Dig it! Dancing awaits at the Shubert

"Sisyphus got the rock up to the top of the hill," said Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, recognizing an arduous 12-year fundraising and planning effort that at times seemed destined for failure.

McLaughlin was one of 10 speakers who praised Artspace Projects, a nonprofit real-estate developer, for getting the Shubert to this point. Situated on Hennepin Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets, the 1910 Shubert will be refurbished to provide a 530-seat hall primarily for dance companies. In addition, an atrium will be built to connect the Shubert to the adjacent Hennepin Center for the Arts, where many of the nonprofit arts companies that will use the facility have studios.

Rubbing elbows with the dance crowd were hard-hat-wearing members of Laborers Local 563. Mike Hawthorne of the Minneapolis Building & Construction Trades Council told the group that the Shubert -- which received $2 million in federal stimulus money -- will employ 100 union workers for its final renovation.

More than 400 individuals, foundations, corporations and governmental entities contributed to the campaign. The state of Minnesota provided $12 million in capital bonding; the city of Minneapolis gave $5 million to have the Shubert moved; John and Sage Cowles and Katherine and Robert Goodale were listed as donating gifts of at least $2 million.

Thursday's politicians included Minnesota House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and his predecessor, Sharon Sayles Belton. Kurt Zellers, the House minority leader from Maple Grove, said he appreciated the irony that he -- a Republican farm kid from North Dakota -- authored the Shubert's bonding bill in 2006.

"My grandmother, who was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse, always told us to live beyond your borders," Zellers said. "This project is about bringing technology, dance and culture across the state."

In addition to providing a flagship for dance, the Shubert has an interactive educational program that beams dance instruction to schools statewide.

The Shubert -- also known during its life as the Alvin and the Academy -- is the oldest downtown theater still standing. It was shuttered in 1983, but saved from demolition by historic preservationists.

The city had the building moved from Block E to its current location in 1999. Once envisioned as a $24 million renovation that would have restored the theater at 1,000 seats, the project was scaled back as the cost rose to its present level. It's anticipated that it will serve more than 30 local nonprofit arts groups. While the primary emphasis is dance, other potential tenants include choruses and theater groups.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299