DANCE
Shannon Stewart
Modern dancer
When the Oddfellows Building was sold in 2007, the new owner raised the rent, pricing out tenant Velocity Dance. The dance center had spent 13 years in its Capitol Hill home. Now it had months to find a new space—or close.
Like most of the local dance community, Shannon Stewart, a dancer often seen with zoe/juniper, choked at the idea of losing Velocity. It was the only center of its kind in Seattle offering everything from a theater dedicated to dance to introductory classes for adults taught by professional choreographers.
“Losing our long-term home reaffirmed how critical it is to have a dance center,” Stewart said. Responding to “a pang of anxiety and a call to action,” she came on as Velocity’s development director in November 2008, playing an instrumental role in the dance center’s relocation. It took some large donations ($125,000 in a grant from King County alone) and creative campaigning—including a benefit dance competition set to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies”—but Velocity is back on its toes. Classes start at the new center next month, to be followed in May by their inaugural performance, the national SCUBA tour of rising artists from across the U.S., featuring Velocity instructor Amy O’Neal.
All this will take place in Velocity’s new digs at 1621 12th Avenue—the former Capitol Hill Arts Center, tucked snugly in between a liquor store and a hair salon.
“It’s beautiful,” Stewart insisted. “Historically it was an auto dealership, so it’s a big, open room with no pillars. Dancers love that, not having to dodge pillars.”
The 6,000-square-foot space is practically calling for pointe shoes and yoga mats. Sun wafts through the skylights and glistens off blond hardwood floors. Huge windows overlook Cal Anderson Park, while exposed brick gives it an “industrial chic” feel, Stewart said.
And it’s only three blocks from old Oddfellows. —LD
SCUBA: National Touring Network for Dance, May 14 & 15, Velocity Dance Center, 206-325-8773; velocitydancecenter.org
Published: February 2010
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