DOWAGIAC — Local residents will have a chance to experience the rhythm, rhyme and beat of the holiday season this weekend, as the MKSOD Positively Dance team will present its biennial Christmas-themed performance Saturday.

The local competitive and performance dance teams will perform their “The Spirit of Christmas” show on Saturday, with performances at 1 and 6 p.m. inside the Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center, at 57072 Riverside Drive. Tickets to the performances cost $10 for adults and $7 for students, and can be purchased at the door or at the MKSOD studio in Dowagiac, 141 S. Front St.

Nearly 100 performers, including the 42 members of Positively Dance and 49 students with the MKSOD’s three studios in Dowagiac, Niles and Decatur, will be performing on the middle school stage Saturday. Joining them will be five student actors with Dowagiac Union High School, who will playing out scenes from the Christmas-themed storyline of the show, as well as four drummers with the Chieftain Band, who will play along with a rendition of “The Little Drummer Boy.”

The performance — organized every other year by the dance studio — will include 34 total dance numbers, which are centered around the story of a family who, having struggled to get into the holiday spirit, take a special journey to discover what the Christmas season is all about, said Jodi Rosenthal, a member of the Positively Dance Boosters Board and one of the organizers of Saturday’s show.

“It’s a good, family-friendly show that reinforces the meaning of Christmas,” Rosenthal said.

Members of Positively Dance, MKSOD’s competitive team, have been practicing for the Christmas show since September, spending every Saturday and the occasional Sunday in rehearsals, Rosenthal said. Other students with the dance studio have been preparing since October.

The show will cap off an exciting year for Positively Dance, which is comprised of dance students hailing from Dowagiac, Niles, Decatur and other communities in the area, Rosenthal said. In addition to appearing at the 2017 DanZa Nationals competition in Wisconsin in July, members of the team traveled to New York City in August, where they performed at Battery Park, participated in several workshops and toured the iconic Radio City Music Hall, among other activities.

In addition to the performances on Saturday, the dance students will also host a special performance inside the auditorium for local elementary students on Friday, Rosenthal said.

“Doing this show lets us show people what the performing arts all are all about,” Rosenthal said. “It’s an outlet for the kids as well. Christmas is a special time for them, so this is a chance for them to express themselves through dance.”

On top of the two shows, the public is also invited to join the dance team for a taco bar and hotdog dinner, from 4 to 5 p.m. Saturday, in between performances at the middle school. Dinner will cost $5 for adults and $3 for children.

Positively Dance is under the direction of Kathy Miller, and program coordinators Mary Green and Mallory Cox.

For additional information, people may call the Dowagiac studio at (269) 782-7869 or email info@mksod.net.