Mareck Center for Dance has closed the curtain in Columbia, but two employees are picking up the torch to keep ballet in Columbia.

Columbia Ballet Academy is set to begin classes Sept. 2, just two days after the center's closing. Alec Roch, the executive director, and Sophia Myers, the operations manager, said the news of the closing was unexpected.

"When I first heard, just absolutely shocked and heart broken," Myers said, "thinking about the professional dancers, the students and some of our amazing programs, like DanceAbility."

One former student of the dance center, who will now be a student at the academy said she felt the same way as her teachers.

"I was really sad," Effie Barnett said. "I was wondering if there was going to be a studio anymore or if there wasn't going to be a st

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