Pittsburgh Ballet House Gets OK for New Location

It's official.

The owners of the are bowing out from their current location on Rowan Road in Cranberry and moving to a new studio less than a mile away.

At Thursday’s board of supervisors meeting, Cranberry officials unanimously approved the school’s conditional use application for at the intersection of Rowan Road and Route 19.

The application, plus a public hearing, for the plans were needed because a private recreation and entertainment facility is a conditional, and not a permitted, use for the building.

Already home to Advance Auto Parts and , the Viola retail plaza is owned by the Viola family. The family also own Rowan Towers, the building on Rowan Road where the Pittsburgh Ballet Company has leased space for at least four years.

David Lucci, an architect with , the Sewickley-based firm working with the Viola family, has said ballet school owner—and instructor—Kwang-suk Choi is moving to a new facility because he needs more room for his growing studio.

Choi’s current studio on the second floor of Rowan Towers is about 1,520 square feet of space, Lucci said. The new studio, which will be located on the second floor of the former Safari Sam’s building, will give Choi, whose wife also is an instructor at the studio, about 2,740 square feet of studio.

The Pittsburgh Ballet House could be moved into its new location sometime in September, Lucci said.

A former principal dancer with the Pittsburgh Ballet Company, Choi, who hails from South Korea, also heads up the ballet program for Seneca Valley Cyber & Arts: The Academy of Choice.

What do you think of the ballet studio’s move to the new location? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.