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By Deirdre Towers/Follow @deirdre.towers on Instagram
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Published on February 8, 2016
Photo by Antonio D. Gamboa
Destination: St. Veronica's Church, Greenwich Village, 149 Christopher Street
Christopher Street in Greenwich Village was once synonymous with wild times: drunken Irishmen, besotted gay lovers, rebels, and misfits seeking acceptance, if not liberation. In 2015, this long street is oddly calm, far from the circus of midtown and the tourists in Soho. An artist can find peace and quiet to concentrate here. Or so dancer/producer Jorge Navarro and dancer/choreographer Antonio Hidalgo hope. After three years of negotiation, letters to the Vatican, and securing $5 million insurance, the two entrepreneurs have secured a new home for dance on 149 Christopher Street in the basement of St. Veronica’s Church, built in 1877.
Their search began with the 2007 loss of Fazil, a beloved midtown Manhattan rehearsal space/school for Flamenco, Belly Dance, and Tap. When the real estate transformation of NYC swallowed up that multi-floored space on Eighth avenue, Navarro set out to find a replacement. While Navarro produced his weekly flamenco tablao, Alegrias, in La Nacional; Hidalgo toured and choreographed for Carlota Santana Flamenco Vivo. Eight years later, their Creative Cultural Center with 5 studios, each with their own character, floors, and mirrors, in St. Veronica's has opened its doors.
According to The Economist, “Timothy Dolan, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Cardinal-Archbishop of New York, is believed to be Manhattan’s largest landowner.” If so, we couldn’t ask for a better keeper of NYC’s Terpsichorean flame.
929-312-9604, info@artsflamenco.org, or go to space's Facebook page
