By By Jenna Duncan, News Staff

‘ By the end of this semester, dance performance groups will have a new place to turn and twirl, while gamers and pool players have a new room to hang out in.
In the Curry Student Center (CSC), the old game room on the second floor is currently being transformed into a dance studio, and the game room has been moved downstairs to an area that is 400 square feet larger to more spaciously fit pre-existing pool tables, ping pong tables and two Wii stations, said Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Klotzbier.
‘We had a demand for more dance studio space and more requests from students to open a new game room,’ Klotzbier said. ‘It’s going to add a new dimension to the Indoor Quad of the Curry Student Center.’
The new game room opened last week, though it is not fully complete. It has all of the game stations but additional seating will be added. Klotzbier said he hopes the game room will now get greater traffic, and provide a place to hang out on campus.
‘I think that having the game room in the Indoor Quad will give students greater time to socialize,’ Klotzbier said.
The hope is that students will get more use out of the facilities, said Klotzbier, who mentioned that about five years ago, getting rid of the game room altogether was an option.
Using the pool tables of the game room has been a constant source of enjoyment for information security graduate student Ashrith Barthur.
‘I use [the game room] every day,’ he said. ‘Pool is a way of relaxation for me.’
With the renovations, Barthur said the room has definitely improved.
‘It’s amazing,’ he said. ‘It’s way better. There’s a lot more space and better lighting so you can play easier.’
All of this ties into the CSC’s Indoor Quad renovation that happened last year, Klotzbier said. This renovation replaced the furniture and added conveniences like flat screen televisions and more power outlets.
‘Now that we’ve had the indoor quad renovation, it’s part of an evolution,’ he said.
The dance studio will help alleviate the overflow of yoga and aerobics classes from Marino Center, as well as add more practice space for any Northeastern performance groups that choose to book the studio space, in addition to the Fenway Center or the various other floors like those in Dockser and Ell halls.
‘[The Fenway Center] is bursting at the seams,’ Klotzbier said. ‘Which is a good thing, but that is why we realized we needed more dance studios.’
The dance studio will be in a 1,700 square foot area, and will have a sliding wall to divide the area in two when necessary. Currently, the space has been stripped down to the concrete base in order to add the proper flooring to dance. Bars and full-length mirrors will be added as well.
Even with all of the work ahead, Klotzbier said he expects the game room to be completed by early to mid April, and the dance studio to open by late April.