HERMON – Morita’s School of Dance is a fair-sized building – big enough for dance classes, rehearsals, and a science camp in the summer. But when you add international theme weekends, dinner theater, band performances and other events to the mix, there isn’t nearly enough space.

About five years ago, dance instructor Morita Tapley and her mother, Jackie, started thinking Hermon needed a cultural center, where local people could perform and be entertained. It would have enough room to house the science camps, dance lessons, theater workshops and musical performances the Tapleys already held for area youth, but there also would be space for business functions, weddings, recitals and the like.

“We just always thought it would be nice to have a place where all the performing arts could come together and where all the local talent could be showcased,” Morita Tapley said during an interview at the dance school. “It’ll be housed under one roof rather than being spread all over the place.”

This is how the Morgan Hill Performing Arts, Science and Cultural Center was born. The center will be on Route 2, on a 100-acre parcel where Morita’s grandparents used to raise Morgan horses. The foundation has been laid, and the Tapleys hope to continue construction on the farmhouse-style, post-and-beam structure early next spring.

“Finally it’s to the point where it’s actually happening now,” Morita Tapley said.

The space will house both arms of Morgan Hill’s operations – the nonprofit performance groups and camps for local youth, and the for-profit corporation that will oversee the functions, office space, bakery and ice cream parlor planned for the complex, as well as a three-hole golf course and retirement community planned for 2002. The Tapleys also plan to build a meditation garden with fountains and a farm pond on the property.

The plans call for a two-story building with a giant stone fireplace on one end. There will be two performance-function spaces, the larger of which the Tapleys hope to use for theme weekends. These would focus on a foreign country and showcase the country’s food, dancing, music and cultural traditions.

“People always say there’s nothing to do on the weekends. This will give them something to do.”

Jackie Tapley agreed.

“People are looking for something else to do other than going to bars,” she said.

During the week, the center would offer classes for adults, such as cooking and needlework, and for youth, whether at Morita’s School of Dance or in any of Morgan Hill’s other programs.

The Tapleys envision Morgan Hill as a cultural and business destination for the people of Hermon and surrounding communities.

“There will be nothing like it around,” Morita Tapley said.

For information, 848-5576 or 848-3646.