It’s a Thursday afternoon, and inside Studio B of Arms Wide Open’s El Cajon building there is energy, laughter and joy. The social dance class is in full swing. “Good job, guys!” AWO director Christopher Rubio exhorts from the front of the mirrored studio, where 15 to 20 participants of vary ing disabilities have formed a circle and, with many of them arms raised high, are dancing to booming recorded music. Some clasp hands as they move. Some, in wheelchairs, are propelled along by other students. Chris Rubio is the founder and artistic director at Arms Wide Open in El Cajon. The organization offers performing arts classes for people with disabilities. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) Kate Broderick, 42, is among the dancers. She’s on the Arms Wide Open premises on East Main Street five days a week. “I love Arms Wide Open,” she said. “I have friends here. I have a boyfriend here. I want to maybe become a dance instructor like Chris someday.” Rubio, founder and artistic director of Arms Wide Open, grew up tap dancing and swing dancing, and in his pre-teens gravitated toward percussion. As a professional he would go on to perform in two companies of the famed percussion show “Stomp,” and as an actor and singer appear in Off Broadway productions. In 2008 he left performing behind to co-found with his mother, Yvonne, Arms Wide Open, a nonprofit organization offering arts education, classes in music and a variety of dance idioms, and musical theater for individuals with special needs. Today, AWO serves more than 350 people with disabilities who come from across San Diego County. Dominic Sison takes a contemporary dance class at Arms Wide Open in El Cajon on Jan. 29. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) “I decided that I wanted to make a difference,” said Rubio of his choosing giving back over a professional career. “Because my brother is special needs and autistic, I knew how tough it was for him to find places to fit in. I wanted to create a performing arts space where individuals could dance, perform and learn.” AWO individuals, both children and adults, “build friendships here,” he said. “They come here to feel like they’re being seen and paid attention to. And they absolutely just love being around music.” The organization started out by offering dance classes but it has grown to include musical theater programming. AWO’s “Rising Stars” productions are for children and adults with special needs or disabilities. Its most recent production was “Frozen Jr.,” presented in December at the Old Town Theatre, which will also be the location for “Rising Stars” productions of of “The Addams Family” and “Aladdin Sands of Agrabah” later this year. Students participate in swing dance class at Arms Wide Open in El Cajon on Jan. 29, 2026. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) The newest initiative is the 2-year-old “Inspire,” an inclusive theater arts program “for all abilities,” Rubio said. “We bring in professional performers. The mentors and the performers all learn about patience and kindness. We’ve noticed that with a lot of our ‘Rising Stars’ students they’ve gotten so good that it’s neat to have ‘Inspire,’ where some of those more seasoned Arms Wide Open performers can take a shot at an ‘Inspire’ show.” This year’s “Inspire” production, following  “Beetlejuice: The Musical Experience” in October, will be of “Tarzan Beat of the Jungle,” beginning in July at the Mount Helix Amphitheatre in La Mesa. “It’s been on my bucket list to return to where I performed as a teenager,” Rubio said. “Now, to take a program that I have put my heart into and produce it in such a beautiful space is exciting and emotional for all of us.” Faith Tysee takes a swing dance class at Arms Wide Open in El Cajon on Jan. 29. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) Rubio is also one of AWO’s teachers. There are about a dozen on staff, all of them part time and paid. Musical directors and choreographers and and other creatives are also paid, but on more of a stipend basis. The volunteers — which includes individuals’ parents — may be seamstresses, makeup artists, onstage helpers and more. Among the teachers is 26-year-old Claire Arnold from University City, a dancer and recent graduate of Mesa College, who teaches a fitness class at AWO and will soon be teaching both ballet and assisting Rubio in a hip-hop class. “Arms Wide Open is a second family to me,” Arnold said. “It’s a place where I can come and be my authentic self. I’ve learned how to communicate better, to open up to others, how to trust