Inside 3Danks: what 890 square metres in Waterloo lets you do

Photos flatten a venue. They show you walls and floors, and they hide the thing that actually matters, which is what the building lets you do. So here is the tour I give in person, written down: 890 square metres in Waterloo, close to the Sydney CBD, split across three dance studios plus The Gantry, our production and event space. Blank canvas warehouse character throughout, which is a polite way of saying the building will not argue with whatever you have planned for it.

The Walton Room is the first space off the entrance: 80 square metres of sprung floor that earns its keep all week. Rehearsals, workshops, auditions, castings, a registration desk on event days. Its party trick is a set of foldable walls that retract to open the room into a 27 metre long foyer, which changes what the whole front of the building can do: guest arrivals for a big event, a gallery wall for an exhibition, a long bar line for a party.

At $65 an hour plus GST, it is the room people book when they need honest, flexible space by the hour without paying for scale they will not use.

The Ngarra Room is 112 square metres of sprung hardwood with JBL 12 inch speakers mounted in the corners and dimmable ceiling lights. It is acoustically ready the moment you walk in, which is why it fills up with rehearsals, dance classes, intimate workshops and the kind of small shoot where you want control of the light without rigging anything.

It hires from $60 an hour plus GST, which makes it the cheapest way into the building and, for a lot of regulars, the only room they ever need.

The Gantry is the space people come to see. A 250 square metre main floor under a 10.4 metre ceiling, sprung hardwood underfoot, a full lighting rig overhead, and a 117 square metre mezzanine looking down over all of it. Tarkett can be rolled out over the hardwood for a dance-ready finish, a $500 + GST fee to switch either way, and an LED screen is there too as an optional extra for the productions that want one.

That combination is why the bookings here are so varied. Film and content shoots use the height and the rig. Product launches add the screen and use the mezzanine as a natural VIP deck. Performances and showcases use the floor and sightlines. Parties use all of it at once. At $150 an hour plus GST for studio hire, it is the premium room, and it is still a fraction of what dedicated production stages charge once you count the gear already hanging from the ceiling.

The venue really changes character when you take all of it. Full-venue events hold 400 people standing, 342 theatre style, or 270 seated for a banquet, and the separate spaces let one event breathe: ceremony in one room, dinner in another, a quiet corner that is not the same room as the loud one. Event hire starts from $3,300 + GST, with a bond of $500 to $1,000 depending on the event.

The practical details, since they decide more bookings than the photos do: the venue is wheelchair accessible, there is parking available nearby, and amplified music or loud noise has to stop by 9:30pm. That is a noise curfew rather than a lock-out, so bump-out can run later if it needs to, which suits daytime shoots, evening launches and events that start early and end on a high.

In a normal month the calendar swings from dance rehearsals to brand launches to birthday parties to film crews blacking out The Gantry for a shoot. That range is the point of a blank canvas. The building holds its shape, and each booking pours something different into it.

A rough guide for choosing your way in: if your job fits inside one room and a handful of hours, book a studio by the hour at bookings.3danks.com.au and keep it simple. If you are planning something bigger, with guests, catering or a build, start a conversation about the whole venue and we will walk you through the options properly.

If you are weighing it up for your own thing, do not decide from photographs, mine included. Book a site visit, walk the rooms, stand on the mezzanine and look down at the floor. The building makes its own case.