About Providence

7.27.2001
Changing Positions:
Festival Ballet's new dance studio pushes classes for the masses

By KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Looking for your chance to dance? To dip and swoon, plié or swing? Or move to a hip-hop groove? If so, the Festival Ballet of Rhode Island has just the place for you.

The agency — Rhode Island's largest professional dance company — will move into a new facility at 825 Hope St. in September. With the move comes plans for expansion and a desire to appeal to a more diverse group of students who are eager to dance.

The 23-year-old Festival Ballet and Center for Dance Education was founded in its North Providence location by the late Christine Hennessey and Winthrop Corey, former principal dancers with the Canadian Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

For the last two years, the dance company has been looking for a new home that would accommodate expansion.

The 10,000 square-foot building on Hope Street — which had been a funeral parlor — is "just the right size: not too big, not too small," said Lisa LaDew, managing director of the company.

Additionally, by moving to Providence, the dance company will join a growing list of artistic organizations that have chosen to locate or expand in the capital city, LaDew said.

"Festival Ballet's presence in Providence will enrich our already vibrant cultural scene, adding a vital new dimension to the celebration of arts in our capital city," Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. said at a July 11 groundbreaking ceremony to announce the relocation. "We are pleased that the Festival Ballet, with its many and varied offerings, is joining the [local] arts community. Our city's enthusiastic support for the arts and for arts-related tourism is a significant factor in our renaissance. With Festival Ballet, the renaissance takes another leap forward."

Cianci was joined at the groundbreaking ceremony by City Councilman Kevin Jackson, who represents the ward that includes Hope Street, and by Misha Djuric, the dance company's artistic director.

LaDew said contractors recently gutted the one-story Hope Street building, as the first step toward renovation. In the next phase, walls will be erected to create three large, air-conditioned studios. The agency's North Providence location had only two studios, LaDew said.

The new facility will also have a small conference area, administrative office space, dressing rooms and a shower area for the professional dance company.

LaDew said dance company officials are particularly pleased with the new location because it is on a bus line and is accessible.

The move will allow the Center for Dance Education to expand its curriculum. In September, the center will offer recreational dance classes in hip-hop, ballroom dancing, yoga and the Festival Ballet workout.

The new facility will continue to provide classical ballet training for professionals and provide space for cultural dance workshops and other recreational uses.

Cianci praised the dance company for expanding its curriculum to attract an even broader and more diverse segment of the city's population.

LaDew said the dance education center will have classes for students, both youth and adult, age 3 and older, "who just want to dance."

Djuric, the artistic director, said the company's move to the local arts community "is a great way to kick off our school year."

He said he believes the company's comprehensive program will appeal to a variety of city residents and will provide "an enriching dance experience for students of all ages and abilities."

Long established in the state's arts community, the Festival Ballet is a nonprofit performing arts group best known for its annual holiday performances of The Nutcracker at the Providence Performing Arts Center.

LaDew said the dance company does eight productions each year, with many of its performances at Veterans Auditorium Arts & Cultural Center.

The goal of the company is to "expand dance awareness, through education and performance."