Earlier this week, Megan Luquire cried during a tap dance. It wasn't the first time her emotions had gotten the better of her, nor would it be the last.

In a week filled with as many tears as tutus, her preparations for the 30th anniversary recital of the Augusta West Dance Studio have meant more than merely organizing young dancers and their routines. It has also been about respecting tradition, recognizing transition and paying tribute to a departing mentor who has played an important part in her life, both professionally and personally.

Ms. Luquire and her business partner, Merry Beckham, recently purchased Augusta West from Dianne Clements, who opened the studio in 1978. More than a mere financial transaction, the sale has proven to be an emotional process begun officially two years ago and unofficially when both girls entered Augusta West as students.

Recognizing that 2008 would mark both the 30th anniversary of the studio and her 65th birthday, Ms. Clements began making plans to sell her business in 2006. Not willing to sell to strangers, she approached two star students and instructors, Ms. Beckham and Ms. Luquire, and asked whether they would like to take the reins. In preparation, the pair served as co-artistic directors for the studio's four performance companies and shadowed Ms. Clements.

"I felt that they had been trained in the philosophy of Augusta West," Ms. Clements said. "They understand both the discipline and the love. Every dancer here knows that Merry and Megan love them. They also know the discipline they teach is important."

Although never intended to be a school for training professional performers, Augusta West has turned out several dancers that went on to have successful careers. Sutton Foster won a Tony Award for her role in the Broadway production of Thoroughly Modern Millie and Karen Boyd Bethel, who returned for the 30th anniversary celebrations, is a Radio City Music Hall Rockette.

"I'm proud to have been able to receive this gift," Ms. Bethel said. "I mean, dance is a luxury and I know I was lucky, so lucky, that my parents brought me to a studio like this. I was a shy child, and dance was my outlet. This was a family for me. Without it, who knows where I would have been?" It's that sort of connection, Ms. Clements said, that has made the decision to sell both painful and pleasant.

"It has been emotional," she said. "I mean, it's a situation where I really have not felt 30 years have gone by. This has been my life and these, these have been my babies. Babies that I have watched grow up and move on. Babies whose weddings I have gone to."

Ms. Beckham says it's been important for her to hear that students and instructors are comfortable with her and Ms. Luquire taking over.

The partners admit that the purchase was not a decision they entered into lightly. Not only did taking over mean the responsibilities involved in running a business, it also brought the responsibility of preserving the progress made by Ms. Clements.

"It is overwhelming," Ms. Luquire said. "There have been so many memories, important memories, great memories, created here. Now it has become our responsibility to keep creating those kinds of memories."

The pair are already planning on expanding Augusta West.

"We've already had a conversation with the banker," Ms. Beckham said. "We want to be able to open up the studio with more programs, particularly programs for kids with disabilities."

Success, Ms. Luquire said, probably won't be measured in dollars and cents.

"My hope is that one day I can sit here, after 30 years, just like Dianne and understand that I have also touched thousands of lives," she said.