 1: that we wanted to why not just give it a go.
Speaker 2: Their own studio. It would be a pre professional program,
Speaker 2: no expensive costumes or recitals, just dance.
Speaker 1: We turned this pretty empty warehouse, which was six thousand
Speaker 1: square feet, into this beautiful studio.
Speaker 2: They wanted to prepare kids for real careers and dance,
Speaker 2: and Kevin was perfectly positioned to make that.
Speaker 1: Happen since he was one of the only male hip
Speaker 1: hop dance teachers at the time. We wound up establishing
Speaker 1: his own hip hop company.
Speaker 2: They had one hundred students upon opening. Many of his
Speaker 2: former students put down a deposit to join Kevin and
Speaker 2: Alisha's new studio. With Kevin being the lead instructor, they
Speaker 2: needed a plan for oversight and safety for everyone's sake.
Speaker 1: I had observation windows. I had cameras because you always
Speaker 1: want to make sure that the parents feel comfortable and
Speaker 1: feel safe, especially with a male teacher, because you know,
Speaker 1: you always hear stories of different things happening, and I
Speaker 1: never wanted that to ever be an issue. He never
Speaker 1: wanted that to be an issue, So I always had
Speaker 1: those things in place so we didn't never have to
Speaker 1: worry about that.
Speaker 2: Alicia was thrilled when Kim came on board to help
Speaker 2: them open this studio. Kim was now a college student
Speaker 2: and she became their first employee.
Speaker 1: She started out helping me with the front desk, doing
Speaker 1: those types of things at first. Then we started to
Speaker 1: give her some classes of her own, since she didn't
Speaker 1: really have that before, and we definitely became a life closer.
Speaker 2: Alicia managed the business while Kevin worked tirelessly to recruit
Speaker 2: a hip hop crew, and when the group was assembled,
Speaker 2: it was undeniable. The crew had the it factor.
Speaker 1: Once we got up on our feet. His hip hop
Speaker 1: crew started doing a lot of performances all over the area.
Speaker 1: These kids were really turning heads and winning a lot
Speaker 1: of different awards and were pretty much neck and neck
Speaker 1: with some professional dancers on the scene, and they would
Speaker 1: get recognized because they were so young at the time
Speaker 1: and people couldn't believe how good they were.
Speaker 2: The kids in Kevin's crew ranged in age from thirteen
Speaker 2: to nineteen.
Speaker 1: They were a bunch of kids who came from diverse
Speaker 1: backgrounds who all were able to rise up above adversity
Speaker 1: and beat life's obstacles.
Speaker 2: Within two years, the kids were winning national titles, booking
Speaker 2: huge auditions even making it onto TV shows.
Speaker 1: I didn't even expect it to blow up the way
Speaker 1: that it did, especially around this particular crew. I felt
Speaker 1: like I was on cloud nine. Things were coming together,
Speaker 1: so it was just thrilling to be the studio owner,
Speaker 1: like it felt really good.
Speaker 2: In the chaos of starting a new business, Alisha and
Speaker 2: Kevin's marriage started to drift.
Speaker 1: There wasn't any intimacy. I was realizing that we were
Speaker 1: more friends than anything, more like business partners than a
Speaker 1: married couple.
Speaker 2: Along the way, Alisha had put one of her own
Speaker 2: dreams to the side.
Speaker 1: At this point. I am now in my thirties and
Speaker 1: I just wanted to go back to the original goal
Speaker 1: of having children of my own.
Speaker 2: But Kevin seemed more interested in his crew than starting
Speaker 2: a family with Alicia.
Speaker 1: So there came a breaking point, and I built up
Speaker 1: enough courage and strength to have that conversation with him.
Speaker 2: She finally sat him down and told him that she
Speaker 2: wanted to separate. She was bracing for his emotional reaction,
Speaker 2: but Kevin seemed completely unfazed.
Speaker 1: He pretty much just looked at me and said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm like, what, how is that possible? I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, maybe he didn't hear me, maybe he
Speaker 1: just didn't hit him. I just couldn't believe it. And
Speaker 1: then he said, okay, well, well, what do you think
Speaker 1: I should do? Just move out? I said, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess. I was just still baffled at the fact
Speaker 1: that he was just so calm about it, and he
Speaker 1: just said okay.
Speaker 2: Kevin moved out that night, and they stayed amicable through
Speaker 2: the whole divorce process. It was shockingly easy.
