She dreams of a dancing Sugar Plum

Having devoted her life to dance for 14 years, Malverne resident Amanda Sommers, 17, a senior at Sacred Heart Academy, an all-girls high school in Hempstead, has finally leaped into stardom, winning the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the school’s production of “The Nutcracker,” running from Nov. 21 to 24.

Sommers has performed in Sacred Heart’s annual production for nearly a decade. “When I was little, I saw the Sugar Plum Fairy’s dance,” she said, “and I’ve just wanted to do that ever since.”

Since rehearsals began last September, Sommers said, the “Nutcracker” cast practiced for two hours every school day at the Sacred Heart theater before final dress rehearsals last week, during which, she said, she “really saw the show come to life.”

Sommers, who is president of the Sacred Heart Academy Dance Theatre, has directed rehearsals, approved changes in choreography and supervised around 100 dancers, with the help of two faculty moderators.

She said she has encountered plenty of new challenges in preparing for her starring role, specifically learning to dance with a cavalier — the male partner who anchors a female dancer’s performance. Her partner is Corry James Ogden, a dancer at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City.

Sommers said she started dancing at age 3, when she enrolled at Tap to Pointe Dance Center in Malverne, learning ballet, jazz, tap and pointe under the direction of instructor Sara DeGennaro. “When I would get on stage or in the classroom, I became a totally different person — I danced through my emotions,” Sommers said of her experience with ballet. “I’ve just built upon it since then, and grew to love it.”

In 2003, she said, DeGennaro began training her and other young ballerinas to perform in “The Nutcracker” as dancers in “The Angels,” later joining the cast of the ballet’s “Party Scene” and “Land of Sweets” once she enrolled at Sacred Heart in 2010.

While working with DeGennaro, who had performed with the New York City Ballet, Sommers said, she was inspired to make ballet her principal style of dance, and has auditioned for leading New York dance companies in recent years.