Inside 4 the Love of Dance’s studio, a student comes in early to practice his hip-hop routine with his instructor and young girls in pink leotards run to their tap dance class. Their black shoes make clicking sounds as they enter the classroom. The girls say loudly, “Hi Miss Kristin.” Kristin Shepherd has been dancing all her life, doing everything from tap dance to contemporary. “I’ve always loved to dance competitively, and that’s all I knew,” Shepherd said. “And then I stopped to get married and have kids.” When her youngest child started school, Shepherd said her husband encouraged her to go back into dance and open her own studio. After a couple of years teaching dance at a Plano dance studio, Shepherd finally decided to open her own studio in Frisco, known as 4 the Love of Dance, in 2014. At 4 the Love of Dance, Shepherd and her instructors teach children ages 2-14 a variety of dance genres, such as ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, jazz and lyrical. Last year for the first time, Shepherd put together a dance team, which had performances at Six Flags as well as Frisco RoughRiders and Texas Legends games. “We’re trying to expand [the team] and get into more community events because our dance team is recreational, and we’re not competitive,” Shepherd said. Shepherd said she would like the dance team to do at least six to eight performances a year. She has plans to create a team with younger dancers. “We want them to have a good number of exposure and to perform more without it completely taking over their lives,” Shepherd said. Although Shepherd spent a lot of her life dancing, she said she never expected dance to become her career. “Dance is the foundation, of course, but what really keeps me going is the kids,” Shepherd said. “Now that we’ve been open for four years, we can see the ones that started with us from the beginning and how far they’ve come. I love seeing them perform, and seeing their progress is awesome.” 4 the Love of Dance 4681 Ohio Drive, Ste. 116, Frisco 972-658-7247 www.4theloveofdancefrisco.com Hours: Mon.-Sat. 1 a.m.-8 p.m., closed Sun.