Dancers in the Lafayette area are pleading with the Mayor-President to keep the Heymann Center open.

According to a petition started by Annie Foreman, the dance community believes that closing the Heymann Performing Arts Center will hurt both the city and the local performing arts scene in Lafayette.

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Earlier this week, Guillory announced that 99 LGC employees were being laid off, including workers at the Heymann Performing Arts Center.

The Lafayette Mayor-President responded to the concerns via his Facebook page citing the uncertainty that surrounds operations at the Heymann after the building has been closed for the last few months.

We must fulfill our duty to these core responsibilities fire and police protection, drainage, and roads for the health and safety of our people first. Then we can provide resources to all the wonderful things we enjoy that enrich our community life.

The petition has been signed by over 9,000 people at the time of this post including a comment from Lainey Richard that echoes Foreman's sentiment on the impact that the dance community brings to local businesses.

These dance studios bring so much money back into the local community by having their Dance Revues at the Heymann. Local florists, local restaurants, coffee shops, local printing companies, etc all benefit by these 21 shows going on. Closing the Heymann would prevent us from putting money back into our local businesses, and not to mention the tax dollars involved in these 21 shows.

Guillory did say the speakers brought up "good points" and that the shows could possibly happen if LCG could find a way that wouldn't put a "strain on the budget."

Read the petition here and tell us how you feel about the shows continuing as scheduled.

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