Written 9/18/21:

Less than 2 weeks ago, on the evening of Saturday Sept 3rd and Sunday Sept 4th, there was a very disturbing and significant altercation between Zhenevere and myself. This specific encounter included me confronting Zhenevere about decades of abuse and current abuses she has inflicted on me and others. In the process I discovered more manipulation and lies. This exchange ended, with me immediately removing myself from Zhenevere's life and influence, asking her to never contact me or any one in my family, and me desperately seeking safety and support.

Part of this support included me reaching out to some individual teachers who I could trust, including informing the MogaDao Ethics committee. In our exchange I was clear to Zhenevere that I would not stay silent about what she has done to me and others, and that I would speak out. She was extremely frightened about this and attempted to keep me from speaking out.

I set up a meeting with the Ethics Committee on Sept 7th. That same day, Zhenevere sent her letter of resignation. A letter, under the pretense of being about artistic over-extension, completely avoided any accountability to the harm she had caused or the reasons for the sudden resignation. In my assessment I saw it as her removing herself from any arena of accountability, immediately after she was at risk of exposure. 

I met with the Ethics committee on Sept 9th.  Here is a synopsis of my testimonial 

The information I am about to share contains depictions of psychological, emotional , physical and sexual abuse. 

Dear MogaDao Ethics Committee

Zhenevere sophia dao is a danger to me and this community. She has lied to me repeatedly, manipulated me and directly asked me to lie to the community and public about her. She has abused me psychologically, emotionally, and sexually over the last 10 years. Her abuse with me directly has included shaming, gaslighting, emotional manipulation, verbal and written manipulation, pathological lying, non consensual sexual assault and interference in medical treatment. I recognize that I am responsible for my choice over the years to be in relationship with her, and at the same time, I am also a victim of her manipulation and abuse on the most personal and internal level. 

I have witnessed Zhenevere consciously manipulate students and actors in her school and theater for her own personal benefit. Including and exceeding the most recent testimonials and allegations of abuse, which now number over 25. Over the past ten years numerous other individuals have come forward with their experiences of emotional and psychological manipulation.  At least three women( including myself) have ended up hospitalized for suicidal ideation due in great part to her emotional manipulation. She has continued to deny any validity or responsibility to the claims of psychological, emotional and sexual abuse that people have publicly shared, and in fact says that she is the one being abused. She has lied repeatedly to the school about her experiences in China, her experiences with international fighting, her personal biography, her physical transformations, and her abusive history. I have been used by zhenevere for years as a shield for her lies and manipulation within the community. I have held her secrets, and watched her manipulate or lie to everyone in the school.

I believe Zhenevere is a danger to this community in any public capacity as teacher, as domestic partner or as theater director.  Even as I hope she may one day be aware, accountable, and acknowledge all of those she has hurt, I have no faith in it.

I hope that my testimony, and my unwillingness to be used by her anymore, can empower others to come forward, to trust their own intuition and experience, and hopefully be able to heal, knowing that she is no longer hidden by the integrity of others.  In time I will do my personal and public work to try and repair all of the damages I have done to others through standing by zhenevere throughout these years. 

I am asking this committee to please take my testimony with care.

The committee consisted of 5 MogaDao teachers, including (5 very devoted teachers were named here). This committee received my testimonial and proceeded to set up a meeting to give Zhenevere a chance to respond. They met with her on Sept 14th. I was told by the committee that they would be taking the next week to respond. In the meantime, Zhenevere has been actively working to discredit me, to frame me as the abuser and to leverage her privilege against me with legal intimidation. All in an attempt to silence me. 

I am in need of your support and the wider community to hold Zhenevere accountable. She has not only hurt me repeatedly over many years, including sexually and physically, but she has hurt and manipulated countless others for decades.

I am asking those of you who have seen and have known of these abuses to please come forward. Zhenevere has used her platform to continually silence victims. I am no longer able to be silent. 

I understand there is a meeting scheduled for this sunday. As you may have noticed, I was not included. Zhenevere is framing this meeting as a casual teachers meeting to talk about how the school will move forward without her.  

However, the questions over how to move forward must begin with accountability. There is no honest way for anyone in this school to move forward with this work and the "carrying of this tradition" without honesty.  There are important conversations to be had about the continuation of the school and the ways each of you will stand in it, but that conversation is impossible without the whole picture, and the considerations that will arise when Zhenevere is asked to be fully accountable to me and others for the harm she has caused. 

I am asking you to demand full transparency from Zhenevere and her staff.