Tag Archives: dance

PopRox Studio bringing ‘all genders, all levels, all bodies, all ages, all fun’ dance to Capitol Hill with new location in Chophouse Row

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(Image: PopRox Studio)

(Image: PopRox Studio)

By Soumya Gupta, CHS intern

PopRox Studio, a Seattle dance studio that offers “confidence building, judgment free dance classes for kids and adults,” has announced its plans to open a new studio on Capitol Hill in the Chophouse Row commercial development.

It will be the growing business’s second studio, after its first location in University District.

Co-founders of PopRox Studio, Kinsey Flores and Cathy Barnett, officially announced plans for the new studio this week.

“We explored the neighbourhood quite a bit, and absolutely loved what the community had to offer to help us grow,” Barnett said. “The Chophouse Row is also a unique location, which hosts brands with a similar ethos like ours.”

The new studio will be located on the lower level of the 11th Ave Chophouse Row building where a series of businesses have rotated through. But the PopRox effort to create the new studio will be a larger investment. The new PopRox will debut in January 2024. Continue reading →

Three Capitol Hill clubs, three futures: Neighbours ‘under new ownership,’ former R Place shaped as restaurant project, Q marks 10 years of dancing on Broadway

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The 10th anniversary party at Q (Image: Q Nightclub)

Meanwhile, new ownership at Neighbours (Image: CHS)

Three centers of Capitol Hill nightlife face very different futures as a new owner has closed a $2.7 million deal to purchase iconic Capitol Hill gay dance bar Neighbours. Meanwhile, the next life for the former R Place is taking shape while Broadway club Q is marking 10 years in the neighborhood with plans for changes behind the scenes.

“It’s been a long road, but we finally took over,” new Neighbours owner TJ Bruce tells CHS.

CHS broke the news on the Neighbours deal in April as Bruce, an investor and backer of gay clubs stretching from Fresno to San Jose to San Francisco to Portland, was shaping a deal for the Seattle club and the 1911-built, 14,000-square-foot Broadway building it has called home for 40 years. The property hit the market for $6.9 million in 2019 only to be relisted at $5.75 million in late 2020. Bruce arrived at a deal at a much lower price as the Elassiouti family that has owned the property, local managers, and promoters who have kept Neighbours open and busy prepared to hand over the reins.

The market for well-loved and a little rough around the edges Capitol Hill gay dance clubs apparently tops out around $3 million. King County property records show the former E Pine home of R Place also finally sold this year for $2.5 million. Continue reading →

Introducing the Lowdown Ballroom, Capitol Hill’s newest home-based business and performance venue

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Singer songwriter Kat Hjelte performing atop Lowdown Ballroom’s garage terrace (Image: Donia Rose Photography)

What if your Capitol Hill neighbors’ microbusiness is a ballroom that puts on shows in the street? The Lowdown Ballroom is putting the concept to the test on 11th Ave E just north of Mercer in a four-bedroom, 1906-built house with a fantastic basement and a garage that serves as a convenient outdoor summer stage.

“When we were first researching, I said, ‘There is no way we can do this,’” Madeline Yan tells CHS about the unusual Capitol Hill home-based business she and husband Alex Yan have launched out of the pandemic.

But an appreciation and love for music, city zoning, good sound insulation, good insurance, and better neighbors have come together for Lowdown, adding a new venue for live music and performance on Capitol Hill. Continue reading →

From cannabis to clubs, Capitol Hill’s The Baltic Room has a new owner

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Proud owners Rachel Keith and Rahsaan Henry (Image: The Baltic Room)

From The Ganja Mom to Capitol Hill’s new queen of clubs? Rachel Keith is a long way from creating anything like Linda Derschang’s empire just yet but with her summer takeover of The Baltic Room, she’s proud to at least be following in a few of Derschang’s earliest dance steps.

Keith purchased the Baltic, the Pine dance club Derschang first opened as a piano bar in 1997, this summer and celebrated a grand reopening last month.

“What’s the Baltic Room?,” Keith asked earlier this year as she was searching through listings for an available club. “My husband and I have always been in the nightlife scene. I decided to go check it out.” Continue reading →

‘Merce 100’ celebrates past and future at Velocity Dance as director says goodbye

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Merce Cunningham (Image: Merce Cunningham Trust)

Ella Mahler is lying on her back on the marley floor, stock-still, like a bear has been chasing her and playing dead is her last resort. But then, suddenly, she gets up and scurries across the vinyl floors of the back studio of Capitol Hill’s Velocity Dance Center. In hurried movements, she lifts her knees up, combat-style, only to later duck and then balance gracefully on one leg, outsmarting an invisible assailer purely with poise.

Mahler, a Seattle-based dancer, choreographer and Velocity’s 2019 Made in Seattle Artist, is running through the movements of her solo choreography Absolute. Less than two weeks to go before showtime, December 14th. Mahler is one of the nine dancers performing newly created choreographies for MERCE 100: Seattle Artists Respond to Merce, a four-day long, Capitol Hill-centered celebration of and response to the centennial of world-famous dancer and Washington native Merce Cunningham (1919 – 2009), running December 13th through 16th.

Cunningham, who was born in Centralia and studied at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, became one of the most influential artists of the 20th century thanks to his radical, innovative approach to dance, for example by using dice and other chance-based processes to decide how his dancers would move. Continue reading →

Exit Interview: Velocity Dance’s Tonya Lockyer on 16 years in the arts on Capitol Hill

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Tonya Lockyer (Image: Bettina Hansen with permission to CHS)

Tonya Lockyer began as a touring artist and educator, eventually finding her roots in Seattle after joining Velocity Dance Center as an artist and completing graduate school at the University of Washington. She went on to be Velocity’s programs and communications manager, and eventually its executive director.

