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Expanded spaces for dance, sports, and nutrition allow room for growth
By Jessica Ullian
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Students in Ann Brown Allen’s Afro-Jazz class inaugurated the Dance Studio/Theatre at Senior Night March 21. The theater gives student groups a larger, more professional space for practice and performance. Photo by Vernon Doucette |
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When Visions, the Dance Theatre Group’s annual performance, is held in the new dance studio at the Fitness and Recreation Center on April 15 and 16, it will mark a series of firsts for the University’s largest student-run dance club: the first time, says club president Laura DiSerio, that the dancers will perform without having to transform their rehearsal space into a makeshift theater; the first time more than 100 eager friends, parents, and dance enthusiasts can comfortably attend; and the first time that the dancers will have a performance space that matches their professional aspirations.
“It’s going to be much better having a real theater,” says DiSerio (COM’05). “We’re always trying to push the envelope and push ourselves as choreographers, and I think this kind of space will raise the standards a little bit.”
The dance studio boasts a 40-by-80-foot floor, a maximum of 223 seats, a separate street entrance for performances, and a wealth of new choices and options for the department of physical education, recreation, and dance (PERD). Advanced lighting and sound systems, a special floor designed for dance, and a built-in projection system allow the University’s dance groups to put on more polished performances and classes. “It will be great to give our professional technicians more options,” DiSerio says. “It’s going to be better sound, better everything.”
The space also provides a backstage area for the dancers — an upgrade from the previous studio, where “we were stuffed into these small corners,” says Micki Taylor-Pinney, PERD’s dance coordinator — and a box office, a street entrance, and full handicapped accessibility make it a prime space for outside groups seeking to rent a theater for performances. “Our goal is to make this available to the general public,” Taylor-Pinney says, “so we wanted things that performing agencies would expect, like access to loading docks and a much more professional look to the front of the house.”
The studio will be used primarily by the Dance Theatre Group, which is the only student dance organization with PERD advisors, but the recreation center will also open up new scheduling options for the eight-plus other student dance groups at the University and the numerous student activities groups that were previously scattered around campus. “What we tried to do was incorporate the whole array of fitness and recreation experiences that students would be interested in,” says Joseph Mercurio, executive vice president. “And we tried to do it in such a way that as trends and fashions change, we can substitute new experiences. Our facilities are designed with fitness areas that can be easily transformed.”
Six multipurpose rooms adapt to a wide range of activities, including both cooking classes and club sports — a relief for the members of another group that has outgrown its former home in the Case Physical Education Center: the 40-member Kung Fu Club, the largest martial arts group at the University. “Our room is too small, and can handle only 10 students,” says Rafael Lopez (SMG’05), the group’s treasurer. “We’re excited to move into the new facility.”
Other programs and departments connected with PERD plan to use the center to expand their audiences. The Nutrition and Fitness Center at Sargent College, for example, will begin offering some of its more popular programs, such as Healthy Eating, Healthy Dieting, and Vegetarian Nutrition, in some of the building’s multipurpose spaces. The kitchen facilities will enable faculty to conduct demonstrations and possibly offer healthy cooking classes, and the location provides increased access for faculty and staff working on West Campus, as well as for students.
“It will be nice to teach in a space where you have all these resources,” says Stacey Stimets, the Sargent center’s coordinator. “I anticipate that we’ll have an increase in enrollment and classes.”
Dance and fitness classes began at the Fitness and Recreation Center in March, and a full programming schedule will be offered starting in the fall semester, giving the entire University community access to the center and marking another first for the Dance Theatre Group: the first time it will have enough space to share with anyone who needs it.
“It’s going to be great,” says DiSerio. “Right now a lot of the other groups can’t have as much time as they’d like. It would be nice to offer everybody at least a few hours a week, and I think now we’ll be able to do that.”
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April 2005
Boston University
Office of University Relations