Symmetry Dance Company will glide into the Marketplace at Steamtown this summer.
After outgrowing its current space at 733 Davis St., Scranton, founder and artistic director Abby Slater and director of administration and the children’s program Blythe Alexander started looking for a new place and felt the spot on the second floor of the marketplace suited them well.
“We have students from all over — Pittston, Duryea, Clarks Summit, Moscow and Carbondale — so this felt the most central for us,” Alexander said.
Slater hopes to start hosting classes in the marketplace by Aug. 2, and noted camps will also be held throughout the month of August.
The 4,100-square-foot space was previously used by Boscov’s for storage, said Anthony Cali, director of operations and public safety for the Marketplace at Steamtown.
Cali said he expects construction to start soon.
He expressed confidence the new dance studio will help drive traffic to the marketplace.
“We’re a mixed-use facility and anytime you can bring in additional people it helps all the mom-and-pop stores, Boscov’s, and all the restaurants,” he said. “It’s just another asset. We’re thrilled they chose our facility … they’re going to have a pretty substantial quantity of people coming there on a regular basis.”
Alexander looks forward to joining the diverse group of businesses within the facility and believes they will all feed off each other.
“I think there are a lot of mutually beneficial relationships,” she said. “Someone can go to the gym when they drop their kid off (at dance) or people can go to the aquarium or Bee’s Backyard after class.”
The dance company, launched in West Scranton in 2011, now has about 225 students, Alexander said.
Slater added the new space will have three studios, while the Davis Street location only has two.
Symmetry offers a variety of classes for students, starting at age 1½, from ballet and tap to newer additions including “acro” dance — a mix between gymnastics and dance.
“We offer the ballet, tap and jazz classical techniques, but we like our students to experience modern and contemporary, as well,” Slater said. “It gives the kids a little bit more creative freedom.”
Slater also aims to offer expanded opportunities at the new location.
“We’d like to open a couple more adult classes,” she said. “We have an adult company, as well, but that’s an adult performance company and there are a lot of adults that just want to dance and not perform.”