Will Dance be Run off the Hill?
By Mark Fefer in Arts & Culture, News
Monday, Oct. 8 2007 @ 12:29PM
Our Sandi Kurtz reports this morning that the gorgeous old Oddfellows Building on Capitol Hill, home to the Velocity Dance Studio, Century Ballroom, and other arts groups, has been sold. Given what's been happening all around them, this has the tenants mighty anxious. No word yet on the new owners' plans (though that ballroom sure would make a sweet media den for some software executive's condo). Ironically, Velocity just got its biggest grant ever from Paul Allen's foundation to do "capacity building" (i.e., boost artists' fees, improve marketing, hire support staff, etc.) So they should be a nice healthy organization when/if they find themselves homeless next year.
2 comment(s)
Anonymous says:
Holy Shit! I can\'t believe this wasn\'t splashed all over your front page this week. The Oddfellows\' Building is home to not only \"other arts groups\", but four of the most affordable performance spaces for self-produced shows of any kind--theater, dance, comedy, improv, fringe... This could be a real blow to the fertile soil that developing artists grow in.
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 13 2007 @ 7:05AM
Tom in Arizona says:
I have gone dancing at the Century during some of my visits to the Seattle area. That is one of the finest venues I\'ve been to anywhere (another being the original Orion in Kirkland). I really appreciate the old time type of ambiance of the facility.
I read about the sale of the building over on dance-forums.com. I hope that the Century continues without interruption.
My grandparents were members of Odd Fellows in Tucson and my grandfather is a past grandmaster.
Posted On: Sunday, Nov. 4 2007 @ 6:24AM