Community will not get access to new inner city dance centre

Dublin City Council has been accused of reneging on its promise to make facilities at the new National Dance Centre available to young dancers in the area.

The National Dance Centre, in the north inner city, is due to open in June.

Located on Foley Street, it has three floors of studio and rehearsal space, providing an environment and equipment of the highest international standards, according to a council spokesman. He confirmed there was no plan to make the facilities available to local dance groups.

"We have just finished the tendering process for a company to come in and manage the centre. There is no plan at all in relation to making it available to local interest groups. That was never the intention. If people thought that there must be a misunderstanding. This will be a centre for professional dance."

The council's stance has angered the local community, according to Noel Brazil, a community worker who sits on the monitoring committee for the North East Inner City Integrated Area Plan (NEIC-IAP).

"When the plans were being presented to the community we were told local groups would be given prime access and allocated hours at the centre and that it would benefit the community.

"No one wanted the building put there because it meant taking some of the little park at that corner, but the council sold it to us as a benefit for the local kids."

Local Labour Party councillor Aodháin Ó Ríordáin says the council is breaking commitments it made when applying for funding from the Department of Arts in 2000.

In that application, seen by The Irish Times, the council said: "All aspects of the plan are community-based."

It was seeking funding under the terms of the NEIC-IAP and its vision was to "rejuvenate one of Dublin's most deprived areas, building on its unique character and strengths" and "improve community facilities, building on arts, cultural and heritage initiatives".

The dance centre has been built in conjunction with a Municipal Arts Centre as part of the Liberty Corner Project. The council said in its funding application: "Both facilities will incorporate community use."

A Fianna Fáil newsletter, published in the run-up to the local elections in 2004, said: "The Liberty Corner Project is the flagship project of Dublin City Council's North East Inner City Integrated Area Plan." Funding had been secured "with the ongoing help and assistance of An Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern TD".

Cllr Ó Ríordáin said the council and Government would be seen by the local community as having lied to them. "Why make promises if there's no intention of keeping them?"

He said the IAP committee, of which he is chairman, will invite Jack Gilligan, arts officer with the council, to come "explain himself". Mr Gilligan could not be contacted over the weekend.

Kitty Holland

The young dancers who practise three evenings a week in the parish hall on Seán McDermott Street in Dublin were "so excited" when told they would soon be practising in a fully-equipped studio.

"We got a note through our door saying we'd be able to use the new dance hall," said Jocelyn Burke (15), who has been dancing with the Flash Dance troupe for eight years. "We do freestyle, show dance, group dancing, hip-hop and slow dance.

"I love the dancing and love going to the shows all over the country. It's not great practising in the church hall though because we have no changing rooms."

Francesca Arkins, who runs Flash Dance, said that despite the lack of practising bars and mirrors in the hall her pupils have won awards all over the State and were last year named All-Ireland showdance champions.

"I teach over 70 kids, aged four to 18, and I teach classes three days a week in the hall. It keeps the kids off the streets. They were so excited when I told them we'd be using the new dance centre.

"We were told at a meeting last year with the people from the council: 'Your children are going to benefit. The community will get use of the facilities.' Then all of a sudden, when they have it built, they turn around and say, 'You can't come in.' It's unbelievable."

For now the dancers will continue rehearsing in the parish hall at Our Lady Of Lourdes church.

"It is very hurtful for the kids," said Ms Arkins. "To think they are going to let private dance companies come from all over the place to use the studios but they won't let us in for a few hours a week."