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Mr. Hensen, 22, was a mature student at the school; he had years of experience in the Royal Danish Opera and The Ballet in Tivoli Gardens. He danced for the Queen of Denmark. He arrived in Winnipeg in 2012 from Montreal, where he worked for a large dance company.

It was there that he was approached by CockyBoys, a production company based in New York City, but he felt the time wasn’t right.

“Then, during my stay at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, I decided I would like to gain more experience, both with my sexuality, with myself in a safe way where I could control it, but also experience other sides of me artistically,” he said. “In ballet, we deal with a lot of man-woman sex-love relationships [on stage], but we rarely actually deal with it on an emotional basis, so it can be difficult to understand [gay relationships].”

He began working for CockyBoys in February. His profile on CockyBoys.com gives a nod to his artistry: “Jett Black has been an artist his entire life. He loves to move his body and perform in front of other people, so you can see why making porn is no different to him. In fact, being naked on screen adds another layer of depth when he’s expressing himself, a certain ‘raw passion’ he says, that he’s proud to share with the world.”

By spring break, some classmates saw photos related to his work on Tumblr and alerted their artistic director. Immediately after the break in late March, he was summoned for a meeting, he said, and told he would have to leave.