Dance school facility to be built at University of Michigan

The University of Michigan Board of Regents has approved schematic designs for a new dance building for the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

The university says the $19 million, 24,000-square-foot space will be the first dedicated facility for the Department of Dance in its 110-year history. 

“The new facility will invigorate and highlight dance at Michigan,” says David Gier, dean of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. “We expect this new space will bring our creative community together and unleash some really exciting cross-disciplinary activity.”

The Department of Dance serves 76 majors and more than 800 non-majors in its studios each year.  The new building will double the size of the department’s existing spaces. It will have four large, flexible studio-classrooms, including a performance venue with seating for more than 100, and will accommodate experiential and academic work. The facility also will provide ample room for modern locker rooms, cross-training and treatment areas, faculty offices, and administrative spaces.

Construction on the building will begin in late summer or early fall and is expected to be completed by spring 2021.

Lecturer Sean Hoskins, technology coordinator for the Department of Dance, envisions the new building as a space where students from across campus can explore new creative directions. “Interdisciplinary performance projects and exciting visiting guest artist opportunities are bursting the seams of the current facility," he says. "I see the new building as being a critical hub for interdisciplinary activity.”