Speaker 1: After we decided to separate, I almost had a sense
Speaker 1: of calm come over me, and I started to realize
Speaker 1: that I didn't need to still be in a relationship
Speaker 1: with him in order to keep the studio going.
Speaker 2: The dance students and their education was the most important
Speaker 2: thing to both of them. There were only a few
Speaker 2: uncomfortable moments, Like with Kim.
Speaker 1: It was a little awkward for her to be in
Speaker 1: the middle of our split because she was really good
Speaker 1: friends with him. She just became a little bit more distant.
Speaker 2: Alicia felt as though Kim was picking a side, and
Speaker 2: she noticed that with the students too. She chalked it
Speaker 2: up to them processing the.
Speaker 1: Divorce, but then all of a sudden, like a lot
Speaker 1: of the kids were starting to fight more, and there
Speaker 1: was a lot of tension, and there just seemed to
Speaker 1: be something that was off.
Speaker 2: Then one day, one of the younger students came to
Speaker 2: Alicia to talk one on one. The girl was in Kymn's.
Speaker 1: Class, so I had a student approach me and wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to me. She started saying that she didn't
Speaker 1: like the way that Kim and Kevin were acting, and
Speaker 1: what they were doing was disgusting. How could they do
Speaker 1: something like that? And I really wasn't sure what she
Speaker 1: was talking about, but I let her vent and I
Speaker 1: just listened to her, and I tried to just let
Speaker 1: her finish what she was saying while not giving away
Speaker 1: the fact that I didn't know any of this at
Speaker 1: the time. What she was trying to tell Alisha was
Speaker 1: that Kevin and Kim were together.
Speaker 2: In the moment, Alicia maintained her composure. She didn't want
Speaker 2: the student to think she'd done anything wrong by coming
Speaker 2: to her.
Speaker 1: I just told her, don't worry about it, we'll figure
Speaker 1: it out.
Speaker 2: After the conversation ended, Alisha was shaken. She assumed the
Speaker 2: girl must be confused. Had known Kim since she was twelve,
Speaker 2: or thirteen. They even had her at their wedding.
Speaker 1: I couldn't even process the thought of them being together,
Speaker 1: Like the thought of it just made me sick. I
Speaker 1: just didn't understand, and I didn't know if it was
Speaker 1: even true.
Speaker 2: But her gut told her to check the security cameras,
Speaker 2: so she did. Starting with the previous night.
Speaker 1: It was a late night session. Everyone was hanging out
Speaker 1: in the lobby, and that was the first time I
Speaker 1: noticed him. He was like rubbing her back. But the
Speaker 1: way that he was doing it, like very like loving
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. I was like, Okay, WHOA. So
Speaker 1: I was freaking out. It made me start to question everything.
Speaker 1: I was furious, I was nauseated. I didn't know what
Speaker 1: to think or what to do.
Speaker 2: At this point, Kim was in her early twenties, Kevin
Speaker 2: was nearly forty, so Alicia felt like she couldn't do
Speaker 2: anything about it.
Speaker 1: I just had to maybe even step back at this
Speaker 1: moment and say, Okay, well, we're all adults here, Like
Speaker 1: she wasn't a minor or anything at the time, and
Speaker 1: she was a young adult, and what am I gonna do?
Speaker 2: Kevin and Alicia's divorce had been finalized a few months prior.
Speaker 2: For her own sanity, she needed further confirmation that this
Speaker 2: was really happening. So the next night, she followed them
Speaker 2: after rehearsal.
Speaker 1: I waited in my car and I followed them to
Speaker 1: the diner and I waited there until they finished eating.
Speaker 1: So I literally sat in my car, like in the
Speaker 1: side parking lot, waiting for them to come out. And
Speaker 1: when they came out, they started to embrace, and that's
Speaker 1: when they started to kiss. It was true. I just
Speaker 1: couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that this person
Speaker 1: who I had mentored from such a young age was
Speaker 1: now with my ex husband.
Speaker 2: It wasn't just betrayal, it was something deeper. It was
Speaker 2: a contamination of her whole reality. The past ten years
Speaker 2: with Kevin, their business together, it all started to look different.
Speaker 1: There's no words to describe the feeling of him being
Speaker 1: with somebody that we both mentored. It was creepy and disgusting.
