The Joyce Theater (“The Joyce") is a 472-seat
dance performance venue located in the
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
neighborhood of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. The building opened in 1941 as the
Elgin Theater
The Elgin Theater is the former name of the building now known as the Joyce Theater, located on the corner of 19th Street and Eighth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The theater showed films from its opening ...
, a movie house, and was gut-renovated and reconfigured in 1981-82 to reopen as the Joyce Theater. The Joyce is a leading presenter of dance in New York City and nationally.
Creation of The Joyce
In 1977, the
Eliot Feld Ballet had begun exploring more affordable approaches to presenting its annual season of performances in New York City. Rental costs and house sizes of the theaters available to the company made these seasons financially risky propositions.
Eliot Feld
Eliot Feld (born July 5, 1942) is an American modern ballet choreographer, performer, teacher, and director. Feld works in contemporary ballet. His company and schools, including the Feld Ballet and Ballet Tech, are deeply committed to dance and ...
, the company’s founder and Artistic Director, and Cora Cahan, its Executive Director, envisioned creating a theater specifically for smaller dance organizations that their company could use, which would also be available to other companies.
The first facility they looked at in late 1978 was the
Elgin Theater
The Elgin Theater is the former name of the building now known as the Joyce Theater, located on the corner of 19th Street and Eighth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The theater showed films from its opening ...
, a defunct movie theater in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood built in 1941. They quickly commenced negotiations to purchase it, ultimately arriving at a price of $225,000 and concluded the transaction in January, 1979. The philanthropist
LuEsther Mertz LuEsther Turner Mertz (December 30, 1905, Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Oh ...
, co-founder of
Publishers Clearing House
Publishers Clearing House (PCH) is a direct marketing company that markets merchandise and magazine subscriptions with sweepstakes and prize-based games.
It was founded in 1953 by Harold Mertz to replace door-to-door magazine subscription sal ...
and a benefactor of the company who had supported the renovation of the company’s studio, underwrote the full cost of the purchase.
In developing financial projections for the theater, Feld and Cahan anticipated an inclusive rental cost of around $12,000 per week. In a national survey they conducted, 73 dance organizations expressed interest in using the theater at the projected rental rate. These findings helped garner a wide range of financial support for developing the theater. The project secured a $400,000 Federal Urban Development Action Grant, which recognized its potential to provide employment and add to the vitality of its neighborhood. Other Federal Government support included a $450,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a guarantee of a $600,000 bank loan. Private donors and foundations such as the Rockefeller Foundation contributed the balance of the funds.
Feld and Cahan engaged architect
Hugh Hardy
Hugh Hardy (July 26, 1932 – March 17, 2017) was an American architect, known for designing and revitalizing theaters, performing arts venues, public spaces, and cultural facilities across the United States.
''The New Yorker'' writer Brendan ...
of the firm
Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer
Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates' (HHPA) was an internationally recognized American architecture firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Established by Hugh Hardy, Malcolm Holzman and Norman Pfeiffer in 1967 in New York, HHPA was noted ...
to develop plans for a gut renovation of the facility. Major changes to the structure included the elimination of the original balcony configuration to create a steeply raked seating area on one level, new construction at the rear of the building to provide additional backstage space, and the installation of a 67 x 36 foot proscenium stage with a
sprung floor
A sprung floor is a floor that absorbs shocks, giving it a softer feel. Such floors are considered the best kind for dance and indoor sports and physical education, and can enhance performance and greatly reduce injuries. Modern sprung floors are ...
. The completed theater had 472 seats. The overall cost of the project was $3.6 million. At the June 25, 1981 groundbreaking, the building was renamed the Joyce Theater after the daughter of LuEsther Mertz in recognition of the elder Mertz’s leadership support of the project. The theater opened with a gala performance on June 2, 1982.
The Feld organization retained ownership of the building and created a separate non-profit organization to operate the theater under a 35-year lease at a nominal rent of $1 a year. As the 2016 conclusion of the lease term approached, the operating organization, the Joyce Theater Foundation, purchased the theater from the Feld organization for $20 million.
