Entering its 60th season of bringing award-winning dance performances and instruction to Gainesville, Dance Alive National Ballet (DANB) is poised to break ground in August on a new studio.
DANB will sell its current dance studio, Pofhal Studios (1325 NW 2nd St.), and be housed in the 22,000-square-foot The Khoury Family Center for the Arts at 3302 NW 39th Ave. The space will consolidate the professional dance company’s needs under one roof, while also providing the community with a cultural arts center.
The building will feature three dance and three music studios, a music facility, an art gallery, office space, a temperature-controlled warehouse for costume storage and a black box theater DANB hopes will allow for collaboration across the arts.
More immediate interstate access will also allow DANB easier reach beyond Gainesville into North Central Florida and counties like Marion and Columbia.
DANB Executive Director Tim Cannon said the company has raised around $4.5 million of the $7.5 million price tag for the new facility. They anticipate opening in August 2026 in time for the 2026-27 season.
“[It will have] so many things not just for dance, but really for the arts,” Cannon said. “We will be able to open it up to community events and all that fun stuff. It’s really going to be all-encompassing.”
Ultimately needing more space than what Pofhal Studios can offer, Cannon said conversations for building a new facility started between DANB staff and board members about eight years ago.
DANB shares Pofhal with the studio’s dance school, with Dance Alive going from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. before the Pofhal school runs from 3 to 9 p.m.
According to a Facebook video, DANB founders, Pofhal Studios owners and sisters, Judy Skinner (81) and Kim Tuttle (77), also approached the board about selling Pofhal as a means of retirement.
The sisters have helped run the space since their mother, Mary Ellen Pofhal, opened it in 1956. Before then, the dance school met at the American Legion Hall in what’s now the Matheson History Museum, before moving to where Holy Trinity Episcopal School currently stands.
After professional dance teachers from New York suggested more space for additional classes, the family moved the school to its current Pofhal Studios location.
Features such as the orange gas pipes used as ballet bars installed by Tuttle and Skinner’s father reflect the family’s legacy that’s fostered the professional company’s growth over the decades to facilitate its most recent expansion.
“We don’t have savings, we’ve been artists and that’s not a huge income-producing career,” Tuttle said. “So this building and property that we own is our future, it’s our retirement. We have to sell this.”
The board’s response to the sister’s desire to sell Pofhal was to find somewhere they could build a new studio.
After a few years of searching for the right property, Tuttle said she came across the flat, five-and-a-half-acre field next to Gethsemane Lutheran Church and decided building in the school-oriented area could work.
Although there wasn’t a “For Sale” sign, Tuttle said she approached the church staff, who told her they’d been looking for a way to use the space. The organizations spent a few months negotiating before settling on a $950,000 purchase price.
“Everybody was very happy that we’re moving there and not a high-rise,” Tuttle said. “So that’s our future.”
In January 2023, DANB started working with Alachua County and the city of Gainesville to start the required steps and permits for construction.
Cannon said the process has taken time as DANB faced obstacles, such as securing the proper commercial land use zoning, planning for retention ponds, protecting the trees on the property and anticipating traffic flow.
The site plan states that DANB paid around $15,300 for a tree mitigation fee and will maintain the existing tree buffers to limit disturbances. No local streets will be affected by the development, which will provide access to NW 39th Avenue and NW 34th Street.
Following approval by the Gainesville Development Review Board in June, Cannon said DANB is even closer to breaking ground.
“There was just one obstacle after the other,” he said. “We’ve cleared all those hurdles and we’re getting ready to break ground, hopefully in the next four weeks.”
Cannon said the prices of building materials keep rising, and the new facility’s construction is dependent on individual and corporate donations.
He said the Khoury family, which is sponsoring the name of the new facility with a $1 million donation, had previously given financially to DANB and approached the company about buying the naming rights after seeing a recent show.
In a statement on DANB’s “Cheers to 60 years!” website, Peter Khoury said DANB consistently serves his mission to promote initiatives that benefit the community through its performances and professional ballet instruction delivered to the residents of North Florida.
“After decades of nurturing and growing the dance studio and professional company, there is an urgent need for a larger location to support their ongoing success,” he said. “This new Center for the Arts will provide practice and performance areas for various forms of performing arts.”
Cannon said DANB’s 2025-26 season, featuring new shows such as “Land of La Chua” and the Tom Petty tribute “Rock On,” as well as traditional favorites like “The Nutcracker,” will continue raising money for the new facility. DANB will also hold its annual gala at the end of the season to fundraise.
This year’s “Champagne Gala & Dancing With the Stars” held in March raised around $200,000 for The Khoury Family Center for the Arts, according to The Independent Alligator.
Cannon said anyone interested in donating can find more information on DANB’s website.
“Anyone who wants to put a legacy in Alachua County, let us know,” he said. “You’re leaving a legacy for your loved ones.”