V2’s promising start as Value Village art space could be a blueprint for other empty buildings

Resident Kate Wallich holds a rehearsal for Industrial Ballet inside V2. (Image: Kate Wallich via Instagram)

Resident Kate Wallich holds a rehearsal for Industrial Ballet inside V2. (Image: Kate Wallich via Instagram)

It’s only been a month since Velocity Dance Center officially opened the V2 “temporary arts space” in the old Value Village building on 11th Ave, and the new residents have already churned out an impressive display of creativity.

“It’s exciting what’s already happened,” said Tonya Lockyer, Velocity’s artistic director and former executive director. “And only more is in store.”

Since Value Village departed from the auto row-era Kelly-Springfield Motor Truck Company building on 11th and E Pine last year, Legacy Commercial’s plans for a mixed-use development on the site have been significantly slowed due to a landmark protections decision. While the project gets sorted out, the 12th Ave dance studio signed a six-month, below market-rate lease with Legacy in February and opened V2 in early March.

V1 of the V2 space when it was still Macklemore's thrift shop. (Image: CHS)

V1 of the V2 space when it was still Macklemore’s thrift shop. (Image: CHS)

Initiated by the Capitol Hill Arts District, and propped up by a $20,000 grant from the city’s Office of Arts and Culture, the 30,000-square-foot space is being put to use for dance performance, offices, rental studios, and storage. It is also home to the event company One Reel, which will be staging its Bumbershoot operations out of V2 this year.

Lockyer says it’s been a “fast turn around” to get V2 up and running and there is still a lot of work to be done, including painting the walls and getting city permits for public events. Even so, Velocity has already hosted visual artists, dancers, and choreographers through their in-house residency program, which allows residents to work out of V2 for free or at highly subsidized rents.

Residents have included local dance choreographer Kate Wallich, who recently sold-out Seattle’s Moore Theatre with her one-time show Industrial Ballet — Velocity’s largest production to date. Dance choreographer Alice Gostia worked in the space as she gears up for of a large production at the Seattle waterfront this summer and Seattle-based drag queen and dancer Cherdonna Shinatra collaborated with local street artist 179 to do a mural in V2. Continue reading

Pike/Pine’s Rhino Room planning second-level expansion

Capitol Hill’s dance club scene looks to be strong enough to warrant a doubling-down at the Rhino Room.

The two-year-old club’s ownership declined to comment about a possible expansion but plans on file with the city indicate Rhino Room is sizing up another level for dancing in the night spot’s 3,000 square-foot basement.

The new plans went into motion after the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board voted to extend protections to the auto row-era building the club and Capitol Hill media group The Stranger call home. CHS reported on the decision from the building’s longtime owner to drop plans for a redevelopment of the property in the wake of the decision. Meanwhile, 11th Ave’s Value Village building that was slated to be part of the development remains shuttered after the thrift store’s late 2015 closure. So far, there has been no sign of a new retail tenant moving into the space.

The Rhino Room opened in the former bike store space at 11th and Pine in spring 2014 and has since grown into a popular Pike/Pine venue on the weekends, joining the scene’s longtime gay clubs like Neighbours and R Place and big-time newcomer Q in maintaining Capitol Hill’s dance scene. 11th Ave’s spot in the scene also includes the action above Grim’s where The Woods also lines up clubbers looking to get down and get funky after paying a nominal $10 to $25 cover for the privilege. Grim’s was acquired in 2014 by an ownership group behind the Comet Tavern and Lost Lake.

While the Rhino ownership is remaining quiet on the possible downward expansion, it wouldn’t be the first time the group kept its cards close to its chest. As word first spread about the 11th and Pine project in 2013, they described the coming club in the most modest of terms:

So the idea was simply to open a bar. Everything has gotten overconceptualized these days… The only thing that we want to do is have fun at what we do.

“We will, from time to time, have a DJ or do something wacky, or throw a fun party, but the foundation of the concept is to host a good time for all every day—which isn’t a concept at all,” the message about the new venture read.

Next generation of great dancers may not be able to call Hill home — but Velocity’s Bridge Project will help some get their start here

IMG_0181 IMG_0191 IMG_0207 IMG_0221 IMG_0242 IMG_0995 IMG_1010Tonya Lockyer, artistic director of Capitol Hill’s Velocity Dance Center and co-chair of the Capitol Hill Arts District, is trying to help keep Capitol Hill as a focus of arts energy, though it is getting increasingly difficult. She said that in a survey of the district’s artistic community, many dancers and performers want to live on the Hill to be a part of the performer community, but the cost of living here is making it ever more difficult.

