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The Official Student Paper of Riverside Poly High School

Ballet school may say goodbye to Downtown

Mar 27, 2014

EVICTION: Riverside Ballet Arts received an eviction notice on February 20 and must vacate the Aurea Vista Building by April 1.

By Kira Roybal, Staff Writer

After 53 years of service, Riverside Ballet Arts (RBA), the city’s local professional dance school, must pack up its ballet barres and Nutcracker costumes and relocate to a new tenancy. The sudden move is a consequence of the school’s eviction notice from the owners of the Aurea Vista Building, the Freeman family; the school was notified on February 20.

The RBA ordeal took root earlier in the year when parents of the school’s ballet students saw a notice to sell liquor hanging in the first floor of the building. Concerns grew over issues such as security, smoking and music interference from the nightclub-to-be, owned by Pixels, which will be located on the first floor of the Aurea Vista underneath RBA. “We don’t want people mistaking the ballet studio for a bar,” Layla Riley, an RBA parent, said.

Glenda Carhart, the Artistic Director of RBA, arranged a meeting between the new nightclub owners, the Freeman family and the ballet school’s parents, in order to discuss the issues in question. The parents also signed and sent a petition to the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) on February 15 addressing their concerns about placing a nightclub near a children’s nonprofit organization. A liquor license may be denied if the institution interested in selling liquor is at serious odds with a church, school or children’s nonprofit organization. Pixels’ liquor license for the Aurea Vista Building is still pending.

Carhart started dancing at the age of five and performed professionally as a member of the National Ballet of Canada. She went on to become the Artistic Director of Riverside Ballet Arts 30 years ago, leasing the second floor of the Aurea Vista on a month-to-month basis from the Freemans since the family purchased the building in 2003. Now she and her staff must vacate the premises by April 1. Still shocked by the sudden eviction notice, Jeralyn Fetter, RBA’s Administrator, stated, “The Freemans never gave us a reason.” The Freeman’s attorney, Robert Chandler, stated that the concerns raised to the ABC were some of the factors leading to the eviction notice.

RBA also turned to the City of Riverside for help to find a new place of residency. “We look forward to assisting [Carhart] with staying in Riverside should she be unable to reach new terms with her current landlord,” Phil Pitchford, the Intergovernmental and Communications Officer, stated. At Mayor Bailey’s direction, the City provided Carhart with information on several potential sites that could serve as a new ballet school location.

However, RBA has not found a residency. “We were not a priority for the Mayor’s Office,” Kathleen Riker, a ballet mistress at RBA, stated. Approximately $15,000 to $20,000 must be put into remodeling a floor in order to make it suitable for ballet dancing; such an investment cannot reasonably be made unless the school secures a long-term lease agreement.

“We’re scrambling to find somewhere to go,” Riley said.

Carhart helped save the Aurea Vista Building from demolition and establish it as a historical landmark 25 years ago. On its grounds, she and her staff have trained nearly 40,000 dancers, including Darci Kistler of New York City Ballet. RBA participates in the monthly Art Walk, produces The Nutcracker ballet every Christmas season and offers scholarships to ballet students through Art for the Heart, an outreach program. “RBA has been my second home and my second family,” Cassidy Ballard (9), a 10 year student of the school, said. “Being kicked out of that beautiful building is a tragedy.”

“We would love to just stay. My goal is to hit a hundred years of service,” Fetter said. She explained that Pixels’ owners did not intend for RBA to be evicted. However, neither the Freemans nor their attorney are answering the school’s phone calls.

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