On Monday, she got the call that they were being shut down. Alana stood motionless at her kitchen table, a million thoughts running through her mind. She was unable to move, overwhelmed by disbelief. Her childhood dance studio was being shut down. Miss Nicole, the owner, had run the studio for over 50 years and passed away a few months earlier from stage 4 breast cancer.

“No one would step up and take over the studio, so they had to shut it down,” read a Facebook post.

Alana immediately called her best friend, who she made at the Studio of Dance.

“SOPHIA, Have you gotten the call?”

“She called me a few minutes ago.” Sophia said mumbling through her sadness

They stayed on the phone with each other for hours, talking about the memories they had together at the studio, laughing and crying as they remembered the good times.

After a few hours of countless conversations, Sophia had to go to work. She worked at CLI conservatory, a 10 month pre-professional dance training program, which Sophia and Alana had been to during high school together.

Alana went for a drive to the studio and as she pulled into the parking lot, she began to reminisce about every tiny and momentous moment she had experienced there. She sat and stared off through the windows at the dark interior. It looked like no sign of life had ever existed inside the building.

But Alana remembered.

She remembered the loud, funky jazz music always playing. The crisp clicking and clacking of tap shoes across the marley floor.

It was never quiet at the Studio of Dance, but for once it was. There was no longer any music, no tap shoes, or a parking lot filled with cars. There was only silence.

But, there were also endless memories and stories.

The silence surrounding her inspired her to keep the studio open.

Immediately, she grabbed her phone from across the car and called Miss Nicole’s daughter, who had made the decision to shut down the studio after her mother’s passing.

“I will do it! I want the studio to stay open and give every kid the experience that your mother gave to me,” Alana exclaimed, without a stutter in her words.

“It’s all yours,” she replied.

And there it began, a few weeks later she bought all new dance equipment and made the Studio of Dance the place where she grew up and discovered her passion for dance. Sophia decided to join her in the journey of owning the Studio of Dance because she too discovered her passion for the arts there and she wanted to give the same opportunity to future dancers. So, together, they became the owners of Studio of Dance.

A year went by of hardworking preparation with hundreds of construction workers in and out of the future Studio of Dance. They put new lockers up on the walls, new Marley on all the floors, and made it colorful throughout the entire building. As months passed by, Alana’s excitement became greater when she got to see the studio light up again. She imagined the joyful dancers coming in everyday and getting to spend every afternoon dancing, just like she did when she was younger.

On opening day, the sun was shining brighter than it had since Miss Nicole passed away. Alana and Sophia stood by the doors and watched hundreds of kids walk through the doors with colorful leotards and bright pink skirts. The building that had once been silent was filled with music again. The tap shoes began to click and clack across the floor. Laughter echoed through the halls.

For the first time in a year, the Studio of Dance was alive again.