One way to try and rise above that is to give emerging performers an opportunity to show their stuff. That’s what Velocity does through its annual Bridge Project. The 2016 edition takes place next week at the 12th Ave studio.

The Bridge Project started in 2006, Lockyer said, though at the time it had a different model. When she arrived in 2011, it transitioned to its current state, giving four choreographers who are either new to Seattle, or have been working here for fewer than three years, a chance to produce a show.

Lockyer says Seattle is on the rise in the dance world.

“We’re drawing people to Seattle from around the country because we’re the new hotbed for dance,” she said.

Lockyer credits this to the city having two organizations, Velocity and On the Boards, dedicated to creating a community for dancers.

“(Velocity) was founded to create a Seattle dance scene, and that’s what it’s done over the past 20 years.” Lockyer said.

For the Bridge Project, the center gives each of the budding choreographers 45 hours of rehearsal time with a group of auditioned dancers over about a month. This allows the artists to rehearse five days a week, which Lockyer said is a rare opportunity in these days of limited funding.

It also gives the dancers technical and administrative support. At the end of the show, Lockyer said, the audience members get feedback cards, so they can tell the artists what they thought.

“This is like a big, beautiful gift for everyone,” said Stephanie Liapis, one of this year’s choreographers. “This feels like a really big opportunity to try some new things.”

Liapis, who studied at the UW before moving to New York, just relocated back to Seattle in August. All that moving got her thinking about displacement; the voluntary sort of displacement — moving to a new place and the freedom, and lack of freedom it can give a person.

“It’s my experience right now, and I’m really interested in it, so I’m trying to figure it out,” she said.

In her work, she said she gave the dancers some early ideas, but much of the work will be contributed from them, with her acting as more of an editor or curator. Continue reading

What the Float ‘floating dance party’ hits Capitol Hill

(Image: What the Float)

(Image: What the Float)

Capitol Hill Block Party has come and gone but an event planned for the streets of Capitol Hill Friday night will give you another excuse to boogie down on E Pike.

The What the Float “floating dance party” is bringing its NYC-born concept to Pike/Pine.

“It’s all about the music and the landscape,” Wesley Fruge of Forward Flux Productions tells CHS. “A lot of thought went into the route.” Continue reading

Whim W’Him dance company comes to Capitol Hill with #unprotected

(Image: Whim W’Him)

(Image: Whim W’Him)

In its fifth year of performing, innovative Seattle dance company Whim W’Him is performing its first full-length evening of works on Capitol Hill with eight performances at the Erickson Theatre. This seven member company created by ballet dancer Olivier Wevers has typically performed at the Cornish Playhouse. The Capitol Hill performances will be a rare opportunity to see the dancers away from the Seattle Center in the 150-seat Erickson. They’re also planning to place the first row of seats directly on stage for what sounds like a most immersive experience.

Continue reading

Velocity dances through rent hike to keep Capitol Hill a hub for original choreography

Velocity had lots of help for its 2010 moving party/parade (Image: CHS)

Velocity had lots of help for its 2010 moving party/parade (Image: CHS)

18_layer-1-small_layer-1

Anna Conner’s show Colony will feature dancers wearing masks made out of flowers. (Photo: Anna Conner)

This weekend, Velocity Dance Center will kick off a slate of performances that show why the city’s true community dance center is an asset worth making space for on Capitol Hill.

On Friday the studio will feature performances from choreographers from its 14th annual The Bridge Project, which provides space and a small amount of funding for four emerging  choreographers to develop a performance in four weeks. Anna Conner, a 2009 Cornish graduate, will be joining five dancers to perform her piece, Colony.

“There aren’t many places that give you time and space and dancers on top of that,” Conner said of the intensive three week program. “It challenges and pushes you to keep working, you have to work, it’s just non-stop.”

Colony will touch on a theme sometimes all too familiar here in the big city: the loss of human kindness in society. “It’s how we always push each other away … Colony is dark, about staying in your own group,” Conner said.

While artists continue to thrive under Velocity’s wing, the dance center itself has struggled to meet a booming demand for space and performances in the city. Velocity’s executive and artistic director Tonya Lockyer came into her role during a time when Velocity was challenged by the opportunity to grow. Continue reading