and how to speak up about what I want.” Being an instructor is “teaching me patience and how to stay more grounded in my emotions,” she said. Maddie Rubio is Chris’ niece who moved to California last summer from Florida. A student at Cuyamaca College, she’s a substitute at AWO teaching tap, jazz, swing and social dance. She says she’s at the studios “seven days a week. I live here!” Here’s why: “I’m giving opportunity to those who don’t have much. This is all they have. I get to give them something to do. It’s amazing to help change their lives and give them motivation.” Working with some individuals with disabilities comes with its challenges, she said, but “The key is communicating. I sometimes make the most absurd and crazy analogies when I’m teaching. The more Disney references you can make, the better.” The rewards of teaching are echoed by Jonny Albert, who just started at AWO helping to teach the social dance class, and by Meadow Smith, who’s been teaching dance there for five years. “It’s so cool to be able to provide something that is so rare,” said Albert, a native San Diegan. “If I can make one person’s day better, I’m happy. At Arms Wide Open I feel I can do that.” For dancer/choreographer Smith teaching is about “seeing the smiles on my students’ faces and making then laugh. They tell me that this is what they look forward to most in their day.” One of those students, 20-year-old Troy Read from Clairemont, has been in Arms Wide Open since he was 5 years old and appeared in a “Rising Stars” production of “Peter Pan Jr.” His mother is a teacher who works with toddlers with special needs, and he was one of her students. Read prizes “friendship” most over all that he’s gotten out of Arms Wide Open. “When I was little,” he said, “I had only a few friends and mostly I was quiet. Now I’m a chatterbox. I can’t stop.” AWO has taught him “to dance and to control my emotions. Now I just listen to music and relax.” Fellow student Kate Broderick’s mother, Barbara, is a former member of Arms Wide Open’s board of directors and now a fundraising consultant for AWO. “The reason I first got involved,” Barbara Broderick recounted, “was because I saw (AWO’s) ‘The Little Mermaid’ onstage at the Lyceum (in downtown San Diego). I was blown away by the quality – not only because of the set and the costumes and the choreography, but something that happened on stage. “The girl who was playing Ariel had this solo and she came out onstage to sing, and she froze. You knew she was really scared. One of the support people came out, sat down on the stage for a moment, talked to her, got up, left the stage, and the Little Mermaid sang beautifully. The place went nuts. People were in tears because you just watched exactly why this organization is so important. It’s not just the chance to be on the stage someplace. It’s because there’s so much support and understanding of what it takes to make somebody feel good and do well.” Arms Wide Open continues to grow. It has a satellite location offering classes in Escondido at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. Another satellite, in City Heights, may open in the next couple of months. In El Cajon, 25-plus classes are offered six days a week. The organization has received three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and three from the California Arts Council. Rubio was also honored last year with the Conrad Prebys Leadership Award. Rubio wants the credit for AWO’s growth to go to its teachers, volunteers and students. “I don’t need to be in the limelight,” he said. “There’s nothing that makes me feel better than seeing Arms Wide Open onstage. That fulfills me like no performance I’ve done.” Here are some of Arms Wide Open’s upcoming events. For more, visit armswideopensd.com/. “DREAM’ community concert featuring Jason Mraz, 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, at  at the alifornia Center for the Arts, Escondido “Madonna The Musical Dance Recital,” opening in May at the Old Town Theatre “Tarzan Beat of the Jungle,” an “Inspire” production, opening July 17 at Mt. Helix Amphitheatre “The Addams Family,” a “Rising Stars” production, opening Oct. 2 at the Old Town Theatre  “Aladdin Sands of Agrabah,” a “Rising Stars” production, opening Nov. 6 at the Old Town Theatre   ‘DREAM,’ featuring Jason Mraz, Albert Posis, MILCK, Raul Midon, Arms Wide Open performers and more When: 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15 Where: California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido Tickets: $25 Online: jasonmraz.com ...read more read less