Speaker 2: She couldn't go to Kevin because now she didn't trust him.
Speaker 2: She was questioning everything. So Lisha reached out to a
Speaker 2: trusted former student who was now an adult.
Speaker 1: I asked her how long Kevin and Kim were together,
Speaker 1: and her whole demeanor completely changed, and she just let
Speaker 1: out this big sigh and she said, it's been some
Speaker 1: time now. It's been probably going on for several years.
Speaker 1: She said that it was something that was just not
Speaker 1: spoken of, but it was known. It was kept a
Speaker 1: secret for so long. But now that I knew about
Speaker 1: Kevin and Kim, then that's when it seemed like the
Speaker 1: right time for people to come and start telling me more.
Speaker 2: Word spread among former students that Alicia knew about the affair,
Speaker 2: and one by one they started contacting her.
Speaker 1: The students reached out to me. They were the ones
Speaker 1: who told me all about what was happening.
Speaker 2: What was happening went far beyond Kevin and Kim's relationship.
Speaker 1: They were telling me that they got out of a cult.
Speaker 2: After she found out about Kevin and Kim's affair, it
Speaker 2: was like the levee broke. Former students who Alisha thought
Speaker 2: had left the studio on good terms, began telling her
Speaker 2: about an entirely different side of Kevin, one that was
Speaker 2: completely hidden from her.
Speaker 1: They were telling me that they got out of a cult,
Speaker 1: a cult.
Speaker 2: That word hit Alisha hard. It seemed Kevin had gone
Speaker 2: to extreme lengths to keep Alisha in the dark. Now
Speaker 2: she had to get to the bottom of what was
Speaker 2: going on, so she began asking former students what happened.
Speaker 1: And then I started to piece a lot of the
Speaker 1: story together.
Speaker 2: Kevin told his crew that he used to be a
Speaker 2: backup dancer for Britney Spears and other pop artists, which
Speaker 2: wasn't true.
Speaker 1: He would pull up a video and basically someone was
Speaker 1: standing there in the background and you say, oh, look,
Speaker 1: that's me.
Speaker 2: It was an incredibly powerful lie because the students all
Speaker 2: dreamed of an opportunity like that, and it made them
Speaker 2: want to do anything to impress him. Then Kevin would
Speaker 2: initiate what he called life chats. He would approach a
Speaker 2: student after class to talk about their goals and dreams.
Speaker 2: They would be flattered that he was interested in them,
Speaker 2: and after that.
Speaker 1: He would talk to them a lot over the internet
Speaker 1: through Messenger. He would get them to open up to
Speaker 1: him and tell him everything he needed to pretty much
Speaker 1: understand who they were.
Speaker 2: Kevin tailored his influence to each student. He became whatever
Speaker 2: that student needed most.
Speaker 1: Some people needed a best friend, other people needed a therapist.
Speaker 1: Other people needed someone they can confide in. Then a
Speaker 1: father figure for some because some of them come from
Speaker 1: broken home, So then he would become that.
Speaker 2: He would shape shift into whatever for each student needed
Speaker 2: him to be. After that connection was established, Kevin wanted
Speaker 2: to be in constant communication.
Speaker 1: It became like a twenty four to seven connection with him.
Speaker 1: Like he wanted them to always write back if he
Speaker 1: texted them or if they had group chats going, and
Speaker 1: he had a lot of different chats and different side
Speaker 1: conversations going on all the time, so they never really
Speaker 1: had any real privacy because he would always be involved,
Speaker 1: and then he would get really upset if they never
Speaker 1: texted back or they didn't respond.
Speaker 2: He made it clear to the students that he could
Speaker 2: make or break their careers, and when they wouldn't reply
Speaker 2: to his texts, he.
Speaker 1: Would tie it into well, if you have an agent,
Speaker 1: then you know you have to be able to respond
Speaker 1: right away or you lose your job. So then it
Speaker 1: just became a normal thing.
Speaker 2: Then he started controlling what they wore and how they looked.
Speaker 1: He would try to change the way they would dress.
Speaker 1: Some of them needed to develop a little bit more
Speaker 1: and change their look or their style or their hair
Speaker 1: or whatever. He would relate it back to that's how
Speaker 1: it is in the dance industry, and then he would
Speaker 1: find ways to use more of the manipulative.
