Bonnie and Dave Leach have pulled their sword from its stone. They are moving Excalibur to a new location.
Excalibur Theatre Arts has moved once before, back in the 1990s from a small storefront warehouse into the larger complex they've called home for the past 15-plus years. Their progressive growth required a matching expansion plan, which was possible in the same collection of buildings they inhabited until now.
This month, they revealed the next phase in that growth plan to Prince George. They have officially moved from Ogilvie Street only a couple of blocks and around a couple of corners to the former Free Press building at 1773 Lyon St. (behind CNC's John Brink Trades & Technology Centre). They will show off the renovations and future goals with an open house and the first week of classes in their new location.
"We drove past this place a lot," said Dave Leach, the co-owner/manager of the performing arts business talking about the yearlong search to find a location suitable to their realities and dreams.
"This place looks small on the outside compared to what is actually inside. We really went 'holy cow' when we finally decided to give it a chance and take a look inside. It just goes on on and on when you start walking around. It was perfect, actually. There is nothing we ever want to do that we can't do in here."
The space is more than 9,000 square feet of multipurpose space. There is plenty of room for their costume shop, offices, staff common-space, storage, a big improvement in parking, and the all-important dance areas. Bonnie and her staff of instructors and choreographers feel like they've inherited luxury.
"We now have six studios instead of five and overall they are much, much bigger," Leach said. "Here, even our smallest studio will be spacious. We have a lot of danceable - is that a word? I guess it is now - space and the kids who have seen it are already loving it."
More than 350 of them are on the Excalibur roster, which is the population size of one healthy elementary school, indicating just how how many more children there are out in the Prince George public who aren't enroled in dance but could be. There are other performing arts schools in the city - most notably Judy Russell's Enchainement Dance Centre and Dance Your Hart Out - but there is so much opportunity for them all, it really is just a matter of having a robust outreach and a quality set of programs for all to be successful.
Leach said Excalibur had bumped its head on the ceiling of their former location. There came a time when it was going to take an expensive renovation to meet their current needs, with little chance of accommodating future student growth, so the choice for him and Bonnie was either spend big on trying to maintain their status quo or spend heavily on consolidation of operations (they were cleaved between two buildings in the old location) and the ability to expand. The economics pointed directly at the latter option.
"It wasn't a panic situation. We took our time to find the right spot, a place we absolutely knew we could afford now, work with existing programs now, but also gave us that chance to grow once we were settled in," said Leach. "It has been a busy summer. We have been working on the renovations since May. Bonnie's dad Al has been amazing. He really knows how to do this stuff, he is a carpentry wizard, and he just took it all on. There is a lot of sweat equity in here already."
All of the interior design labour was only possible because the landlord - happy to have a future-friendly anchor tenant - was keen to allow them whatever new walls and doors and staircases were needed.
Excalibur also had a partner tenant to accommodate. Melanie Nicol, the city's premier opera performer, runs choral and solo voice lessons from Excalibur and she also gets improved environs for her programs.
The public is invited in to see the new Excalibur Theatre Arts headquarters during an open house on Sept. 10 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The next set of fall classes begins on Sept. 12 (registration underway now). Anyone interested can drop in at 1773 Lyon Street South, call 250-564-6326 or look them up online at www.excaliburarts.com.
