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ALYSON E. GROVE/ Arizona Daily Wildcat
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Construction continues on the new dance studio next to the Gittings building Friday afternoon. The center will not only serve the dance department, but also will facilitate opera performance and will have an orchestra pit space for live music.
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By James Kelley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Monday Apr. 8, 2002
Gittings building construction will create 26,000 square feet of space
Construction began late last month on a new dance facility, which is expected to quell overcrowding in the dance department.
The new facility, on the eastern part of the Mall, is an addition to the Ina A. Gittings building, 1713 E. University Blvd.
The expansion, known as the Center for Integrated Dance Education and Service, will consist of 300 seats and a new dance studio.
The addition will add 26,000 square feet of new infrastructure and pave the way for the renovation of 18,000 square feet of the Gittings building.
The center will not only serve the dance department but also will facilitate opera performance and will have an orchestra pit space for live music.
Currently, the dance department holds its performances in Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd., or Crowder Hall in the Music building, 1017 N. Olive Road.
In 1987, the dance program quadrupled in size and has continued to expand, while it remained with only four studios and overcrowded classes, said Jory Hancock, head of the dance department.
"The new facility is keeping with quality of program, it is one of the best in the country and we have been basically using a converted gym built in the '60s," Hancock said.
He said the growth of the department and size of the Gittings building has necessitated a new facility.
The addition is scheduled to be finished early in the summer of 2003, said Melissa Dryden, director of construction for Facilities Design and Construction.
The dance department had to raise $3 million by November 2000 to keep the first $3 million given by an anonymous donor.
A condition stipulated by the donor was that the rest of the money had to be raised by then.
The facility was endangered last September when budget cuts threatened reducing the UA's contribution of $3 million of the $9 million project, which again would have caused the return of the benefactor's money.
"Dance has never had anything like this," Hancock said. "We've always had to use other spaces and had to wait to see availability, basically getting what's left over," he said.
