A new dance space in Manchester?
Working together, Dogtown Dance, LLC and Ground Zero Dance Company have applied for a Special Use Permit from the City of Richmond for 109 W. 15th Street in historic Manchester.
For the past ten years, a current of interest in the reincarnation of the 67-year old Bainbridge School Gymnasium as a lively center for community enrichment has been slowly and steadily emerging. Imagine a building long vacant, shuttered and derelict, gradually awakening, shedding the boards and cages from its windows, and opening its doors to children for dance classes, to seniors for workshops, to underserved youth for master classes and internships, and to the general public for dance, music, or theatrical performances that quicken the still air, brighten the eyes of visitors, and bring life and energy back to a once thriving block. What better catalyst for the ongoing revitalization of Old Manchester than a center focused on performing arts?
The Bainbridge Gymnasium project, spearheaded by Dogtown Dance Theatre, LLC with the support of Ground Zero Dance Company and designed by watershed architects, will embody the highest and best use of this property in the context of the current and generally improving conditions within the Old Manchester community. Formerly a gymnasium with ancillary classrooms serving the adjacent Maury School building (now a senior housing complex), the proposed new use of the property remains faithful to the spirit of its original function. Just as sports and recreation once were the principal activity on this site, so dance, performance and community outreach will comprise the essential purpose of the renovated facility. Dogtown Dance Theatre (in partnership with the well-established Ground Zero Dance Company) will manage the space to accommodate classes, rehearsals and performances conducted by local and regional performing artists. From its current state of gradual decay, the property will blossom into a locus of community and cultural vibrancy, with a physical vigor not unlike that of its former heyday.
The City of Richmond will be sending out notices of Public Hearings in the coming weeks.