It’s almost impossible to meet a girl who hasn’t taken a dance class at some point in their life. For some of those girls, they quit after a few years. For the rest (including boys) they continue it for fun. They even might become more serious about dancing, joining a competition team or training to be a professional ballerina. Within that time, you often spend more time at the studio than your own home. The studio becomes your home. Non-dancers may not understand this, but dancers know exactly what I mean. Keep reading to discover the significance of a room with a mirror and a barre.

1. You spend all of your time there

In my case as well as many others, I’m at my studio more than my actual home. We basically go straight from school to dance for however long we have that day, and get home late at night. Days we don’t spend more than four hours at the studio become downright strange.

2. Your teachers and the dancers are your second family

If you have a friend who’s a dancer, you’ve probably heard them say the words “Dance Family.” When you spend so much time with the same group of people every week, you become pretty close. Dancers see each other at their best (performing) and at their worst (after a long day of rehearsal). The majority of my best friends I’ve met through dance (shout out to Bailey) and my teachers have given me enough advice to last a life time (thank you Miss Dana, Miss Jenna, Miss Eileen, and Miss Ashlee). Your teachers watch you grow up, make mistakes, learn from those mistakes and thrive. Without their guidance, I would not be who I am today.

3. The studio is a safe haven

For a dancer, there’s no place safer than their studio, which is ironic considering the amount of injuries that happen there. No matter what is happening in your life, you could always go to the studio. Dancing for a few hours could make even the darkest days happy. There’s no bullies, no tests and no one trying to tear you down. Everyone is there to see you succeed and make you smile.

4. Half of your closet is dance clothes and logo wear from your studio

Most of my closet consists of spandex shorts, sports bras and anything that has the name of my studio on it. I wear my company sweatpants and jacket on a regular basis.

5. It’s where you learned to do hair and makeup

I learned how to do a bun and eye shadow because of competition hair and makeup. If it wasn’t for those days spent figuring how to wear our hair for competition, I wouldn’t know how to do half of the styles I do on a regular basis and I wouldn’t know how eye liner works.

6. It's where you made all of your favorite memories

When I think about my favorite memories, so many of them happened inside of the studio. Whether it was nailing a hard turn-sequence, or your teacher saying something that made absolutely no sense. Whenever you had good news, your dance family is who you tell first.

7. It gives you something to love

No matter what was happening in your life outside, dance always gave you something to make you smile and love. Everything disappears once the music starts.

8. The best time of year is competition and recital season

Spending 12+ hours in an auditorium and dressing room may sound awful to you, but it’s a dancer's favorite part of the year. All the glitter, costumes, and bobby pins make us smile from ear-to-ear. If you look at the pictures on our phones, I guarantee 50 percent of them are from recitals or competition. Even though the months leading up to it are full of stress regarding the perfection of your dances, it’s all worth it when you step on stage.

9. It may be what we do for the rest of our life

Not everyone wants to become a professional dancer, that’s understandable. So many of us dream of becoming professionals, and even if we don’t, we find ways to keep dancing well beyond our graduation.

10. It taught us to never give up

Being a dancer isn’t easy. It seems effortless on stage, but in reality, what you see took years of endless training and it’s still never perfect. No matter how many times we fell out of a turn, we knew we had to get back up and keep trying. That stays with us in everything we do because we were taught nothing comes without trying.

Leaving my studio will no doubt be the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’m so thankful for everything dance has given me since I was two, and I know I will always have a family there no matter how old I get. Family, especially your dance family, lasts forever.