A Building Boom for Local Dance, but Is The Barre Set Too High?

With the new development comes the promise of more performances, from both touring groups and local companies. Indeed, new spaces such as the Atlas and Strathmore are expanding offerings for the current dance season.

But all the bricks-and-mortar activity raises questions about whether there is enough funding to pay for the new theaters as well as to sustain the art needed to fill them. Some teachers wonder if their dance classes will fill up enough to pay the rent. Ultimately, will the new growth be a boon to the dance community -- perhaps the most economically fragile of the performing arts -- or will the costs prove too great?

Cautious optimism prevails among dance leaders. "You've got a moment in time here where the level of interest is growing and the level of opportunity, through theater space, is the highest it's ever been," said Paul Gordon Emerson, CityDance's director. "That's a very good confluence."

But progress comes with its own perils.

'Grow or Die'

For Fabian Barnes, founder and director of the Dance Institute of Washington, turning an overgrown vacant lot at 3400 14th St. NW into a $5 million arts archetype almost did him in.

"If I knew then what I know now, it probably would have stopped me" from buying the property, he said recently over lunch across the street from his building, which officially opens Thursday. "Not to say I'm not happy I did it, but everything comes with a price. My price was sleepless nights and high blood pressure."

Barnes, a former member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, started his institute in 1987 as a summer ballet program for underprivileged children. A decade later he was running a year-round school, though it remained a shoestring affair housed until now in rental studios in some of the poorest parts of town. In 2000 he was awarded one of Oprah Winfrey's "Angel Network" awards, and word of his organization grew. But his square footage didn't. He had to turn kids away because he didn't have room for them all.

The impermanence of his school made fundraising difficult, Barnes said. He was in constant fear of losing support. Also, his most advanced dancers were clamoring for him to launch a professional company, for which he needed rehearsal space, a stage -- and an audience.

He felt he had no choice but to risk it all by expanding: "It was either grow or die."

Five years ago, with a dancer's instinct for dramatic presentation and sight lines, Barnes scouted out a narrow patch of long-abandoned property and bid his future on it. He got the lot for $100,000; the bulk of his fundraising went into the construction of an odd-shaped structure (the facade includes 20 corners) housing three studios, dressing rooms, offices, a day-care center -- and a big street-side display case where Barnes will hang posters promoting Washington Reflections, his new company of 12 paid dancers.

Twice a year, he plans to rent the 285-seat, newly renovated Tivoli Theater, home to GALA Hispanic Theatre, which is just down the street from the Dance Institute. That smallish space is essential to the success of his troupe, he says; it will allow longer runs -- perhaps a week of performances, instead of the one- or two-night norm -- giving word-of-mouth publicity a chance to build. And, he hopes, developing his audience.

Joy and Worry

Like Barnes, Douglas Yeuell expanded his lovingly built but fragile empire only after frequent panic attacks. After 14 years as the artistic and executive director of Joy of Motion Dance Center, one of the area's most prominent training grounds in contemporary dance, he was still just a tenant, renting studio space in highly desirable areas. With condos and retail chains increasingly eating up the square footage around him, Yeuell started to fear losing one or all of his leases.