Day-Hay has been dancing since she was three. It all started for two reasons. First, she is an active child and, because we have a small house and live where the winters are long and rough, she needed a place to run, skip, hop, and jump. Second, she is a second child. She needed something of her own, something that she could talk about without Kat saying, �I�ve done that before� or �When I was doing that....� Dance has become very much a part of Day-Hay and she spends hours at home listening to CDs and working out dance routines.

In the past four years or so, Day-Hay has been dancing with a group of kids a year or more older than she is. They have performed at malls and festivals and she has loved it. The generally shy and reticent Day-Hay has discovered that she like performing as long as she can do it as part of a group. Unfortunately, the performing is coming to an end. Changes at her studio are forcing her to chose between becoming a stage child and remaining a child who dances. Day-Hay has chosen to be a child who dances. While I believe it a wise decision, I�m very, very sorry she has to make the choice.

I picked the dance studio Day-Hay dances at years ago for its philosophy then. This studio gave very solid dance instruction with the idea it was teaching dance to improve life skills. If you really wanted to be a dancer and you had talent, the instructors could give you a solid enough training to allow you to move on to other places and make it. A few kids I know have done so. But what set this place apart was its emphasis on every day kids who simply liked to dance. It taught them movement and discipline. It gave them challenges and opportunities to explore themselves and what they were capable of.

The studio changed hands last year. I had been through one change of ownership before so I expected that more than the ownership would change. The last change took the place from a small, two-studio place that taught only ballet, tap, and jazz to a much larger, four-studio place that also taught hip-hop, pilates, and yoga. The last change of ownership created a place with more emphasis on performing and performance but still with the idea that all should be able to participate and that performance itself was a learning experience.

The new owners, however, probably are better business people but they seem to have a different sense of mission. The dance training itself, if anything, has gotten more rigorous. I don�t really object to that per se. Day-Hay, who takes ballet, tap, jazz and hip-hop, is at the studio approximately four hours a week. If she were not tiny and not as physically ready to go on pointe as some of the others in her group, she probably would be there closer to five-and-a-half hours a week. All of a sudden, however, to perform outside of an every other year recital, you must take additional classes, buy additional costumes and pay a lot of additional money.

For Day-Hay to perform in each type of dance she does, as she has in past years, we would have to pay and additional $500 for the year. If she had chosen to perform in only one type of dance, we would have had all the driving to performances for one appearance but it would have cost only $200 for the year. That part would hurt but would be possible. Even under the old system, I would have accepted paying for the pre-show additional rehearsal times. I did not believe the teachers should have to bear those costs.

The bigger, and ultimately insurmountable, hurdle is that she would have to come four additional hours a week over two additional days. While coming for ballet on Friday evening would be a problem, the bigger problem is devoting an hour or two or three to dance late every Saturday afternoon.

Saturday is the one day that this family has no regularly scheduled activities. It is the day that my very social daughter usually spends either with family or with friends. It is the time that is not scheduled in which she can be just a kid. It is the day when her parents are not usually scrambling and rushing. A little bit of homework aside, it is the day she can play or dream or create. It is the day for Day-Hay to be just a kid.

I did not decide what Day-Hay should do. I pointed out the pros and cons and let her make her own decision. Did she want to keep the time to be just a kid or perform? I admit to relief when she chose to be just a kid. I was not relishing giving up my Saturdays the way that another choice would have required. I was not relishing giving up the money.

Day-Hay chose to be just a kid. I support that choice whole-heartedly. But I still wish she had not had to make it.

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