The vacant dirt lot next to Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Gainesville became center stage on Thursday as Dance Alive National Ballet (DANB) dancers, board members, local officials and construction crews celebrated the groundbreaking of The Khoury Family Center for the Arts.
The 22,000-square-foot center, to be built at 3302 NW 39th Ave., will consolidate DANB’s growing studio needs under one roof, while also serving as a cultural arts center for North Central Florida.
The space will feature three dance and three music studios, a music facility, an art gallery, office space, a temperature-controlled warehouse for costume storage, physical therapy rooms and a black box theater.
Multiple speakers at the event shared what DANB means to the community and how the new center will further its mission to grow the arts as a whole.
Crews expect to finish the project by September 2026 in time for the start of DANB’s 2026-27 season.
“Growing up, our family taught us that foundation is everything,” said Kim Tuttle, DANB founder and Pofahl Studios owner, along with her sister, Judy Skinner. “Our foundation is what has brought us to this…You’re all supporters. You believe in this and in this dirt. We believe in this. It’s going to be wonderful for the whole community.”
DANB Board of Trustees president and former dancer, Lorie Gleim, said the journey to find a new home had been a long time coming for DANB, which she called a pillar of the community with decades of captivating performances and outreach programs.
She said when the ballet outgrew its current Pofahl Studios space, Skinner and Tuttle had a vision for a new home that went beyond just meeting the needs of the ballet. They wanted to support the dance academy as well as other local artists, a vision that has depended on funding from the whole community.
So far, the $7 million project has raised over $4.5 million.
Peter Khoury, on the Khoury Family naming the new center, said at the groundbreaking that DANB was one of many arts and culture organizations cut from state and federal budgets.
In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis marked $475,000 of state funding for the ballet and its new studio. Tuttle originally applied for $3.5 million of the $20 million Cultural Facilities Grant Program, but the grant was cut altogether.
Sen. Stan McClain and Rep. Chad Johnson supported DANB’s project, but all state funding was ultimately eliminated for it.
Gleim thanked all the corporate and individual donors who already contributed to the center’s capital campaign and encouraged more to join.
“As we break ground on a new home today, we are not just marking the start of a building,” she said. “We are celebrating the future of the arts in our city and we are ensuring that the transformative power of music and arts and dance will be available for the next generation. Thank you for making our dream a reality.”
DANB dancers Alison Tucker and Rosemary Deiorio said that, on top of the bigger studios to spread out in and physical therapy rooms to receive treatments, the one thing they’re most excited about with the new space is more dancing.
“Hopefully, with the black box theater [there will be] more performance opportunities,” Tucker said.
Deiorio looked ahead.
“It’s the future of the arts, for our children and our children’s children,” she said.
Until The Khoury Family Center for the Arts opens, the dancers will keep stretching, rehearsing and performing at Pofahl Studios as they gear up for DANB’s 60th season, kicking off on Oct. 10 with “Land of La Chua,” a ballet paying tribute to Alachua County’s history with a Tom Petty tribute.
