165 West 57th Street, originally the Louis H. Chalif Normal School of Dancing headquarters, is a building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.

Carl Fischer Music acquired the building in 1946 and had a shop and performance hall there until 1959, when it was sold to Columbia Artists Management Inc (CAMI).

It is also near the Saint Thomas Choir School to the northwest; the American Fine Arts Society (also known as the Art Students League of New York building) and the Osborne Apartments to the west; the Rodin Studios to the southwest; Carnegie Hall and Carnegie Hall Tower to the south; and Russian Tea Room, Metropolitan Tower, and 130 and 140 West 57th Street to the southeast.

[4][5] The Louis H. Chalif Normal School of Dancing building at 165 West 57th Street was designed by George A. and Henry Boehm.

As built, it had a first-floor reception area, a second-floor ballroom, a third-floor banquet hall, a fourth-floor living space for Chalif's family, and a fifth-floor gymnasium and solarium.

There were windows on the side facades,[15] The terracotta decorations contain classical Greek and Roman motifs, some of which relate to theater.

The entrance consisted of a pair of recessed wooden doors, above which was a transom and letters spelling Chalif's name.

The westernmost section of the facade had an additional recessed service doorway at ground level and a small window at the height of the band course.

In addition, there is a polished-granite ramp and step leading to the center doorway, and the sconces flanking the main entrance are darker in color.

To the east (right) of that bay, the second story has a pair of round-arched windows surrounded by brick and terracotta, with carvings of female heads above them.

[19] When it was used by the Chalif School, the ground floor had a large wooden reception foyer, which led to the stairs and elevators.

[9][10] The school was initially situated on the Upper West Side and then at 360 Fifth Avenue inside the Aeolian Company's showroom.

[8] At the school, one of the first in the United States to train dance instructors, Chalif also taught children and amateur dancers.

[21][22] Chalif acquired the adjacent 19-by-100-foot (5.8 by 30.5 m) lot at 163 West 57th Street, which also contained a four-story dwelling, from the Wilmurt Realty Company in May 1915.

[27] The building also hosted a meeting for the Women's Freedom Congress in 1919,[28] as well as the Roosevelt Anniversary Ball[29] and a dance for the Semper Fidelis Post's female marines in 1921.

[31] The building also hosted the 21st birthday celebration of Dutch princess Juliana of the Netherlands in 1930,[32] and the weddings of Louis's daughter Helen in 1928[33] and 1934.

[36] Chalif's son Amos, who grew up in the building, said it had been "a wonderful place to grow up", as he learned to ride a bicycle there with his brother Selmer accompanying him.

[39] Afterward, the building was occupied by Galy Russian Art Gowns, as well as the Vanity Fair Theater Restaurant and Georgian Hall.

[41] That December, the New York state government sued to disband the organization as fraudulent, accusing the officers and directors of using disabled persons solely for fundraising.

In 1947, five disabled students taking classed with the federation became the first-ever palsy and paralysis victims to receive diplomas from the New York City public school system.

The musical programming at the hall was directed by Eric Simon, who invited composers such as Benjamin Britten and John Cage to perform there.

[14] Other events included a series of lectures by the Fashion Group Inc. in 1950,[53] as well as a showcase in 1956 for performers who completed a two-year course with the American Theatre Wing.

The Fischer company planned to move to Cooper Square and Columbia Artists was relocating from the nearby Steinway Hall.

[55] CAMI hired William Lescaze to remodel portions of the building, including at the ground story, where red mosaic tiles and new signage were added.

[14] Shortly afterward, Arthur Judson decided to leave CAMI, and he requested that his name be removed from the concert hall.

Ronald A. Wilford, president of CAMI in the 1990s, was quoted in The New York Times as "cast[ing] a long shadow from the music canyon of West 57th Street".

[7] At the time, Extell Development Company president Gary Barnett was acquiring several nearby plots to build a residential skyscraper, which would later become One57.

[73] According to architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern, the "Tuscan overtones" of the design "responded with refinement to the less tutored Italianate vocabulary of Carnegie Hall".

[11] The same year, in his textbook about Russian pageants and dancing, Chalif advertised the building as being "unparalleled for its purposes in America" as well as "striking evidence" of the school's success.

[76] An early 1930s catalog for the Chalif School advertised the building as being a "spacious and beautiful" dancing facility that received many architectural accolades.