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Nightclub May Force Riverside Ballet School To Find A New Home

RIVERSIDE (CBSLA.com) — Riverside Ballet Arts, which has taught thousands of dancers for almost half a century, is being forced to find a new home or shut down.

Owner Glenda Carhart said she received an eviction notice from the owners of the Aurea Vista Building after the owner of Pixels, a bar located across the street, applied for a license to open a restaurant and nightclub on the ground floor of the historic 87-year-old building.

Carhart said parents protested, concerned about their children's safety.

"There's a lot of young girls and loitering, mainly. The smoke that just comes from somebody standing outside and just the normal things that come with alcohol," she said.

Pixels' owner said he had meetings with Carhart and the owners of the Aurea Vista Building, offering to hire a security guard to make sure the dancers and their parents got to their cars safely.

Carhart said not long after that, the building's owners sent her the notice.

"They want us out on May 1," Carhart said. "I think it is retribution, basically."

For the ballerinas who have been dancing in the building for years, the news has kept them on their toes.

"I felt like it was unfair and to leave it…would be really depressing," Tyler Herrera said.

"I was extremely shocked. It's been 45 years. I love this building. It's been my second home for 10 years now," Emma Speir said.

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