New York Theater Ballet Is Seeking New Home After Building Is Sold

Earl Wilson/The New York Times Diana Byer at auditions for the New York Theater Ballet school in 2009.

The New York Theater Ballet, a small company with an outsize reputation for staging classics and the work of emerging choreographers, is desperately seeking a new home, says Diana Byer, the founder and artistic director. The company has until Sept. 30 to vacate its studio and office space in Murray Hill because the building has been sold. Since 1980 the company has been located at 30 East 31st Street, on the fifth floor of the parish house of the Madison Avenue Baptist Church.

“We’re in a crisis,” Ms. Byer said, adding that market-rate rents in the neighborhood are not affordable. “I don’t know if we’re in danger of closing. I’m just reaching out to everybody to see what will come about.’”  The ornate building, which is over 100 years old, is also home to the Dokoudovsky New York Conservatory of Dance.

Faith Grill, the chairman of the church’s board of trustees, said Thursday that the building had been sold to a buyer whose name she was not at liberty to reveal, for $350 a square foot. “They have to knock it down - it’s not possible to save it,” Mrs. Grill. She said the building had numerous structural problems that had been a drain on church finances for years.

“We like supporting nonprofits but it would cost millions to fix the building,” Mrs. Grill said of the ballet company’s efforts to find housing. “For years, we have made it clear that the parish house was a drain we were struggling with. It’s very sad actually.”

With a budget under $1 million and roots in Murray Hill, a move would be disruptive, Ms. Byer said. The company has 12 dancers on full salary, Ms. Byer said, and its pre-professional training school serves 130 children from age four. It also has a community service project called LIFT, which provides tutoring and other programs for homeless and at-risk children. Most of the company’s big productions are held at Florence Gould Hall, at 55 East 59th Street.

So far, there have no changes to the season, Ms. Byer said. Founded in 1978, New York Theater Ballet bills itself as the most widely seen chamber ballet company in the country. Its productions include classics by the likes of Merce Cunningham and Antony Tudor, hourlong adaptations of work for children, and contemporary ballets.