A contemporary dance company that has called Bloomfield Hills home for 35 years is packing up for Detroit's East Side. Eisenhower Dance Detroit has rebranded as Detroit Metropolitan Dance, and the company plans to relocate to Little Village's Stanton Yards waterfront development within the next two years.
The name change arrives as the company opens its 36th season, according to The Detroit News. The organization was founded in 1991 as Eisenhower Dance Detroit, built around the work of Laurie Eisenhower, a dancer, choreographer and former dance professor at Oakland University who served as artistic director for 26 years and created more than 100 works for the company before retiring. Its new name signals a shift from suburban roots to a city-based identity, with artistic director Stephanie Pizzo telling the paper the company is better known within the dance world than it is in southeast Michigan or the state as a whole.
Landing at a Reborn Riverfront Marina
Detroit Metropolitan Dance's future home sits at Stanton Yards, a 13-acre former marina site on the Detroit River within Little Village, encompassing four pre-World War II industrial buildings that once served as boat storage, marina showrooms, service shops and a WWII navy shipyard, according to the Metro Times. The site is being converted into a multipurpose waterfront and cultural destination spanning more than 80,000 square feet of former boat-storage and service buildings, per the Detroit News report. The master plan, designed by architecture firms OSD and SO-IL, calls for 85 boat slips, public waterfront parks, an art quad, and a new ground-up building called Dune House housing offices and a waterfront restaurant, according to Architizer.
Stanton Yards co-owner Anthony Curis, who also holds stakes in other Little Village spaces, said the district aims to expose the community and visitors to all forms of art. Curis said Stanton Yards is expected to break ground this fall and turn over spaces to tenants within the next two years, the same timeline the dance company is working toward for its own relocation. Detroit Metropolitan Dance has planned to establish a physical presence in the city for years, and the coming move is part of Little Village's broader push to expand its arts offerings across performance, dance and culinary arts.
Building Community Ties Before the Move-In
Until its new home is ready, Detroit Metropolitan Dance will offer masterclasses and performances at The Shepherd, an art gallery inside a converted Romanesque church that anchors Little Village. The Shepherd emerged from the adaptive reuse of the 110-year-old Good Shepherd Catholic Church, which sat vacant after closing in 2016, according to TIME, which named Little Village to its list of the world's greatest places in March 2025 for turning former church buildings, bakeries and vacant lots into an arts-driven corridor.
The dance company's interim programming lets it build community relationships in the city ahead of its physical move, laying groundwork before construction wraps at Stanton Yards. Pizzo said the organization wants to change and adapt to community needs as it expands its regional footprint and national recognition, while continuing to offer what the company describes as a diverse and accessible repertory.
Part of a Bigger Little Village Buildout
Detroit Metropolitan Dance's arrival adds to a wave of investment reshaping Little Village. Art collector Jennifer Gilbert consigned major artworks to Sotheby's this spring, with proceeds estimated between $10 million and $13 million earmarked to fund Lumana, a new cultural arts nonprofit that will operate a 20,000-square-foot facility at Stanton Yards, as Hoodline previously reported. The corridor has also drawn hospitality investment, including a Tony Hawk-backed Mexican restaurant concept and a recent multi-stop takeover by Michelin-trained Dublin chef Kevin Burke at Shepherd-campus concepts Father Forgive Me and ALEO.
The cultural expansion is unfolding alongside broader public-safety gains on Detroit's East Side. Citywide violent crime dropped significantly in 2025, with criminal homicides falling 19% to 165 — the city's lowest single-year total since 1964, according to city data. That backdrop is shaping the investment climate around the East Side corridor where Detroit Metropolitan Dance is staking its future.
Beyond its mainstage company, the organization also runs an annual initiative called See and Be Seen, which connects high school dancers across Michigan with collegiate dance programs for auditions and scholarship opportunities. The organization is led artistically and administratively by current and former company dancers, including Executive Director Anne Bak Marine, who danced with the company from 1993 to 2002 before moving into executive leadership.
New Name, First Show
Detroit Metropolitan Dance marked its rebrand by commissioning design firm Supper to create a new logo suite intended to balance the company's 35-year legacy with a forward-looking identity. The organization's inaugural post-rebrand program, titled SHIFT, will feature contemporary works by Pizzo and choreographer Yoshito Sakuraba and is scheduled for September 12.
