A second teacher affiliated with a Raleigh dance company is facing felony child sex abuse charges, according to records.
The arrests are the latest blow in two years to the dance community, which lost 11-year-old dancer Hailey Brooks when she was struck and killed by the driver of a pickup truck towing one of the dance company’s floats in the 2022 Raleigh Christmas Parade .
Some parents told The News & Observer and posted online this weekend that they are pulling their children out of CC & Company Dance Complex after learning that dance instructor Elissa Susan Edwards, 41, is charged with four felony counts of indecent liberties with a child and four felony counts of statutory rape.
Edwards’ arrest Thursday in Raleigh resulted from “an extensive investigation into allegations of misconduct involving students from multiple dance studios across the state,” New Hanover County sheriff’s officials said in a news release.
Arrest warrants issued in Pender and New Hanover counties say the crimes happened in 2007 and 2008, when the victim was 14 to 16 years old. Edwards is 10 years older than the victim, according to the warrants.
She was released Sunday from the New Hanover County jail after posting a $400,000 secured bond, records show.
The dance company posted a statement Friday on its Facebook page about the charges and sent an email to parents earlier in the day.
“This afternoon, our attorney’s office called the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office and confirmed the charges against our former employee, Elissa Edwards, are NOT in any way connected to CC & Dance Complex or to Wake County,” the Facebook message said.
In June, another CC & Company instructor — Justin Edwards McKoy, 33, of Raleigh — was charged with five felonies, including statutory sex offense with a child by an adult, child abuse involving a sexual act, and indecent liberties with a child, Wake County Sheriff’s Office records show.
CC & Company parents who spoke with The News & Observer said McKoy was at the dance company’s June 1-2 Gala — one day after the warrant for his arrest was issued. Wake County Detention Center records show he was arrested June 4.
Neither instructor appears on the dance company’s website, but a copy archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine shows both teachers were employed as recently as Feb. 25. Parents told The N&O that both worked for CC & Company until their arrests.
Edwards’ wife, Lindsey Bryant, is still listed as a teacher on the dance company’s website.
Company response, rules spur concerns
Criticism continued to grow Sunday on CC & Company’s Facebook page, with parents calling the staff’s response to the arrests dismissive and offensive. Two parents who spoke with The N&O said they removed their children because of mounting safety concerns.
CC & Company holds “observation days,” but otherwise keeps parents in the dark with curtains over the windows, closed doors and limited information, the parents said. The nonprofit Dance Data Project and other safe dance organizations recommend letting parents watch through a lobby window or over an app via camera feeds from the practice rooms.
Parents also aren’t allowed to be in the dressing room with their children at competitions, often held in convention centers and hotels open to the public, they said. Last year, enough parents complained about their children being naked for costume changes to get the rules changed. Children now can wear flesh-colored leotards, parent Lauren Goins said.
Goins was nearby when the truck hit Hailey in 2022, she said, but other parents didn’t learn if their children were safe for 20 minutes or more. Another parent, who declined to be named, said her concerns about the company’s response to the fatal crash were compounded by another teen dancer’s death last year and a summer workshop that included a guest teacher accused of sexual abuse.
Travis Wall, a renowned choreographer who starred in 2006 on the TV show, “So You Think You Can Dance,” was dismissed in 2021 from the Break the Floor dance company after he and other staff members were accused by underage students of grooming, sexual abuse and harassment . He had been a guest instructor at CC & Company for several years, including in 2023.
Goins said her 11-year-old daughter loves dance and her teammates, and they have met some “wonderful” moms, but “all of us have been so naive, because we’re not in the dance world. We don’t know that it’s done better in other places.” She is tired of talking with her daughter about death, suicide, molesters and pedophiles, Goins said.
“All of these issues, someone knew and could have said something, and I’m tired of (CC & Company founder Christy Curtis-Kopcsak) being so closely linked to so much tragedy and scandal,” Goins said.
Still facing Raleigh parade death lawsuit
CC & Company has two locations in Raleigh and has been in business for about 18 years. In April, it was named as a party in a lawsuit filed by the Brooks family that claims wrongful death, negligence and gross negligence and liability in the girl’s parade death.
The wrongful death lawsuit also was filed against the pickup driver, 20-year-old Landen Glass; parade float provider D and L Floats LLC; and the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association, which organized the parade.
It claims CC & Company was negligent in letting Glass drive the parade float, was not aware of his driving history or the truck’s condition, and did not adequately train parade performers to participate safely.
Curtis-Kopcsak issued a statement earlier this year in response to the lawsuit.
“As a longstanding dance institution, we have always prioritized the safety and well-being of our students and we take these allegations very seriously,” Curtis-Kopcsak said. “Our staff remains dedicated to providing a nurturing environment that fosters learning, growth and a passion for dance.”
The Raleigh City Council approved new parade rules in June in response to the death.
Former student calls for dance safeguards
A CC & Company attorney emailed a statement to The News & Observer on Saturday in response to an email and calls seeking comment.
“The safety of our dancers and their families is of the utmost importance to CC & Co Dance Complex. That’s why we thoroughly vet all employees, include conducting criminal background checks,” the statement said. “Thursday we learned about the arrest of our former employee, Elissa Edwards. We have not been contacted by law enforcement, but if we are, we will fully cooperate with authorities.”
Online articles show Edwards is an award-winning dancer and choreographer who has worked and taught master classes and workshops nationwide. In 2010, she and Bryant opened the Impulse Dance Project pre-professional training company in Wilmington.
That school closed in 2018 when Edwards and Bryant moved to Raleigh, according to another biography . Edwards soon joined CC & Company as a full-time staff member, and by 2020, she was director of the PrePro Program and the Contemporary Department.
Amber Mitchell, a former CC & Company member who owns a dance studio in Wilmington, said she heard rumors about Edwards when she started working in Wilmington several years ago.
There is more that CC & Company can do to protect its students, she said, including a no-tolerance policy when there are allegations that a teacher may be abusive. The Youth Protection Association for Dance offers an affordable staff certification-safety program, she said.
Her experiences at CC & Company were “mostly amazing,” Mitchell said, and the training was tough, but she also knew other children who were approached by guest choreographers.
“I’ve never understood why, with children especially, that if you have any sort of feeling (about a teacher), why take the risk,” Mitchell said. She joined investigators urging other potential victims to come forward and also advised parents to talk with their children.
“You have to talk to them, even if you were never a part of any of this, if you thought that they were safe and you have no doubt in your mind. It can happen anywhere — Girl Scouts, YMCAs, any child program is susceptible unfortunately,” she said.
Anyone with information or who may have been a victim can call New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office Detective Starnes at 910-798-4287 or submit an anonymous tip at nhcgov.com/1066/Submit-a-Crime-Tip .
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