Peninsula Lively Arts School and Peninsula Ballet Theatre to Close After 60 Years

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Peninsula Lively Arts and its subsidiary Peninsula Ballet Theatre will close after nearly 60 years, having spent decades teaching performance and dance in San Mateo County.

"There's this ecological effect," Interim Executive Director Debbie Chinn said to the Chronicle. The report adds that Chinn cited the 200 students at the company each year, its 20 employees, and its 17 community group tenants. This is in addition to large annual offerings over the last almost 60 years, such as The Nutcracker, The Hip-Hop Nutcracker, and the company's international dance festival.

Also according to Chinn, the primary reason for the closure is the redevelopment of the San Mateo strip mall, where the company has rented a 34,000-square-foot facility for 15 years.

In 2020, project developer Brookfield Properties submitted a proposal to turn the strip mall on Concar Drive and South Grant Street into a residential development. Three years later, the state gave San Mateo a mandate to build 7,015 new units of housing by 2031. There was a proposal which would give the dance nonprofit a 3,300-square-foot space on the property, but Chinn said it was eventually scrapped, with residents concerned about parking and traffic.

"Other kids won't get the chance to find themselves and grow," said Melia Kramer, who has been a student, company dancer, intern, and faculty member with the company. "I also think about the students who are there now who are losing their home and who are losing a place that they go to to feel free."

According to Chinn, Peninsula Lively Arts struggled to find a suitable and affordable replacement space in the region by 2027.

"As a dance company, we have to have certain kinds of amenities," Chinn said. "If a 6-foot man's going to lift a woman, you've got to have tall ceilings."

Following a thorough search, no viable option was found.

"After reviewing every reasonable pathway, we concluded that the responsible course was to wind down operations thoughtfully, rather than extend uncertainty for our students, staff, and families," said Board President Susan Condon in a statement.

Chinn also explained why fundraising to afford or build a suitable space is not an option.

"Everyone's going to give to an emergency campaign like that, but we just don't have the donor pyramid that is healthy enough for this organization to continue," Chinn said. 

Having taught many dancers of all ages for decades, Peninsula Lively Arts has a fond place in the hearts of many, and its absence will be felt.

"You watch the progression of what these pre-ballet kids do at the age of 4, when they're little tiny mice in The Nutcracker, and they grow up, and then they get to be Drosselmeyer, they get to be Clara," Chinn said. "You watch a young child move through their adolescence through dance."