FAIRPORT, N.Y. – For many kids, extracurricular activities are what they do for fun and to be with friends.

For others, it’s a way to express themselves. For students at Fitzsimmons Dance Factory in Fairport, it’s both.

When Lauri Lucas opened the place, she wanted to create a place to share her love for and knowledge of dance.

“I was 22 when I started the studio. Also, a bit young and naïve, probably. But I had such a passion,” Lucas said.

Quickly, it became more than that.

“Building a family within a family,” she said. “Giving the kids a safe place, a place to put all their worries behind them.”

One of those kids is Makayla Houd. She not only loves to dance. It’s also how she met her best friends.

“I really, like, feel like me when I am doing dance,” she said. “Like, at school or, like, somewhere else, I just don’t feel me. But at dance, I do.”

Although Madeline Fries has been dancing for much longer than Makayla, she feels the same way.

“It’s a safe space. Like, everyone loves each other. Our teachers are friends. They’re our family. And, you know, it’s always just okay to be you,” she said.

The studio offers a variety of styles, classes, and teachers. Students travel all over to compete and have won many national titles.

The seniors dance 15 hours a week. All that practice pays off in other ways, as well.

“It’s really helped me become more confident in myself and helped me, like, break out of my shell because I know I used to be like super shy, like, barely talked,” Catie Rafoth said. “And now, it’s just, I don’t know, it just comes easy.”

“We’re always taught to, like, leave everything at the door,” Ava Daniels said. “If we’ve had a bad day, leave everything out the door, and like just be in the present moment. That’s something I’ve really learned and focused on a lot.”

Lucas says it’s not about the trophies or turning someone into a world-class dancer. It’s about the feeling of community and stoking every student’s passion.

Makayla and her classmate Adriana Petrov tell me they look up to the older students and lean on them for guidance. One day, they want to provide that for others.

“They really can show us how to do it, like the girls looking up to us like we did to them,” she said.

Lucas plans to let her daughter take over the studio, but not just yet.

“My dad just asked me the other day, ‘When are you going to retire?’ And I’m like, what would I do? I can’t. I think I would be bored.”

The school is celebrating 40 years this year – and Lucas hopes for 40 more.

More information about the studio is available here.