LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE ).- The Royal Ballet has suspended Liam Scarlett, its artist-in-residence, after accusations of sexual misconduct involving students at the Royal Ballet School.

The company was made aware of the accusations against Scarlett in August, it said in an emailed statement Thursday. Scarlett was suspended immediately, and an investigation is ongoing, the statement added.

Scarlett, who was heralded as a “choreographic wonder boy of British ballet,” has created work for the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater and Miami City Ballet, among others.

The impact of the accusations is already spreading beyond Britain. On Tuesday, the Queensland Ballet in Australia suspended Scarlett, an artistic associate of the company, and canceled its planned productions of his new ballet “Dangerous Liaisons,” The Australian newspaper reported.

The accusations against Scarlett were first reported by The Times of London on Wednesday night. According to the newspaper, Scarlett, 33, is accused of inappropriate behavior with male students at the school, including encouraging them to send him nude photos.

Citing anonymous sources, the newspaper said the Royal Ballet’s inquiry found that dancers who accepted Scarlett’s advances, or didn’t complain about them, were given better roles.

The Times of London also said it had spoken with a former student who said Scarlett shared “sexual messages” with him through Facebook. The student was 18 at the time, two years above the age of consent in Britain, newspaper said.

“I’m speaking out because he should not be allowed to continue working with students,” the dancer, who was not named, said, according to the newspaper.

The Times of London also said the inquiry was looking at accusations that Scarlett bullied dancers in the Royal Ballet’s main company.

Scarlett’s agent did not respond to requests for a comment Thursday.

The accusations are the latest sexual misconduct scandal to hit the ballet world. In 2017, Marcelo Gomes resigned from the American Ballet Theater after he was accused of sexual misconduct. Just months later, Peter Martins, the leader of New York City Ballet, retired after accusations of abuse were made against him. (A company investigation did not corroborate the accusations, which Martins denied.)

Last year, an arbitrator ordered New York City Ballet to reinstate two male dancers it had fired after they were accused of sharing sexually explicit photos of female dancers.

“It’s embarrassing that after all these allegations around the world nothing seems to have been done about such behavior,” Jonathan Gray, editor of Dancing Times, said in a telephone interview.

The accusations against Scarlett had been known about in London ballet circles “for several months,” Gray said, but he had not expected the news to become public until the investigation was completed.

The news was embarrassing for the Royal Ballet, he said, but it was also potentially “a really big problem for the Royal Ballet School” if it turns out the school allowed students to come into contact with someone accused of misbehavior.

“We became aware this week that the investigation into Liam Scarlett may relate to some of our former pupils,” the Royal Ballet School said in a statement Thursday. “We will, of course, be offering our full cooperation to the investigation team, but since the inquiry is still underway we are unable to comment further at this stage.”

Scarlett attended the school from age 11, graduating into the Royal Ballet in 2005. His choreographic breakthrough came just five years later with “Asphodel Meadows,” which played on the Royal Opera House’s main stage. Reviewing the work in The Guardian, dance critic Judith Mackrell said that “In Liam Scarlett, the Royal may have found the real deal.”

Scarlett was just 24 at the time; commissions from the Miami City Ballet and other companies soon followed.

He became the Royal Ballet’s first artist-in-residence in 2012, allowing him to concentrate full time on choreography, and he has had a string of hits since, most notably in 2018, when he made a “Swan Lake” for the company.

Last May, the Royal Ballet announced that a new work by Scarlett would receive its world premiere in February 2020. That production was postponed in August, the same month Scarlett was suspended.

But other works by Scarlett are scheduled to be performed at the Royal Opera House soon. The Royal Ballet is set to perform his “Swan Lake” — which Roslyn Sulcas, writing in The New York Times, called “respectful, tasteful” — from March 5 through May 16. The entire run is sold out. It is also set to perform a triple bill, including a work by Scarlett, in June.

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