“I can’t say I’m happy about that,” said Joy Zinoman, who will take the newly independent conservatory to a new location.

For 33 years choreographer Heidi Duckler has staged dance performances at far-flung and unexpected locales, from an abandoned Studio City gas station to the Frank Gehry-designed Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro. Her next destination: a hospital campus in South L.A. Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre...