Officials at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have ordered an inspection for the dance studios after complaints about dirty conditions and dancers coming down with rashes.

The old wooden dance building sits in the middle of the athletics facilities. Sometimes stray softballs find their way in.

Students said the floor is often dirty and dangerous.

"The ends are coming up. We're tripping over it. We're hurting our toes on it all the time. Every day somebody falls over it, trips over it," said graduate student Tiana Krohn-Ching.

The ceiling fans are dusty and and there are unwanted pests as well.

"At least once a day there are little dust bunnies that fall to the floor. Termite droppings, gecko droppings all over the place," Krohn-Ching said.

The dancers come in close contact with the floor. At the start of the semester last month, several developed rashes on their bodies.

"Arms, legs, somebody got it around their eye and that gets scary," said Gregg Lizenbery, chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance.

It is unclear exactly what caused the problem.

Graduate student Jennifer McGowan said she has gotten rashes several times.

"I'll get tiny red bumps up my arms and they itch and that'll come and go," she said.

"We do keep telling people, 'We've gotta clean this. We've gotta do it.' I have orders in all the time. Faculty puts in orders to have things cleaned but they're understaffed," Lizenbery said.

Now the school has ordered an inspection for any immediate danger, and there will also be added cleanups.

"They will in the next few days take high-powered vacuum cleaners and thoroughly clean out the facility to rid it of droppings and any other problems that they might have. That's only a short-term solution," said UH Manoa spokesman Gregg Takayama.

Takayama said the dance studio will be tented for termites this summer. The university's long-term solution is to expand Kennedy Theatre to make room for dance classes.

The school is asking lawmakers for $3.6 million to complete the design. Students just hope one day their classroom conditions won't keep them on their toes.

"We have degrees that we're trying to get that are just as important as science or athletics or anything," McGowan said.

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