Give a kid a stage and she or he will perform for a day. Teach a kid to dance and she or he will perform for a lifetime.

Give a dancer a cause for which to perform and you've got "A Season for Wishes."

"You focus on teaching proper dance and proper technique, but also how to perform," said Lisa Kalinowski, the founder and artistic director of Lititz Academy of Dance. "We liken it to dancing from the inside out and dancing with your heart, and that can be a process. When you do it, it becomes so much more fun and so much more free."

Lititz Academy of Dance's CoJoMotion Dance Company will present this year's edition of its annual holiday recital, "A Season for Wishes," at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13, at Lancaster Mennonite School's High Fine Arts Center, 2176 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster. Tickets can be purchased prior to the event at https://tinyurl.com/4xdps66w or at the door the day of the performance.

All proceeds from "A Season for Wishes" will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Philadelphia, Delaware and the Susquehanna Valley.

"I love Christmas, I love dance, and I love this charity," said Kalinowski. "Seeing the transformation of these kids and what it means to them is amazing. To see them giving it their all is incredible. When the senior girls bring the big check on stage and reveal how much we've made, the kids are sobbing and crying. To see what it means to them, I can't even tell you what it does to my heart."

Consisting of more than 20 dance routines - from the genres of ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, modern, hip-hop, musical theater and Rockette style - "A Season for Wishes" will take about 150 minutes to perform. During a 20-minute intermission, this year's amount raised for Make-A-Wish Foundation will be unveiled.

"It's the most beautiful, joyous and heartwarming kickoff to the holidays possible," said Kalinowski. "There's beautiful dance, beautiful singing and heartwarming stories from families who have been touched by Make-A-Wish. Sometimes it's pure joy; sometimes there's not a dry eye in the audience. It's the gamut of emotions. We always have Make-A-Wish families speak."

More than 40 dancers from Lititz Academy of Dance's CoJoMotion Dance Company will perform at "A Season for Wishes." The performers range in age from 11 to 18 and attend school at Warwick, Manheim Township, Conestoga Valley, Manheim Central, Hempfield, Lancaster Country Day and Lancaster County Christian School, and some are homeschooled.

"They're my dance daughters," said Kalinowski. "That's what I call them. They're beautiful souls who love what they do and love everything about this show and why they do it. They're very talented. We have many alumni who go on to be dance majors, dance minors and on college dance teams, professional dancers and dance teachers. We want them to be properly prepared for whatever their dance goals are. We also have doctors, teachers, mommies and spouses we are just as proud of. I am very, very blessed to be close to kids I taught decades ago."

Organizers of "A Season for Wishes" are hoping to make as much as $50,000 from the fundraiser. In its initial two decades of staging the performance, CoJoMotion Dance Company has generated more than $572,000 for the regional nonprofit.

"What all this money goes to is making wishes come true for kids and families who need them so much," said Kalinowski. "It's trips and all kinds of amazing wishes like being a policeman for a day or being a superhero for a day. What an honor to be part of it."

Located at 620 Paxton Place, Lititz, Lititz Academy of Dance was founded in 2001, a few years before "A Season for Wishes" was established as a way for the organization to give back to the community. While "A Season for Wishes" has evolved into CoJoMotion's signature event, the dance company also performs four or five other times publicly throughout the year at various venues.

For additional information, go to http://www.lititzacademyofdance.com.