Another theatre, another opening - New York Matters - new peforming arts center at New York University - Brief Article

Dance Magazine, Jan, 2004 by Kate Lydon

In the center of Greenwich Village, New York University has a new theater on LaGuardia Place. The Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts will feature dance, music, new media, drama, and musical theater performances. L. Jay Olivia, NYU's President Emeritus hopes that the Skirball Center will help create new audiences and "breathe new life into the downtown scene."

Skirball opened in fall 2003 with a one-hour performance by David Parsons, his dance company, and special guests, Jenifer Ringer of New York City Ballet and Angel Corella of American Ballet Theatre. Parsons partnered Ringer in the romantic pas de deux On a Clear Night. Corella was brilliant in Parsons's strobe-lit classic Caught, and the nine-member Parsons Dance Company was witty' and exciting in The Envelope, Sleep Study, and Nascimento.

Skirball, which is inside NYU's Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for University Life building, has 865 seats. It has a sprung stage, an orchestra pit for 40 musicians, cherry wood panels to enhance acoustics, red velvet seats, a red curtain, and two large gold-leaf pillars skirting the stage. Dance was the primary attraction this past fall. Ballet Hispanico, Elisa Monte Dance, and American Ballet Theatre's Studio Company performed during the season. The Skirball Foundation financed the center at $15 million. The architect is Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates. NYU students can purchase tickets for $12 (limited availability), and non-NYU students get a 10 percent discount with a valid student ID. For information, log on to the theater's website, www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu