As the struggle to block a Rite Aid development on Monroe Avenue neared an end, dooming part of the historic Monroe Theater, some opponents focused their attention on a possible savior for the theater: Garth Fagan Dance.

The dance troupe, some of the activists told the media, was interested in using the theater as its home.

If that had been true, it might have been a significant obstacle for developer Fred Rainaldi's Rite Aid plan. Rainaldi plans to preserve the theater's façade, but he will demolish enough of the theater itself that it won't be suitable for performance use.

The activists, however, had apparently misinterpreted a letter from a Garth Fagan Dance official and had exaggerated the level of the troupe's interest.

Fagan Dance Executive Director Ruby Lockhart says she has never been in the theater, and that the dance troupe never made a commitment to the Rite Aid opponents. Members of the South East Arts Development group, which has been fighting the Rite Aid plan, had asked her if the troupe would be interested in using the theater as a home, she says. Lockhart says she told SEAD that the troupe would need to know whether the theater would be suitable as a performance space for Garth Fagan Dance and that if a feasibility study were done, she would be interested in seeing the results. As requested, she says, she gave SEAD a letter confirming her interest in the results of a study.

But SEAD, Lockhart says, would have to fund the study. And even if the study found that the theater was suitable for Fagan's unique needs, the dance troupe doesn't have the money to buy or renovate a theater. Someone else would have to pay for that. And the troupe would want to use a theater at little or no cost.

"We're looking for someone to give us a home," Lockhart says.

Lockhart says she had also urged SEAD leaders not to use the troupe's interest in a feasibility study to support SEAD's efforts to preserve the Monroe Theatre.