Governance and management
The Joyce is a
501(c)3 charitable organization whose mission is “To serve and support the art of dance and choreography, to promote the richness and variety of the art form in its fullest expression, and to advance the public interest in, and appreciation of, dance and the allied arts of music, design, and theater.”
A 27-member Board of Trustees oversees the organization. It operates on a budget of around $10 million annually that is supported by earned revenue, contributed income, government support and endowment income. Executive Director Linda Shelton oversees day-to-day activities of the Joyce, supported by a full-time staff of approximately 45 people. Before joining the Joyce in 1993, Shelton was General Manager of the
Joffrey Ballet, and had earlier held senior management roles at
Twyla Tharp Dance. Aaron Mattocks is Director of Programming, with lead responsibility for developing each year’s presenting season.
Main activities
The Joyce presents an annual 40 to 45 week season on its stage, hosting an audience of approximately 150,000 people. In addition to this Chelsea season, the Joyce presents or co-presents at a small number of other venues, including the
David H. Koch Theater
The David H. Koch Theater is a theater for ballet, modern and other forms of dance, part of the Lincoln Center, at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Originally ...
at
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
and alternative spaces.
Through artistic residency and commissioning programs, the Joyce gives resources to established, early- and mid-career artists to advance their practice and develop new works for the Joyce stage. New commissions are supported by the Stephen and Cathy Weinroth Fund for New Works, a $1 million endowment contributed by a Joyce board member.
The organization also mounts a range of education, school and family programs that range from structured class visits to Joyce performances, to lessons at schools and community centers with Joyce-affiliated teaching artists, to family matinees with discount tickets for children.
World Trade Center cultural center
In 2004, The Joyce's proposal to operate a dance theater in the planned "arts hub" at the
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
was accepted by the
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation was formed in November 2001, following the September 11 attacks, to plan the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan and distribute nearly $10 billion in federal funds aimed at rebuilding downtown Manhattan. ...
. The Joyce would have been one of several arts organizations at the facility, and proposed a 1,000-seat theater for major dance companies, with supporting programming.
In the ensuing years, the vision for the cultural center has evolved through multiple iterations and tenant lists. It is currently planned as
The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center, a multi-venue facility encompassing a range of performing and media arts. The Joyce's role in the current plan for the center has not been announced.
Former affiliated spaces
Joyce SoHo
In 1996, The Joyce purchased a dance performance and rehearsal facility at 155 Mercer Street in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood that was owned and operated by the
Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumb ...
. The building had been used for dance since 1985, and was sold because of financial difficulties at Dia. The Joyce obtained the building for $1.5 million with support from the
LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, the charitable organization established by the organization's longstanding benefactor LuEsther T. Mertz upon her death. The Joyce continued Dia's program of rehearsal space rental and performances in the 75-seat theater until 2012, when it accepted an unsolicited offer to sell the building for $27.25 million.
DANY Studios
In December, 2009, the Joyce leased a rehearsal studio facility at 305 West 38th Street, in Manhattan's Garment District, that it operated under the name DANY
ance Art New YorkStudios. The facility contained 11 studios. The Joyce did not renew when its lease ended in 2016 and closed DANY.
Selected companies presented at The Joyce
See also
*
Elgin Theater
The Elgin Theater is the former name of the building now known as the Joyce Theater, located on the corner of 19th Street and Eighth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The theater showed films from its opening ...
*
List of theaters for dance
This is a list of theaters designated for the express purpose of presenting and producing dance performances. Dance venues such as these often have particular attributes including sprung floors and steeply raked seating areas. In addition, these ...
References
;Notes
External links
*
{{Authority control
Contemporary dance
Dance in New York City
Dance venues in the United States
Theatres in Manhattan
Performing groups established in 1982
Chelsea, Manhattan
1982 establishments in New York City
1941 establishments in New York City
Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)