ARTS FEATURE
OPENING A NEW SET OF DOORS Open Door Studios makes a new home inside Eastway Crossing
Pg. 8 JUL 28 - AUG 10, 2021 - QCNERVE.COM
BY MATT COSPER
Upon moving to Charlotte in 1997, Jacqueline White arrived at NC Dance Theatre excited by the prospect of a growing city with a vibrant dance community. What she found left a lot to be desired. NC Dance Theatre, later christened Charlotte Ballet, put on plenty of dance performances, but White found little in the way of training — specially, dedicated training for unaffiliated adult dancers. Dance is an infamously punishing discipline physically, and if a performer hopes for any kind of longevity they need to train consistently. Additionally, the culture of classes in the dance world is central to how community is built and how networking occurs. There were plenty of training classes available for children at Charlotte-area studios, but opportunities for professional (and personal) development seemed cut off at the roots. White was hungry to keep training, so in 2004 she and a friend rented space at Spirit Square in Uptown and hired dancers to teach them, sowing the seeds that would eventually grow into Open Door Studios. Like the city itself, Charlotte’s performing art scene has morphed and changed over the years since Open Door Studios came to be, seeing various and sundry committees and task forces scratch their heads about how to put one foot in front of the other. In that time, Open Door has been a resilient, resourceful and consistent presence in Plaza Midwood, a space for dancers and theatre artists to train while making and sharing small-scale work. Open Door has become a household name for local performers while building up a roster of beloved and accomplished teachers offering classes for students of all
that excellence and access are not mutually exclusive As much as any others, the performing arts field is at the core of Open Door’s existence. has been decimated. According to new statewide labor market data, as of June, the arts, entertainment and recreation Finding a new home From any angle, COVID-19 has been a disaster. industries in North Carolina had lost the greatest Alongside lives lost, communities have fractured percentage of their employees of any industries in around differing views of what the crisis even is, the state, with the loss of 10,500 jobs that hadn’t yet while local economies and independent businesses been recovered making up 13.6% of employees in those fields statewide. have been sucker punched. Technologies like Zoom are a BandAid, but it’s hard to maintain morale — or the bottom line — when your livelihood depends on people being in rooms together. So while COVID was great for Amazon and Netflix, it put a lot of performance companies and venues in danger of permanent shutdown. In the midst of the COVID lockdowns, real-estate redevelopment pushed Open Door out of the space they’d called home for the last decade. White joked that in 2020 Open Door Studios briefly became “Outdoor Studios.” She expressed gratitude that things have worked out, stating, “We were all forced to adapt and that was a great lesson.” Eastway Crossing has become a magnet for Charlotte’s indie institutions displaced by rapid growth. After losing their longtime home in Plaza Midwood in 2020, Open Door Studios joined Tommy’s Pub, Visart Video and Armada Skateshop, among other businesses like the locally owned Dairy Queen franchise that relocated from its popular location in the heart of Plaza Midwood to the unassuming shopping center at the corner of Eastway Drive and Central Avenue. This piece of real estate might be the perfect example of what makes Charlotte’s east side so special. There is an impressive, and seemingly organic, diversity to the people who work and play there. There are long-time mainstays like El Potrero Western Wear, Portofino’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria and the Atlantic Farmer’s Market sharing space with newer arrivals like Bart’s Mart, The Skrimp Shack and Royal African Cuisine. Local music legends Gina Stewart and Brenda Gambill operate the vegan cafe and coffee shop EastSide Local out of a small courtyard MEGAN PAYNE (LEFT) AND JOY DAVIS PERFORM IN ‘PLOW.’ space next to Visart. It’s kind of surreal to PHOTO COURTESY OF OPEN DOOR STUDIOS experience: a cool strip mall.
ages and experience levels. “Connecting young dancers to different techniques is really important, and not just ballet, modern, jazz and tap … to give students a deeper understanding,”White told Queen City Nerve. “That’s where we start.” White is careful to articulate that Open Door’s philosophy of “Dance is for everyone” is not about a lack of rigor but rather the opposite. This insistence