In June, Lockyer announced she will be stepping down from her post this fall after 16 years with the organization.

Entering Velocity in a time of instability, debt, and amid an emergency capital campaign, Lockyer implemented operational and artistic direction and, in just two years, had Velocity operating in the black.

With accolades like the Mayor’s Artz Award, Tonya’s tenure has brought national visibility to the dance center and its residents, acting as the “portal to Seattle dance,” and a destination for touring choreographers. Her leadership influenced exceptional growth in audiences and artist residencies, with consistently sold-out community events and classes.

CHS spoke with Lockyer about how she got involved with Velocity and Seattle’s dance scene, her proudest moments as Artistic Executive Director, the importance of dance for our community, and what’s next for her.

How did you get involved with Velocity?: When I first moved to Seattle, I was teaching and I ran into a Seattle choreographer and said that I was moving to Seattle. She said, “Seattle is great, and my friend KT Niehoff needs someone to stay in her house!” So the very first place I ever lived was in the home of the co-founder of Velocity, KT Niehoff. Continue reading →

Dance Underground, an open space for Capitol Hill dance communities

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In an underground dance studio on 15th Ave E, you can find Ilana Rubin — hair wisped and face flush — running around or behind her desk fresh out of one workout or another, her office strewn with Halloween decorations.

Rubin runs Dance Underground, a 14-year business running a 45-year-old dance studio. The studio was first opened by Shirley Jenkins when it was called Strong Winds Wild Horses. In fact, it’s the very place Rubin met her partner more than two decades ago doing Argentine tango. Rubin herself has been a dancer all her life, harking back to her roots in Israel.

The space itself contains two spacious studios with christmas lights lining the wall-length mirrors. It certainly has a homey, lived-in feel to it through the walls and the ceiling but it’s welcoming.

“To me it’s just a part of that old Seattle that we keep talking about that’s disappearing,” said Barb Duff who uses the space for BaDi dance and exercise. “From what we do for a living, you’re just not going to find a 2,000-square-foot, unobstructed studio with a hard sprung wood floor anywhere with these cookie-cutter Ikea showrooms.”

Duff and her BaDi coworker Dina Love came to Seattle from the East Coast a while back. For them, the studio is reminiscent of New York’s “gritty dance studios” because of its ambiance. Continue reading →

Century Ballroom dances through 20 years on Capitol Hill

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Many things have changed around the Century Ballroom since it first opened in 1997 in Capitol Hill’s Odd Fellows Building, but the vision Hallie Kuperman had 20 years ago remains.

“I wanted to mix the worlds of people who partner dance,” she said, adding that she aimed to create a LGBTQ safe environment where people could dine, dance, and drink.

When Century first opened, Kuperman was very focused on queer only classes. She has broadened Century’s community in the decades since but said, “It’s still important to me to have the gay community find this place.”

“What I hear over and over is the asset that Century is to the community,” she said. “I believe dance as being healing for people — in the bigger picture I feel we’re creating a safe place.” Continue reading →

Velocity Dance marks 20 years in motion on Capitol Hill

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Velocity Dance Center has fueled the careers of dancers and artists and provided a space and classes on Capitol Hill for anyone with an inspiration to move their bodies.

“It would be very detrimental to the entire city if it wasn’t here,” Kate Wallich, a dancer, choreographer, director, and teacher in Velocity’s community told CHS.

The dance center’s entire 2016 season has been celebrating Velocity. The Fall Kick-Off offers audiences a way to relive the season and experience a taste of the upcoming 2017 season. Performances are at 7:30 PM Sept. 23-25 at wthe Velocity Founders Theater, 1621 12th Ave.

About ten years ago, Velocity’s longevity was tested, but the community’s support gave the center a breath of new life. The center hit some rocky ground financially in 2007 when the Odd Fellows Hall at 10th and Pine, its home since 1996, was sold and the nonprofit’s rent was hiked. Continue reading →

Play set in Mexico and Seattle debuts in Xalapa, ready to stage on Capitol Hill

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unnamed (6)A “physical theater” play set to open on Capitol Hill next week already had a bit of a warm-up run — in Xalapa, Mexico.

The RipCity Dance premiere of Seattle hits the stage here on April 29th, and 30th. The play takes place in both Mexico and Seattle — and is being toured through both.

“The play’s climax happens in Seattle, and its story is told through a time period when Seattle had an important place in the counterculture and in art and music, expressing messages about how to do things differently in the world,” Steven Ripley, the founder of RipCity Dance, tells CHS. “We use music from Seattle bands – Nirvana and Pearl Jam.”

Ripley’s vision for his one-year-old company comes from producing plays, workshops, and dance classes.

“We’ve used hip-hop, breakdance, groovy modern improv, gigong — the intention is to break the usual mold of what a dance class is, and to create a new type of community experience for families to share,” Ripley said.

Written by Adrian Vazquez of Los Tristes Tigres, and in partnership with Ethnofit Studio of Mexico City, Seattle is performed by Nancy Lopez Luna and Elia Mrak.

Each performance will be accompanied by an after-show discussion.

“Adrian’s play tells an astonishing story about the spontaneity of life and the creation of what we call destiny,” Ripley tells CHS. “Our lives are chaotic, with earthquakes and hurricanes and family traumas.  We don’t often have a grand sense of things.”

Tickets are on sale for the Friday, April 29th and Saturday, April 30th, performances at the Erickson Theater on Capitol Hill.