Speaker 2: Tactics, manipulative and highly inappropriate tactics. Because after he had
Speaker 2: emotional control over the students, Kevin started talking to the
Speaker 2: kids about sex and their sexuality. He said it would
Speaker 2: help them become a better dancer. And keep in mind
Speaker 2: some of the students were as young as thirteen.
Speaker 1: He would say that they needed to learn how to masturbate,
Speaker 1: and he would teach them how to do that. He
Speaker 1: would show them the pictures and the videos to clarify
Speaker 1: what he meant, and then they had the report back
Speaker 1: so he can tell them if they did it right
Speaker 1: and if what they're experiencing was right. He was able
Speaker 1: to tie that all back to dance because it would
Speaker 1: make them able to express them and you know it
Speaker 1: was normal because you wanted to be able to do
Speaker 1: that as an artist. He said that it would help
Speaker 1: them to be a more sensual dancer.
Speaker 2: He started manipulating their romantic and sexual relationships with each other.
Speaker 1: He started to encourage them to date each other. He
Speaker 1: would set up different group chats with different people to
Speaker 1: have them talk about sex and getting together. He would
Speaker 1: even drive students over to other people's houses for them
Speaker 1: to have sex so they weren't of age because they
Speaker 1: weren't driving at the time, so he would drop them off.
Speaker 1: A lot of times he would drive students home from dance.
Speaker 1: They would get permission from their parents, and those were
Speaker 1: the drives that some of them said that they felt
Speaker 1: uncomfortable in a way where you know, like when someone's
Speaker 1: trying to hit on you or trying to suggest something like.
Speaker 1: They kind of got that feeling, but they just didn't
Speaker 1: engage in that, but they felt like if they were
Speaker 1: to give green light, something could have happened.
Speaker 2: Alicia was deeply concerned if Kevin ever touched them inappropriately,
Speaker 2: but when she asked the students about it directly, they
Speaker 2: all said no.
Speaker 1: He would tell some of them I know too, in
Speaker 1: particular that he was their sole mate and that they
Speaker 1: were twin flames and they had a deeper connection, like
Speaker 1: he was the only person that would understand what they
Speaker 1: went through from their past life experience.
Speaker 2: Past life, not as in their past a few years ago,
Speaker 2: but as in a lifetime they lived before this one
Speaker 2: one that only he could see, one where they were
Speaker 2: always meant to find each other.
Speaker 1: He was morphing into all these different personas, from the
Speaker 1: good mentor to the peer, to you know, the father figure,
Speaker 1: to the friend to now all of a sudden, this
Speaker 1: enlightened figure, the light warrior.
Speaker 2: Kevin told the students he was a light warrior, that
Speaker 2: he had superhuman abilities, that he had a divine power.
Speaker 1: He would sometimes show up the studio wearing bandages on
Speaker 1: his hands, and he would say that he was mastering
Speaker 1: how to manipulate and start fire from his hands. Another
Speaker 1: time he showed them a video of him supposedly turning
Speaker 1: on a street lamp with just his mind. There were
Speaker 1: times where he would make them stand outside and look
Speaker 1: at these lamps to see if they can do it too.
Speaker 1: One time he came into the studio in a wheelchair
Speaker 1: because he said he was very weak from controlling things
Speaker 1: with his mind.
Speaker 2: He also claimed to have visions.
Speaker 1: He would tell them he could see when they were
Speaker 1: having sex because he can see their auras. He would
Speaker 1: encourage them to try things with each other, and he
Speaker 1: was the puppet master making a lot of that happen.
Speaker 2: By the time Alicia learned the full extent of it,
Speaker 2: Kevin wasn't just a dance coach. He was a prophet,
Speaker 2: and she started to understand why the students had stayed
Speaker 2: silent for so long. Their whole world was tied up
Speaker 2: in the dance crew.
Speaker 1: A lot of them said that they've invested so much
Speaker 1: time and money that they felt like they couldn't leave
Speaker 1: and then they would lose all their friends and everything
Speaker 1: they ever known.
Speaker 2: To keep the kids quiet, Kevin used threats and intimidation.
Speaker 2: He made sure that the cost of leaving wasn't worth it.
Speaker 2: Leaving meant exile. Kevin also made them believe that leaving
Speaker 2: the crew or breaking his rules would ruin their chances
Speaker 2: of dancing professionally.
