Petition requests more studio space for dance department
A petition requesting the expansion and renovation of the VCU Dance Center has received nearly 250 signatures in its first six days.
Mark Robinson
Assistant News Editor
A petition requesting the expansion and renovation of the VCU Dance Center has received nearly 250 signatures in its first six days.
The building, located at 10 N. Brunswick St. behind Crossroads coffee shop, is nearly 100 years old. It’s used by more than 100 dance and choreography majors and students enrolled in non-major dance classes.
Sophomore dance major Sanchel Brown started circulating the petition last Friday on Facebook, Twitter and through email. Brown said the petition is backed by students, alumni and faculty, including VCU Dance chairman James Frazer.
“It’s been an amazing space for a long time, but we’ve grown by leaps and bounds in the last ten years and we are past capacity,” said Lea Marshall, assistant chairwoman of VCUDance. “While it’s a cool old building, we can’t grow anymore without access to new space.”
The petition voices student and faculty concern about the lack of studio space preventing dance and choreography majors from graduating on time.
Because of limited studio space, the dance and choreography department operates on a different schedule, and dance classes often overlap with normal university time-slots. For this reason, dance majors have trouble scheduling, Brown said.
“The space is swallowed up. We don’t have enough space to support all of the artists that want to come in,” Brown said. “Even the non-majors that come in to take Pilates or Hip hop dance have signed the petition because they have to practice for their classes and they can’t find space.”
A new dressing room, more spacious bathrooms and a fresh coat of paint are among Brown’s requests; her concerns are not solely superficial, though. Brown said she thinks the support beams in the studio located in the building’s basement are unsafe for the students.
Associate vice provost and dean of student affairs Reuben Rodriguez toured the VCU Dance Center on Monday and visited with students who voiced similar concerns to those in the petition.
Rodriguez said the potential for renovations to the dance center could be considered as an addition to VCU’s Master Site Plan when the Board of Visitors convenes in the fall.
The department of dance and choreography’s comparatively small enrollment does not make the students’ requests less of a priority, Rodriguez said.
“There is no denying the fact that these students feel like they don’t have enough space to practice or that the classes don’t have enough room to do what they need to do,” he said. “There are a lot of factors that go into determining whether or not to renovate a building, and (the number of dance students) is just one of them.”
Brown said she hopes some of the changes, like the bathroom renovations, can be made this summer when no one is using the building. She understands the petition is one part of a long process to make the renovations and expansion happen.
“(The petition) is not just for me or the people who are there now; it’s more so for the future of the program,” Brown said. “Of course, I hope something happens, but I don’t expect it to happen overnight.”
Brown said she intends to meet with Rodriguez about the petition as soon as possible.
