FAIRPORT, NY – For many children, extracurricular activities are a pleasure and a way to spend time with friends.

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

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

“I was 22 when I opened the studio. Probably a bit young and naive. But I had such passion,” said Lucas.

It quickly became more than that.

“Building a family within a family,” she said. “Giving the children a safe place, a place where they can leave all their worries behind.”

One of these children is Makayla Houd. Not only does she love dancing, she also met her best friends through dancing.

“Dancing really makes me feel like myself,” she said. “I just don’t feel like myself at school or anywhere else. But dancing makes me feel like myself.”

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

“It’s a safe place. Everyone loves everyone. Our teachers are friends. They’re our family. And, you know, it’s always OK to be yourself,” she said.

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

The seniors dance 15 hours a week. The intensive training pays off in other ways too.

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

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

Lucas says it’s not about trophies or making someone a world-class dancer. It’s about the sense of community and inspiring the passion of each student.

Makayla and her classmate Adriana Petrov tell me that they look up to and rely on the older students, and one day they hope to offer that to others.

“They can really show us how it’s done, the way the girls look up to us, the way we look up to them,” she said.

Lucas plans to leave the studio to her daughter, but not immediately.

“My dad asked me the other day, ‘When are you going to retire?’ And I thought to myself, ‘What am I going to do? I can’t. I think I’d get bored.'”

The school is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year – and Lucas is hoping for another 40.

Further information about the studio can be found here.