%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Colorado Ballet http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-ballet <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Colorado Ballet</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2022-02-15T15:12:09-07:00" title="Tuesday, February 15, 2022 - 15:12" class="datetime">Tue, 02/15/2022 - 15:12</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-ballet" data-a2a-title="Colorado Ballet"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fcolorado-ballet&amp;title=Colorado%20Ballet"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Colorado Ballet is <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver">Denver</a>’s leading ballet-production company. Founded in 1951 by Freidann Parker and Lillian Covillo, the organization now encompasses a thirty-one-member professional performing company, a studio company, an academy for advanced students, and an education and outreach department. More than 125,000 patrons watch the group’s classical ballets and contemporary dance performances each year. Three or four major productions per year are put on primarily at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Rehearsals, training, and smaller performances are held at the ballet’s own specially designed theater in Denver’s Santa Fe Arts District, which opened in 2014. Today the company has an annual operating budget of nearly $8 million and employs more than 150 people.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>A Cinderella Story</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado Ballet’s Cinderella story began in 1951 with Denver natives Freidann Parker and Lillian Covillo. Parker taught physical education at the University of Denver and modern dance at the Lamont School of Music. Covillo ran a ballet school and taught dance and physical education at Cathedral Grade and High School. She also served as ballet mistress and choreographer of Monsignor Joseph Julius Bosetti’s Denver Grand Opera Company. The two young women teamed up in the late 1940s to create the Covillo-Parker Dance School.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>To showcase talented students, the dancing duo established the Colorado Concert Ballet in 1951. After the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bonfils-memorial-theatre">Bonfils Memorial Theatre</a> opened two years later, the Colorado Concert Ballet often performed there. A decade later, they presented their first annual production of <em>The Nutcracker</em>. The show sold out year after year.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Parker did more than dance. She also wrote ballet librettos, including <em>The Betrothal</em>, based on a western murder mystery. The duo danced the leading roles, and Parker laughed later: “That ballet was an artistic success, and we sold 1,000 tickets. And we only lost $12,000!”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Growing Up</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite financial potholes, sellout audiences inspired the two to dream bigger. Covillo said their “vision was to create a professional company so the dancers we were training didn’t have to go to other cities to find jobs.” By 1978 the Colorado Concert Ballet employed eight men and eight women, had an annual budget of $100,000, and changed its name to Colorado Ballet.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1987 Parker and Covillo conducted a nationwide search, at their own expense, for a new artistic director. They found Martin Fredmann, who brought Colorado Ballet to center stage in the Denver performing arts scene. Fredmann, who had danced all over the world, came to Denver after directing the Tampa Ballet. As CEO and artistic director of Colorado Ballet from 1987 to 2000, he took a $750,000 budget to almost $7 million and expanded the company from twelve dancers to about thirty. National recognition came from Martha Graham, the first lady of ballet, who had commissioned Aaron Copland to write the ballet <em>Appalachian Spring</em>. She allowed Denver to be one of the first companies outside New York to produce it in 1998. Despite its growing reputation, Colorado Ballet performed during these years in the aging Municipal Auditorium, a multipurpose space it shared with professional wrestling.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Artistic Director Gil Boggs came to Denver in 2006 after seventeen years as a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre in New York City. He was lured to Colorado partly because of its grand new home in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House—a vastly overhauled version of the old Auditorium Theater. The Ellie hosts more than fifty ballet performances during the October-to-March season.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Dancing Into the Community</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado Ballet’s educational efforts include after-school dance classes and ballet, tap, and jazz lessons at the company’s academy. The academy trains more than 100 advanced students using the Vaganova method, which produced such dancers as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolph Nureyev. All other students—ranging from three-years-olds to seniors—bring total enrollment to more than 700, including students at the ballet’s suburban branch in Highlands Ranch, which opened in 2005.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The company also offers student matinees, in-school assemblies, sensory tours for the visually impaired, and a touring school show. Dance Renaissance, another effort to reach youngsters, is an after-school program for elementary schools in low-income neighborhoods. Colorado Ballet assumes all the costs for these classes and provides the leotards, shoes, costumes, music, and ballet barres. All participating schools receive reduced-price tickets to Colorado Ballet’s student matinee series as well as other assemblies and workshops. Colorado Ballet’s various educational programs entertain more than 8,500 students annually.