The thousands of leaping, gliding and twirling dancers that take the stage and fill the classes of Dance New Amsterdam each year could soon find themselves without a space in which to hone their craft, and one less place to perform.

The 26-year-old arts organization, which moved into two freshly renovated floors on Chambers Street as part of Lower Manhattan’s post-Sept. 11 revitalization, is facing eviction. The group has until July 14 to pay more than $500,000 in late rent owed to its landlord, Fram Realty.

UPDATE: After meeting with representatives from Fram Realty and local elected officials on July 13, a spokeswoman for DNA announced that its landlord had agreed to postpone eviction proceedings against the organization until Sept. 27 and will propose "revised lease terms."

The organization, Lower Manhattan’s only non-profit group dedicated solely to providing dance instruction as well as performance, moved into a 25,000-square-foot space in the landmark Sun Building at 280 Broadway with the help of more than $3 million in grant money from city and state agencies

If DNA fails to make the payment, the organization’s executive director Catherine Peila said, it will meet eviction proceedings in the city’s Landlord and Tenant Court.

“We can’t afford the rent, but without the space, we can’t earn the money to pay any rent,” Peila said. “It’s a conundrum.”

Peila believes there is a solution. Half of the money DNA pays to Fram is rerouted to the city in the form of what are effectively property tax payments. To lower the organization’s monthly payments, Peila wants the city to give Fram the same property tax relief it gives non-profit groups that own the space they occupy. Also, she hopes to convince Fram to lower the rent on the space by roughly 30 percent, to what she says is closer to the going market rate.

Before the matter winds up before a judge, the organization’s lawyers will try to convince the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DSCA), which owns the building, and Fram Realty, which holds the lease on Dance New Amsterdam’s space, to work out a deal that would save DNA from lengthy legal proceedings and, more importantly, from losing its space. So far, Peila said, both Fram and DCAS have said they hare willing to negotiate but neither has made an offer.

“We’re a viable business if we have that,” Peila said. “We’re not asking for zero rent, and we’re not asking for the city to pay our arrears or our rent. We’re not doing any of that. We just want a reasonable compromise.”

Mark Daly, director of communications for DCAS, declined to comment on the matter. A representative from Fram Realty did not return calls seeking comment.

“There’s great irony here,” said Richard Reiss, a member of the DNA’s board of trustees and its lead attorney. “Instead of acting for the public good and allowing a non-profit to thrive, the city is using its unique power to deny DNA that opportunity, which is nuts.”

DNA, said Peila, brings approximately 32,000 people to its space every year for performances and exhibitions, resulting in “at least $750,000 annually for local businesses.”

As an incentive to move Downtown during the revitalization of the arts in Lower Manhattan, DNA agreed to relocate from Soho in 2004. From 2004 to 2007, the organization received $4 million in taxpayer-funded grants from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to renovate the two-story space it occupies today.

But, Peila said, delays on the city’s part to actually deliver the grant money forced DNA to use up the free year of rent it had been given, evaporating any chance the organization had of building up a financial cushion by the time it opened in 2006. Also, she said, the city rescinded almost a quarter of DNA’s grant money—$737,000—in 2009, leaving its lobby and several other plans within the space unfinished. Peila said those hardships, combined with a monthly rent of $68,945 and a crippling recession, conspired to sink the group into debt.

Recently, Peila said, DNA has sought the assistance of local elected officials, including State Senator Daniel Squadron, City Councilwoman Margaret Chin and Council Speaker Christine Quinn, in coaxing both DCAS and Fram Realty into a negotiation.

If DNA is forced out, it won’t only mean a loss of work for the organization’s 18 full-time staffers and more than 250 freelance instructors, choreographers, technicians, visual artists and musicians. Long-time users of the group’s classes and rehearsal spaces say the loss of DNA would take an heavy emotional toll on some 8,000 students and artists that have found a creative community within its studios and performance hall.

“It would be a loss of family,” said Martha Chapman, a DNA trustee who has taught ballet with the organization since 1997. “This training ground is unique in fostering the connection between being a student and being a performer or a choreographer. That link would be lost; our unique little nugget of who we are would be lost.”

Thrae Harris, 63, who has been taking classes with DNA for 20 years, said the organization’s teachers brought her back to dancing after she stopped performing professionally when she was still in her 20s.

“I feel very loyal,” she said, “and I don’t think it’s replaceable.”

For now, Peila said, all DNA can do is continue to tout its contribuitions, both as a creative outlet and a revenue generator for Downtown businesses. Peila said DNA brings approximately 32,000 people to its space every year for performances and exhibitions, resulting in “at least $750,000 annually for local businesses.”

“If it’s important to the city and to the landlord to want a vibrant Lower Manhattan, then we need to stay here,” Peila said. “If we go away, who’s going to do what we do?”