Downtown ballet accommodates growth

The added studios broaden class offering to include jazz, yoga and others.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A flock of girls ages 4 and up come downtown every day from miles around to dance.
The girls, plus a few boys and some adults, come from Mahoning, Trumbull and even Mercer counties. They come for ballet classes, but they come for tap, jazz, Irish step, hip-hop and modern dance, too.
So many come that Ballet Western Reserve has outgrown its ground level studios opened six years ago on West Boardman Street. The ballet company has grown since then from 125 pupils to 300 this year.
Monday, Ballet Western Reserve will unveil its $325,000 renovation on the second floor that accommodates the strong growth.
"They are the reason for all this," said Anita Lin, Ballet Western Reserve's artistic director, of her pupils.
A major renovation of the old Elks building into the Morley Center for the Arts in 1997 lured the ballet, and the Oakland Center for the Arts theater group, downtown. The ballet took the ground floor, and the Oakland Center took the third floor.
Despite the stigmas attached to being downtown, Lin credits the ballet's growth to its location.
Youngstown is the meeting point for dance pupils in Mahoning, Trumbull and Mercer counties, she said. The Morley Center is easily accessible from the highways, she said.
"They can all come into this central location," Lin said.
Also, Ballet Western Reserve focuses on pure education and operating like a professional ballet company, she said. Those factors separate the ballet from the many dance studios in the suburbs, she said. That makes Ballet Western Reserve attractive to pupils from around the region, Lin said.
Renovation
The renovation added two studios. Donors and state funding paid for the work.
The large studio is more than 60 feet long and about 20 feet wide. The new room can handle about 20 dancers for jazz, hip-hop and modern dance rehearsals. The building's original brick walls were preserved and painted a terra cotta color with pale green trim. Mirrors and railings line the long walls.
The new studio means having enough space to properly stage and choreograph performances, said Karen Westerfield, who teaches modern dance at Ballet Western Reserve.
The long studio is similar to the stage size at Edward W. Powers Auditorium, where the ballet performs. Before, smaller studios meant Westerfield and her dancers would have to adapt to the large Powers stage at the last minute.
The new space gives the ballet's building a sophisticated, metropolitan feel, said Westerfield, who has danced professionally in several big cities.
"The feeling here is really very cool," she said.
Second studio
A second studio is 20 feet wide and 30 feet long and will have about eight people at a time for exercise classes such as Pilates, a series of exercises performed on a mat and on special equipment. The room, painted an off-yellow, has two mirrored walls and two other walls lined with railings.
Both studios have floors that minimize the pressure on dancers' legs.
The windows in both new studios open, too.
"It's so nice to have fresh air," Lin said.
Windows in the four ground level studios, which give passers-by a glimpse into rehearsals, are sealed so there isn't as much fresh air flow as she'd like, Lin said.
Limitations
The ballet company had to limit the number of classes it offered because the ground level studios were booked solid, Lin said. Some classes ran as late as 9:30 p.m. weekdays because of space problems, which isn't good for school-age pupils, she said.
"There was no place to put any extra classes," she said.
The new renovation lets the ballet hold 10 more classes, from additional types of dance to such in-demand programs as power yoga, Lin said.
Plans for remaining second floor space include sharing with the Oakland theater group.
The ballet one day hopes to create an additional studio, a full dressing area and a boardroom that the Oakland can use as a cabaret, Lin said.
The Oakland is growing, too, and could use more space in the future, said Brenda Williams, president of the theater's board of trustees.
The building is a magnet for introducing people to downtown, and the Oakland is glad to be partners with the ballet, Williams said.
"Their success is amazing," she said.
rgsmith@vindy.com