Choreographers have rather intimate relationships with buildings: within their walls they create, rehearse, and perform. But there is only one modern dance choreographer in the United States today who has had his own building built for his company according to his wishes. Brooklyn’s new Mark Morris Dance Center, home to the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) and school, is a gorgeous facility. Nevertheless, visiting MMDG four days before the company’s New York season seemed, at first, like a bad idea. Performance seasons tend to attract a level of stress and tension comparable to a tax accountant’s office on April 14.

The building, however, exuded a calm radiance. Light shimmered in from numerous windows, accentuating the clean white walls, white ceiling, and natural wood surfaces. Michael Osso, MMDG’s Director of Marketing and Publicity, breezed in with apologies for keeping me waiting. His polished yet relaxed appearance belied the fact that he was working for a dance company about to open a week of performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), MMDG’s first New York season since moving into these headquarters. The BAM season will include two new works by Morris: V, a New York premiere, and Foursome, a world premiere.

How does a choreographer’s environment impact his or her work? A couple years ago, Sarah Kaufman wrote in The Washington Post: "Of the choreographers alive today, it would seem, only Morris is expansive enough, large-minded enough to conceive of such a monumental endeavor."

Was this "monumental endeavor" Morris’ choreography or his new Dance Center at the intersection of Flatbush and Lafayette Avenues? Both are monumental.

The Center is a five-story, $7.4 million dollar dance oasis located a block from BAM. Morris’ choreography is similarly grand. He has attracted a worldwide fan club that includes Yo-Yo Ma, Isaac Mizrahi, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. In 1997, MMDG won the Laurence Olivier Award for L’Allegro, il Penderoso ed il Moderato, a two-hour work for 24 dancers, four vocal soloists, and full chorus and orchestra. When Sarah Kaufman wrote about Morris’ "monumental endeavor," she was referring to this masterpiece.

Yet the relationship between Morris’ choreographic ideas and new home is significant. Kaufman’s review shed light on an essential connection between the two: "Certainly he was singularly blessed with the resources," she continued. "He created L’Allegro in 1988 while his company was ensconced in Brussels as the national dance company of Belgium, with nearly every luxury at his disposal."

The European system of government-subsidized opera houses, like Brussels’ Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, offers choreographers a combination of financial security and artistic freedom that is difficult—if at all possible—to find in the United States. From 1988 to 1991, Mark Morris was the resident choreographer, and MMDG the resident company, of Theatre Royal de la Monnaie. In Brussels, Morris had access to his own studios, orchestra, and administrative offices. When he returned to New York in 1991, he looked for ways to "rebuild" those conditions in New York City. A decade later, in 2001, the Mark Morris Dance Center opened its doors.

"We are the first single-choreographer company to ever build its own facility," explains Osso. "When we first decided that we wanted to have our own home, we were considering lots of different options and went to talk to Harvey Lichtenstein. He was still the president of BAM and put us in touch with developers in the neighborhood. He turned us on to the architect we ended up using [Beyer Blinder Belle], even though we sent out an RFP [Request for Proposal] and considered seven different architectural firms."

Prior to becoming the home for MMDG, the building had served as an outpatient mental institution, then stood vacant for 10 to 12 years. It was owned by New York State, was then sold to BAM, which sold the building to MMDG. Its dilapidated facade and broken windows had become an eyesore in the community.

"Four years ago, when we decided to do this project, it was a little unclear where the big money was going to come from," Osso continues. "We had some relationships that we thought could be stepped up to be large contributions. All of those things wound up being true. Also, Harvey was instrumental in putting us in touch with city agencies that would, over the course of three years, appropriate $1.75 million."

The capital campaign that originally aimed to raise $5.2 million for construction, with another million dollars to establish an endowment, wound up raising $7.4 million, "and we used $7.4 million," Osso adds with a laugh. It was the first capital campaign for MMDG, as well as the Development Director’s first capital campaign ever. "In preparation, I took a course at the New School and had lunch with everybody I could think of," Osso admits.

Today, the building shines, literally and figuratively. Much of its exterior is covered in a translucent material that glows in the evening when the interior lights are on. Within its walls dancers and choreographers move around in three different studios. The largest, measuring 60 feet by 60 feet, is the biggest unobstructed studio in New York. It can be converted into a 170-seat theater with wings. Amenities include a Pilates studio and a Physical Therapy suite.

For a dance company, the building’s interior is revolutionary: artistic, administrative, and technical staff spaces are laid out to encourage mingling of personnel. Each dancer’s dressing room has a desk and closet. Mr. Morris’ office includes an elaborate bathtub (for his own use as well as use by his staff and dancers).

If the Center was inspired by a desire to replicate the luxurious facilities Morris had as a choreographer and company director in Belgium, the outcome has exceeded expectation. By designing a home with more than one studio, MMDG opened up the possibility of creating a community: inviting neighborhood children for dance classes and renting space to other dance companies. "For kids and adults, we’re offering ballet, modern, jazz, West African. For adults we also have yoga and Pilates classes," Osso explains. "The first semester we had 180 kids sign up and this semester [spring 2002], we have 230 kids. They are 99% Brooklyn residents. For choreographers and dance companies, we put a rental subsidy program together: the two larger studios are rented for $10 an hour and the smaller studio is $8 an hour."

Today, Morris, again, has "nearly every luxury at his disposal," to borrow a line from Sarah Kaufman’s review. How does this environment impact the choreographer? "I see an enormous difference in the man," Osso says of Morris. "To have this level of support for what he does; to be able to come to the same space every day; to have everyone who is working towards moving his vision forward under the same roof, it is fantastic. It helps you realize on a daily basis what you are working for. It is inspiring. I think the creative process for him here is much more enjoyable. I think that that translates onto the stage."

The Mark Morris Dance Center is a bittersweet phenomenon: sweet for Morris, who worked for 20 years and deserves such state-of-the-art facilities, but bitter to think that such a small handful of dance-makers have experienced, or will ever experience, such fertile ground for creation.

Kate Mattingly Moran has taught ballet in Europe and has been published in The New York Times, The Village Voice, and Dance Teacher magazine. Currently, she writes as a freelancer for different publications and teaches Dance History at Eliot Feld’s New York Public School for Dance.