you're kind of locked out for the year until the next audition season. >> american national ballet hasne. you can't make promises and not live up to them, because there are people's livelihoods that are involved. there are people's dreams that are involved. >> some fault doug for mismanaging the ballet, and others blame ashley for disappearing. >> ashley's absence from the ballet company was a very significant basis for the failure. she was the face of this company. when she left, the dancers didn't have anything. >> but ashley says there's a reason she left charleston and the ballet behind. she claims she had to, that her very life depended on it. >> he pulled the gun out and started waving it around. i was living a nightmare. it was terrifying. it was like two different people, and i never knew which doug i was going to get. emerge as you. with tremfya®, most people saw 90% clearer skin at 4 months and the majority stayed clearer, at 5 years. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if y

the american national ballet in charleston. but soon those early sparks fizzled. >> she began seeing irritability, some verbal aggression, getting angry over things that were very , very minor. she never quite knew what would set him off or what he would get mad about. he would scream , he would throw things. he would punch holes in the walls. >> according to ashley, her husband had a hair trigger temper. during one argument, he shot a gun at the ceiling, later saying that it was to stop her from talking. another time, he punched the family dog. both incidents later acknowledged by doug. >> ashley was absolutely terrified. >> did he threaten to kill her during this episode? >> i don't know if he actually said i will kill you but he was very clear in his intention to intimidate her. >> but when ashley got pregnant things started to fall apart suffering from severe morning sickness. ashley claimed that doug was trying to poison her. she moved back to florida to live with her mother and that is where she had her baby girl emerson

. ♪ they were the ballerina and businessman behind the american national ballet.ey benefield and her husband doug launched in 2017. but that ballet company is dead and so is doug. and now benefield taking center stage at what has been dubbed the black swan murder trial. the 32-year-old accused of fatally shooting doug in the fall of 2020. >> black swan has a catchy ring and it sensationalizes my life and my situation. it's sad to me that people who don't even know me have this idea of a monster when they think of me. >> reporter: benefield appearing in a florida courtroom tuesday as opening arguments for her murder trial began. prosecutors claiming the couple was in a tense custody battle over their daughter emerson. >> this was a custody battle that this mother was going to win at all costs. and the cost was the life of doug benefield, and that is murder. >> reporter: but benefield's attorney said she was trapped in an abusive relationship with a man who wasn't who he claimed to be. >> doug benefield was a manipulative, cunning and abusive man who insisted, absol

american. but she, you know, in order to keep dancing and doing what she loved, she moved to amsterdam and danced with the dutch national ballets able to have incredible opportunities in the performance world. but that's still the case today with a lot of black dancers that end up going off to europe, where there are more opportunities with a variety of companies. >> you know, the thing -- one of the things about you is that you have achieved a degree of celebrity that has transcended the ballet world. and i wonder how you think about sort of this intersection and the opportunity of that celebrity, and then some of the political questions that you're tackling around race and identity and colorism. how do you think about that? >> you know, i don't often step back and look at it in the way that you just said, where it made me like, "oh, my gosh, that's a big responsibility." but i -- you know, from the first moment that i had to step outside of american ballet theatre, my understanding of it was, "i want to bring more people to this art form." you know, even coming from the way that i grew up, like, my family didn't really under

he's choreographed for the royal ballet, the english national ballet, he did an american in paris, theion, which i loved. exquisite yes. the movement in this is incredible, and it is obviously based on michael jackson's life. so it is his movements. but also his movements. but he also a portion of it. it's based very cleverly on, a well—chosen portion of his life. so it's 1992. he's setting up the dangerous tour. he's having financial problems, and he can talk about all his childhood traumas and his father, but we don't really touch on what's looming ahead, which is a wise decision. some critics then have said, well, then what's the point? i would say this show's goal to the man and how goal is to show the man and how he his music and what it he created his music and what it came from. how did a small child sing with the pain of an adult? >> because i'm a great fan of wagner, used to dealing wagner, i'm very used to dealing with yes. you with this question. yes. and you separate the art ? separate the man from the art? yes. and this arises very strongly case, i assume strongly in this