The Dance Institute’s Christmas Spectacular on Dec. 13 will put on a show Hill Country Galleria shoppers would kick themselves for ignoring.

Fifty dancers from the performance dance company will take over the street between the galleria’s amphitheater and Bee Cave Public Library to share the spirit of Christmas. The event takes place from from 4-6 p.m.
“The show will lift everybody up and help them understand the meaning of Christmas,” producer Heather O’Hara said. “It shows the miracle of giving to kids and lets them see what Christmas is really all about through giving.”
The performance tells the story of Susie Lyn, a little girl whose only Christmas wish is to see a Christmas spectacular, which will feature all styles of dance from jazz to musical theater to lyrical and even ballroom.
Santa will show off some dance moves that he learned from the elves at the North Pole, and then the institute’s youngest dancers dressed as Rudolph reindeers will perform “Run, Run Rudolph.”
Audiences will get a kick out of a Rockette-style number by the institute’s senior elite company of students ages 7 to 10. The dance is based on O’Hara’s experiences as a New York City Rockette.
Dancers from the institute’s teen elite company of 9- to 12-year-olds will add some spunk, and an adult couple will grace the stage with a ballroom-style dance.
“They basically combine to make Susie Lyn’s dream come true,” O’Hara said.
The institute will bring out chairs for audience members to watch the show. O’Hara, who will direct the show with Beth Ann Hawley and Michelle Stuckey, said about 250 people watched last year’s Christmas Spectacular that was done by the Broadway Performance Academy.
This year’s Christmas Spectacular is the debut of Dance Institute’s Performance Academy, said studio owner Linda Holland.
“It’s very festive. It’s colorful. The music is fun toe-tapping,” Holland said. “You’ll be singing along with the show and getting in the holiday mood.”