Dance Studio

Award-winning design brings dance studio to lifeWhen word got out this week that the new dance studio at Bryn Mawr School has been named Baltimore's best building, the students who take classes there were not surprised.They've been dancing with delight since the building opened in September.Now their enthusiasm has been affirmed by three out-of-town architects, who served as judges for the 1992 design awards program sponsored by the Baltimore chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

PEOPLELori Pryor opens Dance FoundationsLori Pryor of Ellicott City has opened Dance Foundations, a dance studio for youngsters, at 9602 Old Annapolis Road in the Columbia Gymnastics building.Ms. Pryor was a preschool director and assistant to the director at area studios.& Information: 788-2624.Opal Technologies promotes LugarOpal Technologies has appointed Daniel Lugar general manager of the company, a distributor of computer components.Mr. Lugar worked for eight years as international sales and marketing manager for two divisions of Intel.

WESTMINSTER -- Sometimes what looks like a streak of bad luck can be a portent of greater things.At least that's what Patty Neivert has found. She will be moving her dance studio from Winchester Exchange to the former Beacon Industries warehouse on Oct. 1.The mall's owners told her a dance studio was incompatible with the businesses that were moving in around her, Ms. Neivert said. The management offered her another location within the building. But the cost of sound-proofing the new space would've resulted in a higher rent that was more than her budget would allow.

The Columbia Association plans to rebuild the Bryant Woods Neighborhood Center, destroyed by a still-unsolved arson fire last summer, for an estimated $60,000 more than the $250,000 insurance coverage reimbursement.The razing and construction project will include the replacement of the adjoining Bryant Woods pool bath house and pump house.The association aims to start construction early next year and complete it in time for the pool opening in late May, said Dennis Mattey, the association construction manager.

The operators of a closed Ellicott City dance studio don't mind if a former instructor continues to teach her own classes. They just don't want her giving lessons within a 40-mile radius of their former company.Raymond Clifton and Debra Jo Clifton, owners of the former Starlight Ballroom, filed suit in Howard Circuit Court on Oct. 5 against Debra Lilly Pabon, who operates That's Dancing, a studio in Dorsey.The plaintiffs seek $100,000 in damages from Ms. Pabon. They also want the court to determine the amount of money the defendant made as a result of her "wrongful actions."

The second case against Jose Anibal Macedo, the Ellicott City ballet teacher accused of sexually molesting three students, stalled yesterday afternoon over legal questions that could potentially derail the prosecution. With all witness testimony presented in a single day, lawyers haggled yesterday afternoon over a key point: whether proof of Macedo's age - he is now 42 - had been adequately offered into evidence during the prosecution's case. The point is important, lawyers said. Three of the charges require that Macedo be at least four years older than his alleged victim, a 15-year-old girl who said she was 11 and 12 when her ballet instructor touched her under her leotard and tights during her private lessons at his Baltimore National Pike dance studio, Advance Dance Academy.

When Kathi Ferguson opened Aesthetics Dance Studio in 1990, she hoped the Pine Orchard location near U.S. 40 would tap into a need for dance instruction in western Howard County.Another studio opened at the same time, in the same part of the county, followed by several others in other parts of the county.Four years later, however, Ms. Ferguson can claim a distinctive portion of the market: adults. Her clientele is usually almost evenly split between children and adults, unusual in such a child-oriented service.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Two key interests consumed Marianne Elser Crowder as a girl: dancing and Girl Scouts. Dancing became her passion and her career. Scouting taught her lifelong skills and created lasting friendships. Crowder, 100, the nation's oldest living Girl Scout, was the guest of honor recently at the Girl Scouts-Wagon Wheel Council's annual Women of Distinction luncheon. The Colorado Springs, Colo., native joined the Council's Troop 4 in 1918. That was just one year after the council, one of the oldest west of the Mississippi River, began.

Aromas of various dishes floated around the Du Burns arena, as did a certain undertone of orange - thanks to a specialty Orange Crush cocktail being served at one end of the building. The sounds of rock 'n' roll reverberated off the walls, alongside that of happy chatter and laughter. But there was something else in the air at the "Fifth Annual Rock the House" party. It was a certain warm, fuzzy feeling about the evening's beneficiary, Believe In Tomorrow Children's Foundation, which provides housing and services to critically ill children and their families, including one house just up the street in Canton.

Lawyers representing an Ellicott City ballet instructor being tried for the second time on charges he sexually assaulted one of his students said yesterday that they may call witnesses to testify about the "truthfulness" of his teen-aged accuser. Defense attorneys William C. Mulford II and Gregory P. Robinson hinted at the new strategy yesterday - a likely attempt to break the stalemate that left jurors deadlocked during the first trial last month - in arguments prior to opening statements before Howard Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney.