Larkin dancers offer girl ‘chance to dance’
When the Black Eyed Peas are on the radio, it’s time for 5-year-old Kelsey Pettry to strut her stuff.
Lady Gaga is a favorite, too.
Kelsey even improvises her own routines when her parents are watching television.
“She’s always had a love for music,” said Kelsey’s father, Bob Pettry. “You never know what she’s going to do until she feels it.”
But Kelsey is different from most dancers. Kelsey can’t stand or walk.
Kelsey was born with a heart defect, and complications from one of the surgeries left her partially paralyzed from the waist down.
Kelsey can’t walk, but she can crawl, and despite her limited movement, she can dance.
A volunteer with the Easter Seals, where Kelsey goes twice a week for physical therapy, shared Kelsey’s story with a group of student dancers in Larkin High School’s Visual and Performing Arts Academy.
Each year, juniors in the dance program at the Elgin school must choreograph and produce an entire dance show. This year, the juniors wanted to do something different.
“We wanted to do something special for someone that doesn’t have the ability to dance,” said Melissa Gross, co-director of the show along with Brianna Ripoli.
The dancers met Kelsey and invited her to two of their shows earlier in the year. They visited Kelsey at her South Elgin home. Most importantly, they asked her to be a featured dancer in their year-end dance program.
On Friday, Kelsey will take the stage with the girls for “Chance to Dance,” a program of 10 numbers choreographed and performed by 22 dancers in the academy. Kelsey will join them for the finale, set to one of her favorite songs, the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow.”
During the climax of the number, the dancers form an arch that Kelsey crawls through. As she zips by, the human arch collapses. When Kelsey has covered the length of the stage, the girls bring her back to center stage, where she does a freestyle dance, supporting herself with her arms while moving her legs in sweeping motions around her body.
“We let her do her own thing,” Melissa says.
Kelsey’s father said the recital is a nice change of pace from physical therapy.
“I think it’s a whole new world for her,” Bob Pettry said. “This is a release for her to be able to enjoy herself and cut loose and kind of feel like a normal kid.”
He added, “To see the smile on her face when they’re around makes me happy because of everything she has been through.”
When asked why she enjoys dancing, Kelsey says, “Because I like dancing, because I like to do flips.”
Her thoughts on doing the show with the girls?
“I like to play with the girls. I like to play up here (onstage) and crawl.”
Chance to Dance will be at 7 p.m. at Larkin High School. Tickets are available at the door for $6.