Speaker 1: After they were telling me all these stories, it made
Speaker 1: me face what was happening, and then I realized, Wow,
Speaker 1: he is not a mentor. He's pretty much a monster,
Speaker 1: and he cannot be around these kids. That's when I
Speaker 1: decided I needed to go and talk to a lawyer.
Speaker 2: She got a recommendation for a criminal lawyer and drove
Speaker 2: to his office right away.
Speaker 1: He basically told me that I probably should shut the
Speaker 1: studio down immediately, so I left his office. I immediately
Speaker 1: contacted my father. I told him a little bit what
Speaker 1: was going on.
Speaker 2: Her dad met her at the dance studio.
Speaker 1: He came and he helped me change the locks. I
Speaker 1: grabbed all the stuff, like the files and the stuff
Speaker 1: to contact families and parents and anything I can get
Speaker 1: my hands on. And it was early afternoon. I remember
Speaker 1: it clearly was her Friday, and I know he comes
Speaker 1: to the studio around four and sometimes he might come
Speaker 1: a little bit early. And I was literally shaking, and
Speaker 1: I grabbed what I could and I put a sign
Speaker 1: up on the door saying we were no longer in business,
Speaker 1: and then I ran out of there. I don't even
Speaker 1: know how I made it to my car because I
Speaker 1: thought I was going to pass out, because I was
Speaker 1: so petrified that he was just going to pull up
Speaker 1: and see me and chase me down once he's all
Speaker 1: that sign on the door. I had no idea who
Speaker 1: he was or what he was capable of.
Speaker 2: She drove home and a few hours later Kevin called, confused.
Speaker 2: When he asked what was going on.
Speaker 1: She just said one sentence, you can talk to my lawyer,
Speaker 1: And that was the last time I ever talked to
Speaker 1: him and had any correspondence with him.
Speaker 2: After she closed down the studio, Alisha braced herself for
Speaker 2: calls and emails from the parents of her dance students,
Speaker 2: but to her surprise, she was met with radio silence.
Speaker 1: That's the part that I still don't understand that no
Speaker 1: parents really came to me or said anything.
Speaker 2: It's possible the parents didn't turn to Alicia because they
Speaker 2: thought she was in on it, or at the very
Speaker 2: least turning a blind eye. She knew she'd done the
Speaker 2: right thing by closing the studio.
Speaker 1: Once I closed down the studio, it finally gave permission
Speaker 1: for the ones that were struggling to leave, the ones
Speaker 1: that were coming to me saying they weren't sure they
Speaker 1: wanted to leave, So it finally gave them the opportunity
Speaker 1: to leave and disconnect from him.
Speaker 2: But Kevin still had a grip on a devoted circle
Speaker 2: of students.
Speaker 1: He still had a handful of loyal followers, so he
Speaker 1: basically had them do all his dirty work. And they
Speaker 1: were calling me and texting me telling me how awful
Speaker 1: I was and how could I do this to them,
Speaker 1: and that I was an awful person. I was so
Speaker 1: heartbroken hearing those things. I could cry now. Actually, the
Speaker 1: only thing I could say to them was that I
Speaker 1: was sorry, and that one day they will understand.
Speaker 2: She couldn't undo what had happened, but she wanted to
Speaker 2: make it right and to keep Kevin from ever doing
Speaker 2: it again. Alicia and her lawyer took the case to
Speaker 2: the prosecutor's office. She started at the beginning with the
Speaker 2: revelation that Kevin and Kim were together.
Speaker 1: And I could immediately sense that he felt like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, she's just upset because you know, the situation
Speaker 1: happened and they weren't together. I felt like he wasn't
Speaker 1: really listening to me.
Speaker 2: After that, she wanted to make it clear that this
Speaker 2: wasn't a case of a messy divorce.
Speaker 1: So after that conversation, I immediately wrote an email explaining
Speaker 1: everything that I was finding out. I gave him a
Speaker 1: list of names and different people that he could reach
Speaker 1: out to and talk to, as far as students.
Speaker 2: Some students even reached out to the office directly to
Speaker 2: share their stories, but they never heard back. After a
Speaker 2: few months, Alicia's lawyer came back to her with bad news.
