Gould Evans didn’t just waltz in to the University of Arizona offices with a design for the new Stevie Eller Dance Theatre. Rather, the architects note, they took time to learn “about dance, about graphically representing dance through notation called ‘labanotation,’” and immersed themselves in the idea of movement.

The firm’s design houses the university’s training program of equal emphasis on ballet, modern, and jazz that has launched many professional careers. “The faculty taught us about dance, and we taught them about structure, and together we created ‘dancing columns,’” the architects explain. The team worked closely with the University of Arizona to learn the labanotation for Serenade, George Ballanchine’s first ballet written for the students of the American Ballet. The plans for the first positions for each starting movement of Serenade were overlaid to create a design matrix from which emerged the structure—named “dancing columns”—that support the glass-encased, second-floor studio.

Art, movement, and architecture
“The design team wanted to express movement within the architecture of the project. The soft upholstered space of the auditorium is a volume that rolls and moves to become an exterior surface that protects the glazing of the dance studio as a scrim, the firm explains. “The stage is a dark backdrop up which performers play. Inside becomes outside as the mass of the house and stage flytower become the dark backdrop upon which the scrim pieces play.” To accomplish these goals, Gould Evans closely collaborated with the builder and university faculty, whose ideas on dance were incorporated into the schemes.

The new building houses a 300-seat theater, full flytower, control suite, catwalks, orchestra pit, indoor/outdoor lobby, outdoor stage, and scene and costume shops. A roll-up gym divider floor separates the dressing rooms on performance night. The divider can also be rolled up into the ceiling, transforming two rooms into a single somatics studio with equipment for Pilates classes. Two “garage” doors open, allowing the somatics studio to spill into a wellness garden. The second-floor, glass-enclosed dance studio opens the building and the dance program to the entire campus. A scrim of rusted woven-wire fabric protects this space from the elements.

Gould Evans takes great pride in the creative process and interactive dialogue they used to explore the possibilities for the studio. “Presenting the process engages the client in discussions about ideas rather than discussions about objects. Timeless architecture cannot be generated by subjective dialogue; it is derived by objective exploration,” they conclude. “Exposing the creative process inspires objective dialogue.”

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