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With the opening of a new space in the Rosemary District, Sarasota Contemporary Dance finally has the home that founder and artistic director Leymis Bolanos Wilmott envisioned near 20 years ago. More than a studio, the Sarasota Contemporary Dance movement center stands not only as a place for contemporary dance, but for community collaboration and nurturing as well. “My training all came from the public school system, so I don’t know what the studio culture and life is like,” explains Wilmott. “But I always knew I wanted a movement center, because I went to the parks and recreational center, and that was my after school and that’s where I was exposed to a variety of arts.” From a promise in her prayer journal in 1999 to rented space at New College of Florida to this shiny new movement center complete with sprung floors shipped from Europe and 3,000 square feet for choreographic exploration, it’s been a dance as sinuous and demanding as any seen onstage, but Wilmott’s inventing the steps as she goes along. “Now it’s 2018,” she says, “but I feel like it’s perfect timing.” 


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