Students to sing, dance and act in holiday musical at Boys & Girls Club
By Eliav Appelbaum eliav@theacorn.com

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers LIMBERING UP- Caitlin Cauffiel 11, a student in the musical theater class at GottaDance Academy in Simi Valley, rehearses for a holiday benefit show Saturday at the Boys & Girls Club on Lemon Drive. The class is putting together a dance/musical production with all proceeds going to children and adults in need.

Ryan Schultze wanted to find a way for his dance students to use their talents to help others in the community.

So the musical theater instructor at Simi Valley's GottaDance Academy put together a holiday show that will feature singing, dancing and acting and a toy and canned food drive.

What began as a small winter recital of five dances put on by one class has blossomed into a full-on holiday production- 25 dances performed by 50 students.

The event will be this Saturday, Dec. 15 at 1 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Club at 2850 Lemon Drive.

Upon entry, guests will be asked to donate a new toy or canned goods, which will be forwarded to Toys for Tots and a local food bank.

"I thought it would be so much more fun to do something for the community," said Schultze, a 2003 graduate of Santa Susana High School. "I wanted to teach my students the power of giving to others."

Schultze's musical theater students will join forces with students from the school's variety of dance classes, including jazz, hip-hop and tap, to present an eclectic musical program. Both traditional holiday music and contemporary tunes will be featured.

Given the opportunity to come up with their own dance routines, the students jumped at the chance, Schultze said. Eight dances have been choreographed solely by the students. Most of the others have been arranged by the five teachers at GottaDance.

"When I first announced we were doing this, a group of girls took an entire Saturday to choreograph a dance," Schultze said. He's been working at the studio since it opened in 2003, when he was still a senior at Santa Susana. "They said, 'Mr. Ryan, we spent all day doing this dance. We can't wait to show you.'"

While the teacher hopes his students learn the lesson of giving, he's thankful he's had the opportunity to help the musical theatre students try out different areas of performance.

"What I enjoy most about this is I get to teach kids new and exciting things that they don't usually get to learn," Schultze said. "Most kids who come to the dance studio learn different genres of dance. With my program, I get to teach them singing, dancing and acting. I get to teach them how to create characters and really perform on stage.

"I'd like the community to come out and support this cause. We hope everyone helps out. It's always good to be giving something back."