25 Years of The Space
This year, The Space turns 25. And somehow, that feels both enormous and impossible.
But the story actually starts a few years earlier.
In 1998, after moving from Sydney, Deb started Le Bop Melbourne, hiring halls and studios all over Melbourne to run classes and social dance nights. As Le Bop grew, so did the search for somewhere it could call home, a permanent base rather than moving from venue to venue.
Then Deb met Ariel.
They had been together for just three months when they decided that opening a dance centre together seemed like a good idea. When they told a friend what they were planning, the response was:
“It’s just so crazy it might work.”
On 6 January 2001, The Space Dance & Arts Centre opened its doors in Prahran.
Twenty-five years later, and still in the same building, apparently it did work.
What began as a home base for Le Bop quickly became something much bigger.
From the beginning, the idea was to create a place for adults to dance that felt welcoming and relaxed, for first-timers and lifelong performers alike.
We had six studios, teachers, classes and plenty of ideas about what we wanted The Space to become. What we couldn’t possibly have known was just how many people would eventually become part of The Space’s story, or how much that story would evolve.
We wanted The Space to be different from some of the dance environments we had experienced ourselves. Dance training can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also be intimidating and, at its worst, take away the very confidence and joy it should be building.
We wanted a place where people could take their dancing seriously without taking themselves too seriously. Where beginners and professional performers could share the same building and receive the same respect. Where teachers inspired rather than intimidated, creativity was encouraged, and people could find their own place in dance.
Over the past 25 years, thousands of dancers have danced through our doors.
Some came for one class. Some stayed for years. Some trained here as children and returned as adults, bringing their own kids to classes too. Some started as students and became teachers. Some rehearsed for their first professional job here, while others came simply because dancing was the best part of their week.
We’ve watched tiny dancers grow into adults, students become performers and choreographers, and teachers build extraordinary careers. We’ve also watched friendships form, creative projects begin, companies rehearse, shows come together, and people find communities they never expected to find in a dance studio.
And The Space itself has continued to evolve.
What had begun primarily as a dance space for adults expanded after we had children of our own. We began to see The Space through a different lens and introduced classes for kids and teens. What started as another small part of the timetable grew into our Kids, Teens & Youth program, now a huge part of The Space, with young dancers filling the studios throughout the week and our School Holiday Programs taking over the building every school holiday break.
Later came another chapter. For 13 years, The Space delivered nationally accredited dance courses, providing full-time training for dancers preparing for professional careers. During those years, a whole generation of young performers trained at The Space before heading out into the industry, many of whom have remained part of our extended community in one way or another.
But perhaps one of the hardest parts of The Space’s history to measure is what has grown from it.
Over 25 years, The Space has become a place where new ideas, careers, companies and creative projects have been given the chance to take root. Companies have begun here. Choreographers have created their first works here. Teachers we’ve mentored have gone on to open studios of their own. We’ve sponsored dancers and artists, supported new projects, provided space when an idea needed somewhere to begin, and helped people find the confidence and practical know-how to create something of their own.
Some of those people stayed with us for years; others took what they had begun here in new directions, building businesses, forming companies, opening studios and creating communities of their own. And that’s something we’re enormously proud of.
We have always believed in lifting people up. Creating opportunities and helping people take advantage of those opportunities, wherever they lead.
The result is that The Space’s story extends well beyond the walls of our building. There are dancers, teachers, choreographers, studio owners, companies and creative projects across Melbourne and further afield, whose stories have intersected with ours somewhere along the way.
The building has had its own evolution too.
We started with six studios, then grew to seven with the addition of the Elbo Room. Later, we expanded into the building next door, adding a dancewear shop, the Mushroom (ha ha) and the Dancehall performance space, bringing The Space to nine studios.
Eventually, that building was lost to apartment development, and we found ourselves back down to seven studios again.
So, naturally, we started building.
The Skydeck came next, creating a whole new space above the existing building. And now, with the addition of the Secret Lab, we’ve somehow made our way back to nine studios once again.
The footprint has changed over the years, but there has always been a determination to find room for one more class, one more rehearsal, one more idea and one more group of dancers.
We’ve made it through the normal ups and downs of running a small arts business, as well as some fairly spectacular challenges we definitely didn’t have on the 25-year plan, including the GFC of 2008, pandemic lockdowns, floods and, most recently, a firebombing in the business below us.
Twenty-five years isn’t a story of everything going to plan. Far from it. We’ve had to change direction, rethink things we thought were settled, let go of things we loved and start again more than once. The Space today isn’t the place we imagined in 2001, and we think that’s probably the point.
It has been shaped as much by the people who have passed through it as by any plans we made for it.
And when we look back now, the thing we’re most proud of isn’t a particular show, class or achievement.
It’s the community that has grown around this place.
The Space has never belonged just to us. We have always thought of ourselves as custodians. The Space story has been created by every teacher who has shared their knowledge here, every student who has taken a chance on a class, every parent sitting outside a studio, every choreographer creating something new, every performer rehearsing late into the night, every staff member keeping things moving behind the scenes and every person who has called The Space their dancing home.
There are 25 years of stories inside these walls.
And while The Space officially turned 25 on 6 January, this October we’re getting everyone together to celebrate it properly.
On 10 & 11 October, we’ll be celebrating 25 Years of The Space with our Open Day weekend, culminating in Dancers’ Den: 25 Years of The Space on Saturday night, bringing together people from across the many different eras and communities of The Space.
If you’ve ever danced here, taught here, worked here, rehearsed here, performed here, waited for your child here, created something here or simply spent a ridiculous number of hours hanging around these studios, you’re part of the story.
25 years. Thousands of dancers. Countless classes, rehearsals, performances, friendships and memories.
And we’re nowhere near finished yet. 💜