- Conduit Dance Inc.
Tere Mathern, artistic director at Conduit Dance Inc. just sent out a press release announcing that her dance organization’s lost their space at 918 SW Yamhill. According to Mathern, Nia Technique, a neighboring company in the same building, had been subsidizing Conduit’s rent while the organization was struggling financially, but that, “recent and ongoing issues have resulted in irreconcilable differences between the organizations.”
The press release doesn’t elaborate on what those differences were, but states that, “The Board has been working since early February on negotiating a healthy exit strategy that would best preserve ongoing programs, commitments, and a relocation strategy,” but that “an initially well accepted appeal” was rejected.
The result, said Mathern, is that Conduit Dance will need to vacate the space by next Wednesday, March 18. When contacted for comment, Nia Technique studio manager Samantha Michel confirmed that the agreement had ended between the two organizations, specifying that Nia had subsidized Conduit’s rent for 10 years; she framed the decision as more of a mutual agreement, saying that the rent-subsidy arrangement “just hasn’t mutually worked out for the board of Conduit or the owners of Nia.”
Mathern ended Conduit’s press release with a call for volunteers “with muscle power to help move large equipment” next Monday and Tuesday. Conduit is also seeking temporary spaces for holding classes and performances, as well as for storing equipment, and plans to hold a community meeting to discuss the nonprofit’s future. That meeting will be held at Conduit on Monday, March 16 at 7:30 pm.
I’m saddened by seeing the end of a special era that was a beautiful symbiotic and dynamic relationship between the two studios. I wish the talented and beautiful people of Conduit brilliant success in this transition.
Nia cherry-picks and re-packages practices from ancient movement traditions, selling the emotional high that comes from moving together without the deep rooted ethics that should accompany these. They are clearly in a business of accumulating money and power while pretending to be spiritual. My opinion is based on taking some of their classes and knowing how they have treated employees and tenants….completely without ethics or humanity. It is truly sad that they own such beautiful real estate that has the potential to be a real hub for the dance community.