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>A Home of its Own</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>For decades, Colorado Ballet’s offices, studios, and operations were crammed into the former Alison Motor Company, an elegant 1924 Tudor Style automobile showroom at the southeast corner of East Thirteenth Avenue and Lincoln Street. In 2014 the ballet moved to 1075 Santa Fe Drive in Denver’s popular Santa Fe Arts District. Designed by Denver’s Semple Brown Architects, who were also responsible for the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, the ballet’s new home is a $6.5 million, 30,300-square-foot structure with eight studios and twenty-foot ceilings. For the first time, the ballet had a roomy home of its own instead of squeezing into secondhand structures.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/coronavirus-colorado">COVID-19 pandemic</a> of 2020–21 devastated the ballet, along with many other arts organizations, forcing many layoffs. At the end of 2020, managing director Adam Sexton told <em>The Denver Post</em>, “Colorado Ballet has essentially pirouetted from a performing-arts company to a fundraising group.” A year later, the ballet bounced back with <em>Giselle</em>,<em> The Nutcracker</em>,<em> Romeo and Juliette</em>, and <em>The Wizard of Oz</em>.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/noel-thomas-j" hreflang="und">Noel, Thomas J.</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-ballet" hreflang="en">Colorado Ballet</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-performing-arts-complex" hreflang="en">Denver Performing Arts Complex</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ellie-caulkins-opera-house" hreflang="en">Ellie Caulkins Opera House</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/freidann-parker" hreflang="en">Freidann Parker</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/lillian-covillo" hreflang="en">Lillian Covillo</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/martin-fredmann" hreflang="en">Martin Fredmann</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p><em>The Denver Post</em> archives.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas J. Noel and Amy B. Zimmer, <em>Showtime: Denver’s Performing Arts, Convention Centers and Theatre District</em> (Denver: Denver’s Division of Theaters and Arenas, 2008).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p><a href="https://coloradoballet.org/">Colorado Ballet</a>.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 15 Feb 2022 22:12:09 +0000 yongli 3669 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Denver Performing Arts Complex http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-performing-arts-complex <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Denver Performing Arts Complex</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-12-02T11:17:11-07:00" title="Thursday, December 2, 2021 - 11:17" class="datetime">Thu, 12/02/2021 - 11:17</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-performing-arts-complex" data-a2a-title="Denver Performing Arts Complex"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fdenver-performing-arts-complex&amp;title=Denver%20Performing%20Arts%20Complex"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Denver Performing Arts Complex (DPAC) is a four-block, twelve-acre site that features nearly 10,600 seats across the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex, Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre, Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Boettcher Concert Hall, Garner Galleria Theatre, and several smaller facilities. It is one of the top three performing arts complexes in the United States in terms of seats, patronage, and ticket sales, along with Lincoln Center in New York City and Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The brainchild of <strong>Donald Seawell</strong>, the complex was built around <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>’s historic <strong>Municipal Auditorium</strong>, with the first new venues opening in 1978. Managed by the City of Denver’s Arts &amp; Venues division, DPAC is home to four resident companies: <strong>Colorado Ballet</strong>, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-symphony"><strong>Colorado Symphony</strong></a>, <strong>Opera Colorado</strong>, and the <strong>Denver Center for the Performing Arts </strong>(DCPA), which presents and produces live theater.</p> <h2>Vision</h2> <p>Donald Seawell loved to tell the story of DPAC’s conception. After lunch at the Café Promenade in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/larimer-square"><strong>Larimer Square</strong></a> one day in July 1972, he walked back along Fourteenth Street to the offices of <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong>, where he was publisher. He stopped at the corner of Curtis Street, where the 1908 Municipal Auditorium stood, then in poor shape and surrounded by cheap residences and bars. Seawell, formerly a New York lawyer and theatrical producer, was struck with an idea and sketched on an envelope an ambitious plan for a new performing arts campus to rival the nation’s best.</p> <h2>Design and Venues</h2> <p>Seawell filed plans with the city that same day and got to work. He recruited Denver mayor <strong>William H. McNichols Jr.</strong>, who was known to burst into bits of opera, to help pave the way. First came funding. Seawell sold <em>The Denver Post</em>, which he controlled after <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/helen-g-bonfils"><strong>Helen Bonfils</strong></a>’s death in 1972, to the Times Mirror Company for $95 million. Most of the proceeds went into the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation. Seawell then pumped money from the foundation into the construction of the arts complex. He maintained that he was carrying out Helen’s dying wish, but critics claimed he drained the <em>Post</em> dry to build his own dream.</p> <p>Seawell hired one of the world’s leading architectural firms, Roche, Dinkeloo &amp; Associates, LLC, of Camden, Connecticut, to furnish the masterplan. Roche’s centerpiece was a glass cornucopia-shaped galleria providing a pedestrian extension of Curtis Street. An evocation of the great galleria in Milan, it connected and sheltered the complex’s various venues and restaurants with a covered pedestrian arcade under a barrel vault seventy-six feet high and sixty feet wide.