As oversize scissors closed upon the red ribbon, a man in a white tank top burst from the front door of the new two-story, angular building, windows stretching from ground to roof.

His arms arced upward, his hands parted the air like a swimmer, his chest heaved forward. He twirled onto the ground, then slid upright to an African djembe, cymbal and accordion.

Other white-clad figures filed out behind him, as yet another group ran across the street to dance along trees and the stone wall of Duke’s East Campus.

Hundreds spilled into Broad Street on a hot July afternoon to watch the American Dance Festival’s latest premiere: the opening of ADF’s Samuel H. Scripps Studios, the group’s new $1.5 million home.

“This is a sensation,” said Charles Reinhart, ADF founder and director until last year. “We’re no longer nomads of the world. We have a building to enjoy. ... Everyone, dance your hearts out!”

The American Dance Festival brings modern dance companies from throughout the world to Durham each summer. Seven new companies will debut during this year’s schedule, which features two U.S. premieres and six world premieres.

The two new studios on the second floor of the building near the corner of Markham and Broad streets – the first real estate the festival owns – will allow ADF to offer year-round classes. The first floor will house a bakery run by Amy Tornquist, owner of the Watts Grocery restaurant down the street.

Classes for all ages will start in September and will focus on individual expression, creative collaboration and self-discovery, said Jodee Nimerichter, the current director. Adult individual classes will cost $15, with five-class passes $65.

“We want to be as affordable as possible,” she said.

The studios are named for the late Samuel H. Scripps, a former ADF board member and the founder of the Samuel H. Scripps Foundation, a New York City-based foundation that funds cultural and arts programs.

Lead donor Richard Feldman, president of the foundation and an ADF board member, contributed more than half of the building costs. The group will begin a campaign next year to help fund the studio classes and cover ongoing building expenses, Nimerichter said.

More than 400 students come to Durham each summer to take classes from the festival’s 50 faculty members. Monday’s performance featured 60 dancers, many of them students in the workshops.

They stared ahead blankly as onlookers walked past them while touring the new building. Some slid up and down the staircase, gliding in and out of a series of poses as a dancer commanded: “arch,” “break,” “relax,” “sit up.” Other groups, all in white, kicked and hopped and moved freely within the glass walls of their new studios.

The piece was choreographed and directed in part by Mark Dendy, who wanted to showcase the building’s architecture, the ADF’s emphasis on collaboration and the new studios’ role in helping people discover new things.

“I was a guide to put it together, arrange it,” he said. “It was a circular thing, focusing on a new model ... what we can’t do alone, we do together.”

Dancers learned the choreography in three days, and many trained indoors and out in the triple-digit-heat for 12 hours over the weekend.

“He really wanted us to connect with nature and how it relates to the community,” said √Anna Hulse, 19, from Baltimore, Md., who’s also taking festival classes this summer.

Melissa Feather danced among the trees. The 24-year-old from Austin, Texas, another student, said she wanted to show how we can support the trees and they can support us.

“I thought of it as a protective thing,” she said, “kind of like a duet with the tree.”