Annie Van Alstyne said ballet executive director Johann Jacobs summoned her to a meeting early Tuesday and told her she had violated a policy that allows only marketing and personnel staff to release information to the media.

"You have never seen such hatred in your life," Van Alstyne said of Jacobs' demeanor. "He was just so angry with me."

Jacobs said Van Alstyne was terminated for comments published in the Deseret Morning News on May 31.

"The supposition was that we were not going to pay Jonas for his works. That was not accurate," Jacobs said. "Since Annie was not present at any of the meetings where decisions were made, she was not speaking on the basis of any kind of factual information."

The ballet announced on April 26 that Kåge was resigning his position with one year left on his contract. In an interview with The Tribune that day, board of trustees chair Carol Carter said the resignation came during a "routine" performance review, after Kåge realized he had accomplished all his goals with Ballet West and wanted to pursue other opportunities.

The next day, however, Kåge announced that, instead of voluntarily resigning, he had been given a choice to resign or be fired because the results of his performance review - a multiple-question survey that staff, dancers and board members were asked to fill out - essentially amounted to a company-wide vote of no confidence.

Since that time, Kåge backers have become more vocal in their support, while ballet staff and trustees have declined to respond to Kåge's claims. Kåge hired an attorney, Eric Strindberg, to help him mediate a severance agreement with Ballet West; those talks are continuing, said Strindberg, who declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding Kåge's departure.

In an interview on May 25, Van Alstyne alleged Kåge was ousted because he and Jacobs had differing visions for the company's future. She said the survey was intended to create grounds for dumping Kåge.

"The minute I saw [the survey] I knew [Kåge] couldn't do well . . . it was geared for a manager like Johann." she said. "They did this to support getting rid of Jonas."

Tuesday, Jacobs said he couldn't answer questions about Kåge's departure until the mediation process is finished. He denied Van Alstyne was fired to keep others from speaking out publicly about Kåge and characterized it as a justified response to Van Alstyne being "blatantly in violation of policies and procedures."