Speaker 2: The prosecutor's office wouldn't be taking the case.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what does that mean? Like I don't understand
Speaker 1: what that means, Like how are you not interested in
Speaker 1: something that seems so sickn magnificant, especially with kids involved,
Speaker 1: miner's teens, And he said they only go with cases
Speaker 1: that they feel like they can win. And they came
Speaker 1: back and said that it seemed mild on the list
Speaker 1: of sex crimes to them. He said, if he was
Speaker 1: playing Devil's advocate, that I came across as an ex
Speaker 1: wife scorned who was trying to take down her husband
Speaker 1: and was jealous of him being with a younger woman.
Speaker 2: She was stunned. She thought about the students talking to
Speaker 2: the police, but then her lawyer explained.
Speaker 1: The prosecutor's office was the sale and all they were
Speaker 1: going to be the ones that would bring about charges.
Speaker 2: So Kevin was never charged for anything. Even though Kevin
Speaker 2: was telling kids to masturbate or manipulating them into having
Speaker 2: sex with each other, the prosecutor couldn't charge him with
Speaker 2: a crime. And for a few months after the studio closed,
Speaker 2: Kevin was able to keep his crew going out of
Speaker 2: his own space.
Speaker 1: He was pushing really hard with this new business that
Speaker 1: he had created with them, and they all had to
Speaker 1: recruit ten new people. And if they weren't recruiting that
Speaker 1: he was flipping out, and they didn't want that, because,
Speaker 1: like I said before, if you're on his bad side,
Speaker 1: you're on his bad side.
Speaker 2: Slowly, his remaining students began to leave, and when they did,
Speaker 2: the other students would direct them to Alisha.
Speaker 1: I was able to let them know that they were
Speaker 1: safe and that they can leave and that it's gonna
Speaker 1: be okay. And one of the students who had sent
Speaker 1: me the text of telling me that I was the
Speaker 1: most awful person wound up texting me and she apologized
Speaker 1: and she said, You're so sorry for everything that she
Speaker 1: said to me, And I said to her, like, I'm
Speaker 1: so sorry, it's not you at all. I was the
Speaker 1: one that should have been there for you.
Speaker 2: Alicia's entire career had been about providing a safe space
Speaker 2: for kids through dance, a place for express and growth.
Speaker 2: Kevin had taken all that was good and pure about
Speaker 2: that purpose and ruined it. Alicia felt like the only
Speaker 2: good decision she'd made in the end was to immediately
Speaker 2: close the studio.
Speaker 1: I felt completely embarrassed at the fact that I couldn't
Speaker 1: see these types of behaviors that were happening right underneath
Speaker 1: my nose, and I know a lot of it isn't
Speaker 1: my fault, but it just really broke my heart for them.
Speaker 2: In a few months after the studio closed, students continued
Speaker 2: leaving Kevin's crew. It sent him into a tailspin. He
Speaker 2: moved back in with his parents. Apparently, Kevin was in
Speaker 2: such a dark place that one day, his sister reached
Speaker 2: out to Alicia. She wanted to meet in person to
Speaker 2: better understand what was going on with her brother.
Speaker 1: We weren't that close, so it just came out of
Speaker 1: no where that she actually wanted to meet up.
Speaker 2: The two women agreed to meet for coffee. Within the
Speaker 2: first few minutes, Alicia realized Kevin's sister had no idea
Speaker 2: what happened with the studio.
Speaker 1: She basically just sitting there looking at me, confused. I
Speaker 1: told her a little bit about the story of what
Speaker 1: I'd been learning about Kim and Kevin and the relationship.
Speaker 1: That's when she just started to cry and break down.
Speaker 1: She didn't really understand what I was saying, and she
Speaker 1: was like, I can't believe this is happening. And that's
Speaker 1: when I started to ask your questions about him.
Speaker 2: Alicia knew Kevin had a fractured relationship with his family
Speaker 2: when they were married, they only saw his parents and
Speaker 2: siblings a handful of times. Sitting with his sister, it
Speaker 2: was clear she needed to start from the beginning. So
Speaker 2: Alicia brought up Kevin's past and his difficult childhood.
Speaker 1: And then I said to her, well, what about your dad, Like,
Speaker 1: your dad's an alcoholic, and you know, he was talking
Speaker 1: about all these times that he was in these fights
Speaker 1: with him, and he even told me about a surgery
Speaker 1: he had to go have because he had a broken
Speaker 1: rib from being kicked on the steps. And she said, whoaoo,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about. My dad isn't an alcoholic,
Speaker 1: Like he doesn't drink at all. And she's like, I
Speaker 1: can tell you. We had a really good upbringing. We
Speaker 1: had a good childhood. He had everything that he needed.
