The Dancehouse is a dance centre at 10

Oxford Road, Manchester Wilmslow Road is a major road in Manchester, England, running from Parrs Wood northwards to Rusholme where it becomes the Oxford Road. The name of the road changes again to Oxford Street when it crosses the River Medlock before reaching Manches ...

, England. Formerly, the dance house was the Regal Cinema.

History and description

The building which now houses the Dancehouse Theatre, on

, was originally designed by Pendleton and Dickson for the property developer Emmanuel Nove, a Ukrainian who came to the city in the late 19th century. The building was built in 1929-30 originally containing two large meeting halls over a

parade of shops A shopping parade, also known as a parade of shops, suburban parade, neighbourhood parade, or just a simply a parade is a group of between five and 40 shops in one or more continuous rows, mostly being retail and serving a local customer base; in ...

. Before the interior of the halls was completed, they were converted into two cinemas (The Regal Twins) with fashionable 1930

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

interiors, the world's first

multiplex Multiplex may refer to: Science and technology * Multiplex communication, combining many signals into one transmission circuit or channel ** Multiplex (television), a group of digital television or radio channels that are combined for broadcast * ...

. These were converted, in 1972, to a five screen complex (Studios 1 to 5) by Star Group, as the first five-cinema complex in Britain.''Manchester Evening News''; 26 January 1972 before closing in the 1980s. Star Group also established Studios 6-9 in Deansgate. A lease for the derelict property was obtained in 1990 by the Northern Ballet School which, together with its sister company The Dancehouse Theatre, set about restoring the building to its former Art Deco splendour. One previously derelict 750-seat cinema was converted to create the Dancehouse Theatre, officially opened in 1994 by

Princess Margaret Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. She was the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II. ...

. The next four cinemas and other areas of the building were converted into the five dance studios and associated facilities that now house the Northern Ballet School. The Dancehouse Theatre complex extends to some and comprises the theatre, three medium and two large dance studios, a green room, a café bar, theatre bar and coffee shop. The £500,000 cost of converting the theatre was largely met by donations from the Foundation for Sport and the Arts, the Arts Council of England and many other subscribers to the company's development programme.

Trivia

Local band

Elbow The elbow is the region between the upper arm and the forearm that surrounds the elbow joint. The elbow includes prominent landmarks such as the olecranon, the cubital fossa (also called the chelidon, or the elbow pit), and the lateral and t ...

filmed the video to "

Newborn In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to Juvenile (orga ...

" here. The theatre was supposed to be underwater so all extras were asked to wear blue.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 53, 28, 22, N, 2, 14, 23, W, type:landmark, display=title Art Deco architecture in England Former cinemas in Manchester Theatres in Manchester

History and description

Trivia

See also

References

External links