Summers and five other members of her Rockville Girl Scout troop, all of whom have varying disabilities, will dance as toy soldiers in a single performance of the Metropolitan Ballet Theatre's production of the holiday favorite at the Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center at Montgomery College's Rockville campus.
As a Girl Scout troop activity, the girls began taking dance classes in the Rockville-based Metropolitan Ballet's adaptive ballet program last spring. The program offers a beginning ballet class attuned to the needs and abilities of the students, allowing them to learn at their own pace, said Robin Griffin, artistic director of the ballet academy.
She and her cousin, Kelli Summers, Madelyn's mother, created the class as a way to get children and teenagers with varying levels of skill involved in dance. Summers teaches the class, which will be offered again in the spring.
"The vision I had from the beginning when I took over direction of the school was to make MBT all-inclusive, and why should these girls be excluded from knowing the joy of dance?" Griffin said.
She added she had wanted to include the girls in "The Nutcracker" since the inception of the program. Griffin pitched the idea to parents over the summer and the girls auditioned in September.
"The Nutcracker" tells the tale of a girl named Clara who dreams of a nutcracker prince and a fierce battle against a mouse king. When the battle is won, the prince whisks her away to an enchanted land.
The girls have been practicing hard, Griffin said.
"They're very attentive," she said. "They help each other and I think the cast has also been very cooperative and very inclusive."
Kelli Summers said Madelyn and her 16-year-old daughter Isabel, who is also appearing in the show, have always loved dance and took classes when they were younger. Isabel, a student at Ivymount School in Potomac, has a communication disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and orthopedic problems, while Madelyn, an eighth-grader at Gov. Thomas Johnson Middle School in Frederick, has ligament laxity and a collagen disorder.
"My daughters and the other girls in the troop love being in the show," said Summers, who is also the outreach coordinator for the Metropolitan Ballet. "It's a great learning experience for them and it's nice that they can be in the show even though they're not aspiring to be professional dancers."
Grace Goodman, founder and leader of Girl Scout Troop 6760, said she is excited to see her 15-year-old daughter Lisa Katz and the others girls perform. She said her daughter, an Ivymount student with emotional and intellectual disabilities and ADHD, has kept her dance routine under wraps so she can surprise her parents.
"I thought it was a great opportunity," Goodman said of the show. "First, for the opportunity for them to be with other dancers and putting on a major production, and second, because it provides a number of skill-building and self-esteem opportunities for them. It not only expands the opportunity for special needs students, but also shows other people that they can do this — it accentuates the positive."
Washington, D.C., resident Fern Clark said her daughter Marti can hardly contain her excitement over the show. She has caught glimpses of the 16-year-old, who has Down syndrome, watching in awe as other ballerinas practice in pointe shoes.
"She's so enchanted by the costumes and everything about the show," Clark said. "It's an adventure for her and she really enjoys it."
She said the cast has been wonderful about including her daughter and the other ballerinas, who also include Elizabeth Sturgeon, 16, of Potomac and Faith McLuckie, 13, of Washington, D.C., in group activities such as pizza parties.
"Everyone is there at the rehearsals and it's just like one big community," Clark said.
Griffin said she is excited to see the entire cast perform, but is especially looking forward to seeing the Girl Scouts dance.
"I'm excited to see the smiles on their faces," she said. "New dancers have such an aura of excitement to them and I can't wait to see that in these girls."
