The e-mail from Shall We Dance founder Ingrid Tower arrived the night of Aug. 18 and began: "With great passion for all forms of movement arts and my love for partner dancing, I created Shall We Dance studio with the help of my children and many dance professionals."

She goes on to describe her concurrent two-year involvement with Dancing Classrooms, a nationwide program in schools that instills self-esteem through ballroom dance, as exemplified by the Antonio Banderas feature film Take the Lead, in which she's worked wtih 2,400 Monterey County students, she writes. "

My commitment to this program which impacts our youth, regretfully no longer allows me to serve two masters. While I will continue my work and complete dedication to Dancing Classrooms, it is with sadness that I have to inform you that I will no longer be able to carry on the vision of Shall We Dance."

She writes that she hopes someone else will carry on her four-year commitment to the second-story Pacific Grove dance studio, through which many people passed to learn tango, belly dancing, swing, ballet, hip-hop dancing and more, and offers to honor various commitments through September while inviting the public to commemorate their run with a final milonga party Sept. 4 and a West Coast swing party later in the month.

The "farewell" e-mail ends with a stanza from Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance": ""I hope you never lose your sense of wonder, and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance... I hope you dance."