Lighting
the Way
Moreland
RISING
Shaker is Home to
Nationally Recognized
Ballet Company
If you’ve driven down Lee Road
lately, you’ve probably noticed the
installation of festoon lighting strung across
the road near the intersection with Hampstead
Avenue. The permanent installation is part of the
Targeted Lee Road Streetscape Improvement Project,
an initiative of the Shaker Heights Development
Corporation (SHDC). It is funded through a grant from
Cuyahoga County and supported by the City.
Last year, SHDC presented the
streetscape concepts during a Neighbor
Night in the Moreland neighborhood
to solicit feedback from residents and
stakeholders along Lee. Input from the
meeting helped to formulate the final plans, which
incorporate grass and greenspace, new trees, bus
stop benches, and decorative lighting around the Lee
and Hampstead intersection.
The project activates this underutilized space,
creating a more welcome and inviting atmosphere.
By leveraging existing assets and creating new ones to improve the
corridor, the SHDC hopes to entice future public/private investment.
SHDC Executive Director Nick Fedor says, “This project
is exciting for a number of reasons, but most notably because
it continues momentum in establishing a sense of place and
shows the potential for the Lee Road commercial district. It is our
goal to implement streetscape enhancements, along with other
improvements throughout the commercial district.”
Powerful and fluid, sleek and steady, technically
precise and captivatingly graceful… the description
applies to beautifully designed cars and exquisitely
trained ballet dancers. There is something poetic,
then, in the fact that Verb Ballets Center for Dance,
one of the oldest dance organizations in Cleveland,
is now at home in The Dealership, the former car
showroom at 3558 Lee Road.
Named one of Five Great Tiny Troupes in
America by Dance Magazine and one of the 25
dance companies in America to watch, the company
has transformed the cavernous space at the back of
The Dealership into an airy dance studio. From there
they choreograph and rehearse for performances
that take place across Ohio.
In addition, Verb offers Dance Classes for
Everyone from beginner to advanced teens and
adults, and youth classes for children as young
as 18 months. The only requirement: a love
of dance. To view the schedule of events and
classes, visit verbballets.org.
Recently, the company was featured
dancing along Lee from City Hall to The
Dealership in a Ten Minute Photo Challenge
episode by Todd V. The dancers pirouetted and
plié-ed, leapt and arabesque-ed their way down the
street in elegant motion alongside a stream of cars,
their cosmic connection on display and captured in
these photos and in this energetic video:
bit.ly/verbballetsvideo.
12 SPRING 2019 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
/verbballets.org
/WWW.SHAKER.LIFE