Southeastern dance students will now have a new space for practice in Pottle. A former computer lab in the music building will be converted into a dance studio due to limited space in the Kinesiology building.

Southeastern’s growing nursing program and severe damage from Hurricane Ida removed dance students from the previous space, requiring the music department to form a solution elsewhere.

“We originally had a dance studio in the Kinesiology building, which is where all of our dance classes were. But with the growth of our nursing program, they started to need additional space over there and that space had severe damage after the hurricane. So that sped everything up to begin renovating this space,” Music and Performing Arts Department head Jeffrey Wright said.

The studio will serve as a practice space and a room to hold all dance classes in and will be fit with equipment necessary for both purposes.

“It requires a specialty floor and mirrors and all kinds of different equipment. And when we lost that space in the Kinesiology building, outside of a couple of spaces in the Pennington center where we’ve been hosting classes in the intermediary, this is going to be the primary location for all of our dance course offerings,” Wright said.

The dance studio is still under construction in Pottle, with the inside of the computer lab being replaced with different flooring and walls, among many other amenities.

Wright said the music department is hoping for the space to be completed in the next couple of weeks and that term two dance classes can hopefully be held in that space. Until then, the Pennington center will be used for current dance courses.