NEW YORK—“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” echoed through the lobby of the NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and 4-year-old Madeline sat up and clapped, engrossed in the ballet before her.
“When she was here two years ago, she was upstairs in her room, quarantined,” said Madeline’s mother Jenna Kellerman. Kellerman had come downstairs for a cup of coffee, and caught a glimpse of the New York Theatre Ballet’s (NYTB) annual performance at the hospital, but had to rush back upstairs.
“She likes it when they’re on their toes and spin around,” Kellerman said of her daughter, and Madeline mimicked pirouettes with her fingers. Christmas means baking cookies, watching holiday movies, and “The Nutcracker” on television, but she has never seen it live. “Every time they had the performance she was sick upstairs.”
Madeline was born at the hospital and had open-heart surgery at 1-week-old, a second surgery when she was 6 months old, and a third when she was 2 1/2, for the same heart condition.
This year, Kellerman came to the hospital to visit a friend with a child in the intensive care unit, and Madeline came along for the performance.
Mice in polka dots and dancers with oversized chopsticks performed the holiday favorite, choreographed by Keith Michael in the art nouveau style, circa 1907. Costumes were designed by Sylvia Nolan, the resident costume designer of the Metropolitan Opera.
“I wanted her to see the show she actually missed,” Kellerman said.
