After 14 years, Kids Dance Outreach plans to build its first permanent center in the Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood.
The dance education nonprofit’s new 11,170-square-foot, one-story building will live at 2955 N. Meridian St. The building — designed by DKGR Architects — will be complete with a large gallery and lobby, two professional dance studios, a reception area, administrative offices and storage.
One of the studios will double as a performance space that can seat up to 180 people.
Executive Director Mónica Muñoz said the new center will help them meet the needs of KDO’s students and families, who are majority Black and brown and low-income. The nonprofit offers children in third to eighth grade free dance and arts education.
“We will finally have a permanent space and a home … where we can live our mission fully,” Muñoz said. “We’re now on the cusp of a new era with the KDO center, which is going to unlock so much more potential and allows us to meet the growing demand of our community.”
Meeting that demand will mean expanding the opportunities for students who age out of the KDO and the possibility of children entering the program before third grade.
The $3.6 million KDO center will be built at the corner of 30th and Talbott streets. It will anchor a new development project on a five-acre lot near the Children’s Museum that will include apartments and townhomes.
KDO will break ground on its new center in spring 2027, with a target date to open in fall 2028.
Muñoz said the new center will house all of KDO’s programming. They want to host master classes, workshops and community classes, and share the space with other artists in the city.
More than just steps
Kids Dance Outreach was founded by Michael Johnson in 2012, as an associate of the National Dance Institute.
Muñoz, a trained professional ballet dancer originally from Puerto Rico, has been with the organization since the beginning, starting as a volunteer.
Each year, the organization serves more than 2,000 students across all of its programming, including in-school, summer, Dancers with Disabilities, and advanced SWAT and X dance teams.
While KDO doesn’t offer lessons on specific dance styles, teaching artists and musicians expose the students to a fusion of ballet, musical theater, African diaspora dance, Latin, street and hip-hop.
Lane Blettner, 10, has been a part of Kids Dance Outreach for two years. The fifth grader said the program is a “fun and inclusive way to dance.” She finds the idea of KDO’s new building fun.
“We won’t have to share a building anymore and we’ll have more space to dance for different groups to practice,” she told Mirror Indy during a Sept. 12 SWAT team dance class at Center for Inquiry School #2.
That rings true for fourth-grader Samuel Shasanmi, who joined KDO this year.
“They let everyone have a chance to dance. I’m excited because we won’t have to use other people’s places,” the 9-year-old said.
Over the years, KDO headquarters has operated out of The Athenaeum. Classes and performances have been hosted at Butler University, various IPS schools, JCC, Frederick Douglass Park, IU Indianapolis and Dance Kaleidoscope.
The need for their own building was identified in the organization’s 2017 strategic growth plan.
The KDO’s first official center has been in the works since October 2022. That year, the organization conducted a feasibility study and began its fundraising.
KDO was one of 10 Indianapolis arts organizations awarded over $11 million through READI (Regional Acceleration and Development Initiative.) The nonprofit received a $1.3 million grant toward a total of $5 million in funding for the new building in Mapleton-Fall Creek.
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Mirror Indy reporter Mesgana Waiss covers arts and culture. Contact her at 317-667-2643 or mesgana.waiss@mirrorindy.org.
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