By Kate Hill

Staff Writer

This summer, New Woodstock resident and professional dancer Suzanne Evans began offering free dance rehearsal space and accommodations to small dance companies.

Over the past year, Evans and her husband, Steve, worked with local contractors to stabilize and renovate a barn the couple’s property into a two/three season, well-ventilated space measuring 75 by 40 feet, called Sky Hill Farm Studio.

The class/performance space itself is 35 by 40 feet with Harlequin vinyl flooring over a raised subfloor.

“Having an elevated floor with excellent vinyl flooring is a big deal to dancers,” Evans said. “It helps to prevent injury to the joints. With the main door open, and the windows and exit door in the back open as well, the breeze on our hill blows through and makes it safe for [up to six dancers/choreographers to use] the space.”

Prior to arrival, all dancers are tested for COVID-19. During their stay, each group operates as an isolated “family unit.”

“We have separate entrances and stairs for the house and separate living and eating spaces,” said Evans. “We wear masks and keep our distance when we have any need to spend time together.”

The Evanses have already accommodated the Syracuse City Ballet — which spent an afternoon on the property filming some of their work — and New York City’s Exit12 Dance Company. The East Coast Contemporary Ballet is scheduled to arrive in late September for a week of rehearsals.

The couple decided to offer up the rehearsal space and accommodations free of charge as a way of giving back to the dance community.

Evans, who grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, began ballet at the age of six, studying primarily in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

After attending an arts boarding school in Champaign, Illinois, she received her undergraduate degree in dance from the University of Tennessee.

Afterwards, she studied dance in New York City, primarily at STEPS, Alvin Ailey, and the Martha Graham Studio.

Throughout her career, she has danced with and taught for a number of regional ballet and contemporary dance companies.

While living and raising a family in Buffalo, Evans danced with the University at Buffalo’s Zodiaque Dance Company and performed and taught as a freelance dancer.

Later, she helped establish Buffalo’s ballet company, Neglia Ballet, as a volunteer and founding board member.

“With Neglia, I also got to perform regularly in various ballets, including character roles in 11 Nutcrackers . . . ” Evans said. “During our years in Buffalo, one of our great joys was hosting out-of-town dancers for weeks at a time in our home during rehearsals and performances with Neglia, and we always thought it would be fun to host young, creative types more frequently when we could.”

After moving to New Woodstock, Evans saw the opportunity to create a rehearsal space that might attract some of the dancers she hosted previously who now have dance groups of their own.

According to Evans, who currently teaches ballet at Allure Dance Studio in Cazenovia, her dream was realized more quickly than anticipated for two principle reasons.

“The first was the gentrification in New York City, where previously-inexpensive dance rehearsal spaces were renovated into lofts,” Evans said. “Compared with my time in NYC, it’s now hard to find inexpensive rehearsal space there, so the idea of traveling four hours to use our space suddenly looked like a good deal to dance companies there. The second, of course, has been the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made it impossible to have groups of people dancing in the sweaty, poorly-ventilated spaces that some dancers use to prepare their work.”

While the Evanses have hosted only friends and “friends of friends” up to this point, the couple hopes to eventually welcome a broader range of artists.

“[At the moment,] we’re trying to keep it small and contained with people we know,” Evans said. “In the future, I definitely see collaborating with local artists of all kinds, including offering a space to show their work and give lecture demonstrations, even intimate performances. For now, I am using the connections I have in the dance world.”

For more information on Sky Hill Farm Studio, contact Suzanne Evans at [email protected].