Speaker 2: Back When Alicia and Kevin first met, he told her
Speaker 2: about his traumatic upbringing and his alcoholic parent. It bonded
Speaker 2: them together because Alisha also had a troubled childhood with
Speaker 2: an alcoholic parent. But now she discovered that shared experience
Speaker 2: was fiction a long calm.
Speaker 1: He pretty much formed this persona that would trauma bond
Speaker 1: with me and match all the things that I went
Speaker 1: through in order for us to become relatable, for us
Speaker 1: to become closer.
Speaker 2: It was the same thing he'd done with the students.
Speaker 2: He told them whatever they needed to hear to trust him.
Speaker 2: This revelation brought a clarity about how deeply disturbed Kevin
Speaker 2: really was. Their entire life together was one lie built
Speaker 2: upon another lie. The only thing Alicia could do was
Speaker 2: rebuild a new life. Alicia went to talk to that
Speaker 2: old studio owner, the one who had fired Kevin years ago.
Speaker 2: It was also the studio where they'd met Kim back
Speaker 2: when she was twelve or thirteen, So.
Speaker 1: When I asked him about Kevin and Kim, he said
Speaker 1: that there were rumors that they might have been together
Speaker 1: when she was underage. So regardless of whether he did
Speaker 1: anything physically with her, that coerce of control definitely started
Speaker 1: way back when she was young.
Speaker 2: Alicia sees Kim as Kevin's victim.
Speaker 1: She always has, and it breaks my heart to know
Speaker 1: that he did that to her and she was so
Speaker 1: special to make.
Speaker 2: In the years since Kevin and Kim got married and divorced,
Speaker 2: Alicia tried to go back to teaching dance at her
Speaker 2: old studio.
Speaker 1: But it was never the same so I started trying
Speaker 1: to focus on what I can do to maybe help
Speaker 1: make the dance industry a little bit better.
Speaker 2: Today, she wants to help other studios catch what she
Speaker 2: didn't see.
Speaker 1: I want to spark a deeper conversation about the dance
Speaker 1: industry and how victims of abuse have gone through similar
Speaker 1: things in a very unchecked, highly unregulated system.
Speaker 2: And she teaches pilates to senior citizens.
Speaker 1: That was a good way to give back and feel
Speaker 1: like I'm doing something positive while I'm working on trying
Speaker 1: to make change in the dance industry.
Speaker 2: We end all of our weekly episode with the same question,
Speaker 2: why do you want to share your story?
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to have children on my own, so
Speaker 1: this is why this is such a passion project for me. Now.
Speaker 1: I want to help other students, other children feel seen, validated,
Speaker 1: and then create a safe environment for them to be
Speaker 1: able to enjoy dance, because dance is something that is
Speaker 1: so powerful and it could be such a beautiful thing
Speaker 1: when you're able to express yourself freely and have a
Speaker 1: safe environment. This is my way of taking control of
Speaker 1: the situation that happened with me and making it into
Speaker 1: something positive.
Speaker 2: On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.
Speaker 3: The person that sent these letters out was saying, I
Speaker 3: have proof, So unless you confess your sins and repent,
Speaker 3: then I'm going to release some tapes.
Speaker 2: Before we end the episode. I have some exciting news Betrayal.
Speaker 2: We'll be doing our first ever live show as part
Speaker 2: of the Virgin Voyages True Crime Cruise. We'll be answering
Speaker 2: listener questions and discussing them live on stage with Stacey
Speaker 2: and Tyler from Betrayal season three, as well as Caroline
Speaker 2: from season four. So if you have a question for us,
Speaker 2: please email us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com with
Speaker 2: the subject line listener question and if you want to
Speaker 2: join us on the Caribbean cruise, there are still spots
Speaker 2: available search Virgin Voyages dot com slash true crime. If
Speaker 2: you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team
Speaker 2: or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email us
Speaker 2: at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod at
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Speaker 2: You can also connect with me on Instagram at It's
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Speaker 2: and partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced
Speaker 2: by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by
Speaker 2: me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard, also
Speaker 2: produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Caitlin Golden, Olivia Hewitt,
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Speaker 2: Matt Dolvecchio, mixing and mastering on this episode by day
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