The Playhouse Dance Company will present "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" starting tonight. Last year's hit performance included, from left, Aaron Rogers as Ichabod Crane, Colleen Landwerlen as Katrina Van Tassell and Joshua Lee Ingraham as Brom Bones. Click photo for larger image. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" Playhouse Dance Company will present "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" at the Pittsburgh Playhouse at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Performances will continue through Oct. 31. Tickets: $12-14; 412-621-4445.

As the Playhouse Dance Company prepares to open its season with Alan Hineline's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," there's more than a little excitement about where the company will one day stretch its legs.

Point Park University, which provides the Playhouse dancers through its performing arts roster, is firming plans for a new facility that will house its growing dance department.

Scheduled for completion by the end of 2006, the $10 million building will sport four state-of-the-art dance studios and a performing space. Hineline compares it to the new facility for Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, one of the top regional companies in America.

"It changed the whole perspective," he says. "Students were proud to be there and the summer program just blew through the roof. I just don't believe that whole struggling artist thing. The self-esteem that it brings is wonderful."

The process began in 1997, when Point Park was evaluated by a committee from the National Association of Schools of Dance, which has nearly 300 members. After spending several days observing, the committee members rated the studios and found them lacking considering the high student numbers and professional quality of the program.

As Point Park University moved from a $22 million to a $50 million institution, the dance student population has doubled, growing to more than 225 students during the past seven years.

"We could see the problems ourselves," concedes Point Park University's president, Dr. Katherine Henderson. "Some studios were small, others had columns in the middle. We wanted facilities worthy of the students, because dance and theater are our flagship programs."

Factoring in a huge musical theater component, "not having adequate facilities would have become a hardship," Henderson says.

In fact, the Point Park dance program has reached an elite level. In his book, "How to Make It in Musicals," author Michael Allen named Point Park one of "three places that will get you to Broadway." And current shows bear out that claim, with graduates like Tony Award-winning choreographer Rob Ashford and "42nd Street" star Nadine Eisinger.

"At any given time, there are two dozen graduates on Broadway and with prestigious national tours," says Henderson.

Point Park has labored hard and long to broaden its scope. Students often have classes and rehearsals from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. This year, Marty Lawson, a Uniontown native and 2000 graduate, was awarded one of 20 prestigious Princess Grace Awards. He is one of six dancers to receive "grants, scholarships, apprenticeships and fellowships [given] to aspiring young artists in America, assisting them with their study and training, or furthering their professional goals." Lawson is currently a member of the Parsons Dance Company in New York City.

With seven Presidential Scholars in Point Park's freshman class this year, the students will have a choice between a bachelor's of fine arts in dance and pedagogy with a performance thrust or a bachelor's of arts in pedagogy. Henderson has more long-range goals, including a master's of fine arts in dance, so that students will be able to teach at the college level.

At the start of the process, consultant David Nash was part of a group that visited the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and Mark Morris Dance Company as well as prominent university dance departments such as those at The Julliard School, University of Arizona, North Carolina School of the Arts and Ohio State University.

Nash, the former vice president of operations at Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, hopes to help move Point Park's program forward.

"President Henderson and the board have made a significant investment, and every university administrator says the dance department is that important," he says.

Plans call for renovation of Lawrence Hall, designed by Benno Janssen in 1926 as the Keystone Athletic Club. At various times, it was a Sheraton Hotel and Sherwyn Hotel before Point Park bought it in the 1960s. At that time, the bowling alley, swimming pool and a large dining room became dance studios.

In addition, Point Park has purchased three adjoining buildings along the Boulevard of the Allies, adding 88 by 120 feet of streetfront property that will be converted into a new building with 14,400 square feet of new rehearsal and performance space.

"Ideally it will support offices, dressing rooms, observation areas, proper ventilation and lighting," Henderson says.

It also will allow for more flexible scheduling of university, pre-professional and community classes.

Martin Powell, an architect with Design Associates, cautions that they are only in the early stages of the design process, listening to students, faculty and administration about their needs and aspirations, and looking at performing site surveys.

He says Lawrence Hall is a "beautifully proportioned building with elegant interior design and ornamentation. We're lucky that it is still here."

Powell has his own goals for the new facility.

"It will be a signal for dance in the center city, an extension of Point Park University that will also be an extension of the Cultural District.

"Dance is a quiet success story in Pittsburgh and now we're hoping to give it new life."