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A much-beloved Pearl Arts & Crafts on South Street has officially been converted into Millennium Dance Complex, 417 South St. And with an opening weekend that kicked off on Black Friday and included choreographers who have worked for Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Beyoncé, “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Stomp the Yard,” the space is in full swing in its first week of drop-in classes. The owner, Lori Ramsay Long, became MDC’s third franchisee with open locales in Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh and in doing so she hopes to solidify Philadelphia as an east-coast staple for world-renowned visiting dancers and choreographers.
One could say her daughter is the inspiration for Ramsay Long’s career shift. In fact, she put her now 15-year-old into dance classes when she was pursuing a doctorate and it took.
“When she started high school, we needed to make a game plan,” the Philly native and longtime Florida-resident said of her daughter’s introduction to dance. “She said she wanted to dance” and that worried her a little – “You mean you want to be an orthopedic surgeon for dancers or a contract lawyer for dancers?”
But she saw an opportunity to do something really special for her daughter. It didn’t help that she was driving 130 miles to take her budding dancer to Broadway Dance in Manhattan every weekend. She saw a need for the drop-in model for a dance studio in Philadelphia, especially after seeing successful ones in Los Angeles and New York, and took the plunge.
“I thought everybody deserves at least one opportunity to embrace the passion that they have for something. So I figured I might as well take the leap of faith with her because she was going to take it with or without me,” Ramsay Long conceded.
With a space at just under 40,000 square feet, she and her team are turning three floors and a basement into a multi-level arts, dance and fitness complex.
The basement floor is finished with 7,000 square feet of a bootcamp training area with an indoor track, and the first floor is complete with 9,000 square feet of four dance studios, bathrooms and changing rooms, seating areas and a studio whose windows look out onto South Street. The second and third floors (another 18,000 square feet combined) are largely unfinished, but they have big plans for those spaces, too: The second floor will have a childcare room, a spa and massage area; the top floor features wall-to-wall murals from local graffiti artists and will be an event, rental and community space. They also plan to tap the rooftop, which boasts dramatic Philadelphia skylines, as a backdrop for photo shoots and music videos.
“The community was very hopeful that something cultural and artsy would come in,” Ramsay Long said. “The community has really embraced the concept.”
She encourages weary or nervous dance enthusiasts to come dip their toes into Millennium as part of South Street’s Fourth Fridays, where her artistic director will offer free 30-minute classes.
Dance classes, though, come in all shapes and sizes at MDC and bend a little more towards active and professional dancers. And no memberships are required.
“So you when you come in and you’re taking classes from Timberlake’s and Pink’s and Lady Gaga’s choreographer, you learn this amazing routine and you’re dripping wet and your legs are cramped and it’s amazing,” she gushed.
Jamie Jackson, Lori’s artistic director, found his new boss rather serendipitously. As part of her daughter’s Broadway Dance requirements, Ramsay Long found herself at the original Millennium Dance in Los Angeles where she asked Jackson to choreograph for her daughter. It was that trip to MDC in L.A. that sparked her interest in the franchise and shortly after she began talks with ownership, they’d said yes. And Jackson was her pick for artistic director.
“It’s a dream come true – it’s sometimes still surreal,” the Brooklyn native said and, it seems, believes wholeheartedly in devotion to a dream. “If you really hold true to what you want to do and you do it genuinely from the heart, what’s for you is going to happen and what’s for you is yours and no one can take that away.”
He’d recently quit a long-term employment at the New York City College of Technology and moved to L.A. to pursue his dreams. He was in California for maybe six months before Ramsay Long tapped him to lead a team on South Street.
He enthusiastically listed off some of the names from opening weekend, like: Marty Kudelka (Timberlake’s choreographer and director), Dave Scott (“You Got Served,” B2K and Ginuwine), Eddie Morales (Mariah Carey), Cris Judd (Michael Jackson) and WillDaBeast is on his way on Dec. 15 (“So You Think You Can Dance”) and Timberlake’s backup dancers will pay the studio a visit the next day before his Wells Fargo Center, 3601 S. Broad St. visit on the 17th.
Jackson is eager to work with and hire some of his idols in his role at MDC, including the legendary Shawnette Heard, who danced with Janet Jackson for years. Heard starred in videos that Jamie would record on VHS as a child, slowing down and pausing tapes to learn her moves.
“And now I get to sit down with her and talk to her and call her a friend,” he exclaimed.
“Our staff is well-seasoned — we have a huge selection of street styles from classic hip-hop to breaking to house to street jazz to jazz funk. A large portion of the staff is dedicated to contemporary including contemporary lyrical, contemporary jazz, modern jazz, modern lyrical, musical theater,” the owner ticks off genres they offer. “We have jazz, we have tap, we have ballet, we also have fitness classes like Pilates and yoga. And we now have 65 staff members and about 25 classes seven days a week.”
For now, they are open 365 days a year ( 10 a.m to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturdays). The four first-floor studios can accommodate 20 to 150 students with up to 25 60- or 90-minute classes per day that cost $15 per each.
On Jackson’s tour of the facility, he showed the many mural-painted celebrity faces that populate the walls from Jennifer Lopez to Usher to Pink. The last, Jackson said, wants to pay a visit to South Street to see her painted face and visit the studio. It looks as if South Street might’ve just gotten a whole lot cooler.
Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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