Rock climbing, strength and conditioning, yoga, tennis and more: the Tappan Gymnasium is currently home to a myriad of health and fitness classes and sports teams.

In the next two years, however, the Tappan Gymnasium will undergo renovations. Although it will interrupt some classes and school activities, the renovation will provide the school with new facilities.

According to Assistant Headmaster Hal Mason, the renovations will start this summer and go until the summer of 2021. The renovations will mainly take place on the lower level and the first floor.

“There will be a renovation of the locker rooms, and there will be an expansion of the rooms for physical therapy and occupational therapy,” Mason said. “There also will be some renovations done to the pool side and the entrance to the building. There will be one entrance for the two spaces, the pool and the gym.”

In addition, Health and Fitness Curriculum Coordinator Tina Bozeman said that classrooms for wellness classes will be added to the first floor.

“In the 9th grade, you take lifetime wellness in M04B. When the renovation is complete, the lifetime wellness classes and advanced wellness classes will be in Tappan in the new classroom space,” Bozeman said. “Because we expect to have larger enrollment, we need two classroom spaces to have two classes running at the same time.”

Senior Julia Langone, who has taken African, Latin American, Hip Hop and Advanced Modern/Jazz dance classes at the high school, said the renovation, which includes new flooring, could help fix some issues in the dance studios.

“In the dance studio on the first floor, the ceiling is very low. And the floor, your toes get stuck in the cracks when you dance,” Langone said.

Mason said that during the renovation process, some of the activities that usually take place on the lower level and first level of  the Tappan Gymnasium will need to use alternative spaces. However, he does not expect there to be much disruption.

“The health and fitness classes will take place either in the Schluntz Gymnasium or upstairs,” Mason said. “There will be a few months when the dance rooms will be closed, and they will move either to the auditorium or to Schluntz. Sports teams will be affected as well. They will be using locker rooms {near the Schluntz Gymnasium} instead of {at the Tappan Gymnasium}.”

According to Langone, moving dance classes into temporary spaces during the renovation process has upsides and downsides. On one hand, marley flooring, a dance flooring that the dance studios lack, could be used in spaces like the auditorium. However, she sees the lack of mirrors in the temporary spaces as a negative.

“Basically, all dancing is done in front of mirrors, and that’s so if the teacher is demonstrating something, you can see what they’re doing, and you can see the people around you as well,” Langone said. “It’s only on stage that you are without the mirrors.”

Despite having to use alternative spaces, the school will do its best to offer the same courses during the renovation as those that are currently offered.

“Our strength and conditioning course and other courses that use the fitness center, we plan to use the mezzanine. It’s not as fully equipped as our fitness center is, but I think we could have that as an alternative space,” Bozeman said.

Overall, Bozeman said that the ultimate gains of the renovations will be worth the inconveniences of the process.

“We hope that we will offer additional sections of the courses that we currently offer. We may also offer very different courses,” Bozeman said. “We are excited to see what this renovation may afford to us.”