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Guaranteed human.

When it started to go a little too far,

he would sometimes show up the studio wearing bandages on his hands.

And he would say that he was mastering how to manipulate and start fire from his hands. I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most, and the deceptions that change everything.

Yeah. and the deceptions that change everything. The students reached out to me,

and they were the ones who told me they got out of a cult.

That's Alicia. It isn't her real name.

We've had to anonymize everyone in this episode, and you'll see why in a minute.

Oh my goodness, I don't know where to start. Let's go to the beginning, I guess.

Alicia grew up in the 80s in a chaotic home. One of her parents struggled with addiction.

So Alicia ended up helping raise her older brothers, and in a way, raising herself.

I pretty much had to be the provider, maybe cook food or meals as much as I could. So

that was a little stressful as a younger kid.

When she was seven years old, her dad signed her up for dance, and it changed her life.

It definitely saved me.

In one of her very first classes, Alicia remembers feeling out of place.

I was the little scraggly kid in the back.

It was funny because one time I went to class and I was wearing jeans and I was like mortified because I didn't have my tights or anything.

But the dance instructor put Alicia at ease.

She made me feel seen and like it was okay and you know I was just there to dance and no one was looking at me to try to judge me. She was awesome. And then after that, I was hooked.

That instructor became a mentor.

...