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New studio will provide dance school more space

The owner says the planned facility won't compete with the New Tampa Cultural Center.

By RODNEY THRASH
Published March 13, 2005

PEBBLE CREEK - For months, little has been said about the proposed New Tampa Cultural Center, the place where the area's arts community hopes one day to showcase its talent in theater, music and dance.

Now, a dance theater owner says she plans to build her own studio across from Heritage Isles.

Is Dyane Elkins slighting the cultural center?

"Not at all," said Elkins, who hopes to open the 7,000-square-foot New Tampa Dance Theatre this summer.

Since 1995, Elkins has operated New Tampa Dance out of 4,700 square feet of leased space in the Pebble Creek Collection strip mall. Enrollment has swelled from 75 to 400 aspiring ballerinas and hip-hop, jazz, modern and tap dancers.

"We've just outgrown the space," Elkins said.

New Tampa Dance, or at least its nonprofit arm, will still be the resident dance company at the cultural center, according to both Elkins and the cultural center's board members.

But the for-profit arm of New Tampa Dance will move to a 10,000-square-foot complex on Cross Creek Boulevard. Inside will be three dance studios with a raised maple floor for tap, boys and girls' locker rooms, a faculty lounge and a cafe that will sell sandwiches and sodas.

Elkins will lease out the remaining 3,000 square feet.

"I don't think the intent of the cultural center was to replace any of the existing studios," said Dr. Ted Grellner, a vice president of the nonprofit New Tampa Cultural Center board. "Basically, it's to help those who don't have educational space."

"This is just a rehearsal space," executive vice president Doug Wall said of Elkins' Cross Creek facility. "It's not like they're building a 50,000-square-foot performance hall. She's just building a larger studio to accommodate her classes and rehearsals."

While no one suggested that Elkins was distancing herself from the cultural group, the group has struggled to get its center off the ground. And board members gave differing descriptions as to how involved Elkins is in their effort.

Elkins described herself as a member of the center's board of directors.

Wall, however, said, "I wasn't aware she was still on the board. I haven't seen her at a meeting or event. God, it must be a year-and-a-half, two years."

That's about as long as it has been since Elkins bought the land on Cross Creek Boulevard. As a Connecticut firm studied the feasibility of the cultural center, Hillsborough County Property Appraiser records show Elkins' company, Souls @ Play, bought the land for $217,800 in June 2003.

Cultural center or no cultural center, she said, she always wanted a studio of her own.

"The investment goal of mine since day one," Elkins said, "is for the New Tampa Dance Theatre to be in its own free-standing building."

Cultural center backers have a similar goal, but the Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County Commission nearly killed the project last September. Fearing that New Tampa would compete with the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, the City Council capped seating at 350, a number that cultural board president Graeme Woodbrook said was too small. The County Commission imposed conditions of its own, namely a $10-million endowment that Woodbrook said was impossible to raise.

The cultural group leaders hope to meet with city and county officials in the coming months to get some of the restrictions lifted.

In the meantime, they wish Elkins the best of luck.

"It's wonderful that she's growing," Wall said. "It shows that New Tampa needs to support the arts."

- Rodney Thrash can be reached at 813 269-5313 or rthrash@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 12, 2005, 09:32:04]