Dancer Will Soar on Broadway

OCEAN CITY – For 16-year-old Hadly Patterson, it will be the opportunity of a lifetime when she performs in “Broadway Loves Shriners.” The one-night-only concert Dec. 3 will benefit Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. The event will take place in New York City’s Grand Masonic Hall.
Patterson, a patient at the hospital that provides advanced care for children without regard to the patient’s, or patient’s family ability to pay, was successfully treated for scoliosis.
“I’ve been dancing since I was two,” said the Ocean City High School junior. Her repertoire includes tap, jazz and modern dance. “I don’t do ballet now,” said Patterson. “But I did do pointe ballet.”
Patterson was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of three and wore a hard backed brace from that time until she underwent a then-innovative surgical procedure, vertebral body stapling (VBS), at Shriners when she was in sixth grade. The result of the surgery has allowed her spirits and her body to soar.
According to Patterson, her surgeon, Chief of Staff Dr. Randall Betz, performed the surgery when it was still considered experimental. At the time of her surgery the procedure had only been performed 180 times worldwide.
“It was a rough couple of years,” said Patterson about her scoliosis prior to the surgery. “I wore a hard-backed brace 24/7 for eight-and-a-half years.”
She said in deciding to have the surgery she would stand in front of a mirror and ask her herself if she liked how she looked.
“I’d ask myself do I want to be bent over and not love the way I look and not wanting to wear a bathing suit. The answer was always no. With the help of my mom I decided surgery would be the best thing for me.”
Having the surgery was liberating, she said. She said she had a 28 degree curve of her spine before surgery and had none afterward.
“It allowed me to be so much more free, to be more myself and not be constricted by the brace.”
After surgery, she returned to dance a month after her procedure.
“Obviously I was limited to what I could do,” she said of her return to dance, “but it was still there and I still danced.”
The summer after her surgery Patterson fell and injured her spine.
“It’s now back at a 20, but it’s an S curve – but it’s two curves, so it compensates, so I look straight.”
The diminutive dancer said she had never danced on Broadway before. “I go up there for shows, but I’ve never danced there before. It means so much to me. When she (Donna Kane) asked me to be a dance ambassador, I was speechless.”
Patterson was introduced to Kane via her surgeon. Kane, an award-winning Broadway performer, had appeared in “Les Miserables” and “Meet Me in St. Louis,” was the host of the event.
“She asked me if I danced and what I did. Then she asked me to be a dance ambassador,” said Patterson about her meeting with Kane.
Kane’s daughter was also treated at Shriners Hospital.
Patterson was recommended to be part of Team USA National Dance Ambassadors by the hospital.The eight dancing teen ambassadors were selected from girls throughout the nation. Each was treated at the hospital for scoliosis and underwent VBS.
The teens’ rendition of “I Love a Piano” was the only non-professional performance of the evening.
“The rest were all adults who had performed on Broadway,” Patterson said, noting other performers included cast members from “Wicked,” “Phantom of the Opera” and several other shows.
Patterson added she was beyond excited to be part of the evening. She added she was thrilled to have the opportunity to dance on Broadway and be given the opportunity to “show we can do what we love, and that’s to dance.”
Dancing to help raise funds for the hospital that helped her realize her dream was a gift. Patterson explained how Shriners Hospital helps children from throughout the world, regardless of their ability to pay.
“Shriners Hospital is great,” she said. She pays it forward by speaking with scoliosis patients and their families about the surgery and what it can do.
“Shriners gave me a chance to live life in a way I would have wanted to if I didn’t have scoliosis. To live a life that I can be myself and not have to worry.”