</p> <p>The cornerstone of the complex is the Denver Municipal Auditorium, which originally sparked Seawell’s vision. Built in 1908 to host Colorado’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/1908-democratic-national-convention"><strong>first national presidential convention</strong></a>, the space became Denver’s only Broadway roadhouse until the Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre was created within the adjacent Auditorium Arena in 1991. That arena had been added to the auditorium in the early 1940s, expanding the structure to fill the whole block bounded by Curtis, Champa, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Streets. The ornate neoclassical exterior of the auditorium was restored in 2003 and renamed to honor former Denver mayor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/j-quigg-newton"><strong>Quigg Newton</strong></a>. Two years later, the auditorium interior was gutted to build the state-of-the-art Ellie Caulkins Opera House and intimate Studio Loft.</p> <p>The first new pieces of the complex to open were the galleria, an eight-story parking garage, and Boettcher Concert Hall. They were financed by a $6 million Denver bond issue, $7 million from private sources, $3 million from the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation, and $2 million from the Boettcher Foundation. Architects George Hoover and Karl Berg of Denver’s Muchow Associates helped design the garage and the galleria. On the ground floor of the garage is Garner Galleria Theatre, named for Denver’s longtime theater impresario <strong>Robert Garner</strong>, as well as other retail and dining spaces. Boettcher Concert Hall, named for Denver philanthropist <strong>Claude K. Boettcher</strong>, opened in 1978 as the nation’s first symphony hall in the round, with 80 percent of the seats within sixty-five feet of the stage. The hall was a major upgrade for the Denver Symphony Orchestra (now the Colorado Symphony), which previously played at the inadequate Auditorium Arena, a venue originally intended for sports, not music. At the southwest corner of the site, Seawell built the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex. Completed in 1979, it is home to the DCPA’s professional Theatre Company. The building contains four distinctive theaters, on top of which the Seawell Ballroom was added in 1998.</p> <p>At its far west end, the complex includes the grassy Sculpture Park (1978), which is used for large outdoor concerts, festivals, and private receptions. Sculpture Park is best known for its sixty-foot-high sculpture, “The Dancers” by Jonathan Borofsky, a twirling couple prominent to travelers along Speer Boulevard.</p> <h2>Recent History</h2> <p>The Denver Performing Arts Complex helped transform a declining downtown Denver neighborhood. Fourteenth Street started out in the 1870s as Denver’s first millionaires’ row before becoming blighted a century later. DPAC started a revival. It inspired the reincarnation of the former <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-tramway-company"><strong>Denver Tramway Company</strong></a> headquarters next door, which now has a dual use: the upscale <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/tramway-building-hotel-teatro"><strong>Hotel Teatro</strong></a> and the administrative offices and production facility for DCPA’s plays and theater-education programs. Across Fourteenth Street from Hotel Teatro, construction of the forty-five-story Four Seasons Hotel and Residences (2009) inspired other new high-rise hotels and residences along Fourteenth, making the street once again a center of luxury real estate.&nbsp;</p> <p>When the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/coronavirus-colorado"><strong>COVID-19 pandemic</strong></a> hit in March 2020, all DPAC venues closed. Live indoor performances resumed in September 2021, with the Colorado Symphony performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, followed by major performances by DPAC’s other resident companies throughout the fall. Other productions reawakened the complex’s many venues with hopes to return to an average year, when, collectively, the resident companies offer more than 2,700 different performances, attract more than 1.3 million guests, and generate some $300 million in economic activity.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/noel-thomas-j" hreflang="und">Noel, Thomas J.</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-performing-arts-complex" hreflang="en">Denver Performing Arts Complex</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/donald-seawell" hreflang="en">Donald Seawell</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-symphony" hreflang="en">Denver Symphony</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-symphony" hreflang="en">Colorado Symphony</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-ballet" hreflang="en">Colorado Ballet</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/opera-colorado" hreflang="en">Opera Colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-center-performing-arts" hreflang="en">Denver Center for the Performing Arts</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/municipal-auditorium" hreflang="en">Municipal Auditorium</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boettcher-concert-hall" hreflang="en">Boettcher Concert Hall</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/buell-theatre" hreflang="en">Buell Theatre</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Denver Center for the Performing Arts, <a href="https://issuu.com/denvercenter">Annual Reports</a>, various dates.</p> <p>Denver Center Theatre, <em>Twenty-Five Years of Sterling Theatre</em> (Denver: Denver Center Theatre Company, 2004).</p> <p>Thomas J. Noel and Amy B. Zimmer, <em>Showtime: Denver’s Performing Arts, Convention Centers and Theatre District</em> (Denver: Denver’s Division of Theaters and Arenas, 2008).</p> <p>Daniel Lee Ritchie, interviews by Thomas J. Noel, February 28 and March 13, 2007.</p> <p>Donald Ray Seawell, interviews by Thomas J. Noel, March 13, 2006; April 3, 2006; and July 9, 2007.</p> <p>Janice Sinton, interview and DCPA tour with Thomas J. Noel, July 29, 2021.</p> <p>Eva Hodges Watt, <em>Papa’s Girl: The Fascinating World of Helen Bonfils</em> (Lake City, CO: Western Reflections, 2007).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p><a href="https://coloradoballet.org/">Colorado Ballet</a></p> <p><a href="https://coloradosymphony.org/">Colorado Symphony</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.denvercenter.org/">Denver Center for the Performing Arts</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.operacolorado.org/">Opera Colorado</a></p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 02 Dec 2021 18:17:11 +0000 yongli 3649 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org