A leading figure in UK dance says that the next generation of British ballet dancers is being cheated of the training they deserve by a politically correct society and the health and safety laws that go with it. Jeffery Taylor charges that “teachers are no longer allowed to touch or manipulate young dancers’ bodies into the correct positions – to straighten their backs, legs or arms – because of fears that they could be accused of sexual harassment… Teachers won’t criticise you. They say all the students are as good as each other, that they are equally wonderful. It’s obviously not true.” Taylor’s comments came as the shortlist for the UK’s National Dance Awards was released – a list that, for the first time ever, included no native Britons.