It is the oldest professional dance company still in operation in Dallas. And on Saturday, the Dallas Black Dance Theater will attempt to fully replenish its ranks.

Over the weekend, the company announced via Instagram that it had “made the difficult decision to lay off the Main Company dancers after a video surfaced that violated their contract terms and our standards of artistic excellence.”

“We were just really confused,” said Derick McKoy.

Mckoy entered his third season.

He said he and his colleagues received nearly identical letters by email on Friday informing them of their termination.

“We were told that we had violated company policies such as using cell phones in the studio, we had engaged in self-proclaimed shenanigans and the video contained vulgar language,” he said.

The video was posted on an Instagram account managed by the dancers.

It is set to the theme song from “Family Matters” and, according to McKoy, was created to introduce the dancers to the public.

He said the company had released a similar model for 2022.

“It doesn’t make sense for them to say it’s just the video. There’s a lot more to it,” McKoy said.

“We believe this is just a smokescreen. These dancers were fired because they wanted to have a say in their workplace and formed a union to do that,” said Griff Braun, national organizing director for the American Guild of Musical Artists.

The company’s members voted to join AGMA back in May.

The DBDT leadership denies the claim that the recent actions were retaliatory.

“We made the decision to release the dancers based solely on a video that showed behavior that violated our policies and, frankly, undermined our standards,” said DBDT Board President Georgia Scaife.

Scaife said DBDT would work with the union and the National Labor Relations Board on the auditions after AGMA filed unfair working conditions lawsuits on behalf of the dancers.

“We are more than happy to provide the NLRB with any response and documentation they can so they can take stock of what happened and then make a decision,” she said.

For now, the dispute is dragging on, as is the race to fill the company’s vacancy, while dancers like McKoy plan their next steps.

“We’re all kind of trying to figure out whether to stay in Dallas or leave. Personally, I’m just trying to refocus,” McKoy said.

Scaife also said that the DBDT was disappointed by AGMA’s decision to issue a “work ban order” that bars members of several unions from auditioning.

AGMA organized a rally for the dancers and demonstrated at 1 p.m. before the auditions at the One Arts Plaza de la Contemporès de Paris.

In the past, NBC5 was a sponsor of the DBDT.