Posted Dec 20, 2011
Ashlyn Bolton spent Thanksgiving morning dancing in front of millions in New York City, performing alongside the popular Zhu Zhu Pets float in the Macy’s parade.
Later that day, she was fighting to breathe.
Ashlyn, 15, has severe food allergies that keep her on a restricted diet of mostly fruits, vegetables and plain meats. Dairy, rice, beans, eggs, peanuts, shellfish and more are off limits.
It terrifies Ashlyn’s mother to know that a slight brush with an allergen could cause a serious reaction.
A jar of peanut butter opened across the room can make her throat tighten. She can’t get certain vaccines because they have egg in them.
She has to make sure her shampoo doesn’t have wheat products or she’ll get hives.
But the Brooksville teen is pursuing a career on Broadway, and that means traveling to auditions and performances, eating on the road, and relying on strangers at workshops and lessons.
At home, Ashlyn’s mother knows exactly what she’s eating, because she cooks her separate meals. On the road, Kim Bolton has to trust that servers listen to her, programs provide safe foods and cross-contamination doesn’t occur.
Research indicates that almost half of fatal food allergy reactions happen when eating out, according to the nonprofit Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.
Ashlyn is now appearing locally in “The Nutcracker,” which opened Friday night at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts. A homeschooled student, she studies dance, musical theater and voice at the center’s Patel Conservatory, and she supplements her Patel lessons with workshops to hone different skills.
She has attended intensive tap classes through “Tap Kids” in Vermont and studied with the Orlando Ballet. This summer she hopes to be back in New York for a session with the Rockette Summer Intensive program. It’s the second time she has been accepted to study at Radio City Music Hall. Her first trip was just shy of her 14th birthday, making her the youngest in the program.
Her Thanksgiving trip started fine. She spent the days leading up to the holiday learning and practicing choreography for the parade. Ashlyn was one of 132 dancers selected from 1,000 to perform at Herald Square through the Camp Broadway program. She kicked off her trip with a separate tap class with Broadway actor Thommie Retter, whom she met waiting outside the stage door at “Billy Elliot.”
After the parade, her family celebrated with burgers at a restaurant. Everything seemed fine. It wasn’t until she and her older brother took a walk to Central Park that Ashlyn’s throat started to feel tight.
It was about a 30-minute walk back to the hotel — no cabs were in the area because of road closures for the parade.
“It was the longest 30 minutes,” Ashlyn says.
Her brother called her mother, but she couldn’t do anything but rush outside the hotel and meet them with Ashlyn’s nebulizer. By the time they arrived, Ashlyn had broken out in hives and couldn’t breathe. She took her breathing treatment in the hotel lobby.
To her mother, it was a reminder that they can never be too careful. In hindsight, it seemed as if the waitress had brushed off Ashlyn’s allergies when they told her.
“I felt like I let my guard down,” Kim Bolton says.
She used to be timid about outlining Ashlyn’s needs, not wanting to bother people. But she learned to speak up, even when it meant customers at McDonald’s called Ashlyn a “weirdo.”
They struggled to make sense of confusing allergy-free menus at chain restaurants. She packs healthy snacks to keep her energy levels up at long rehearsals.
Her mother’s vigilance is a major reason Ashlyn is as healthy as she is, her pediatrician says.
“If you tell her to do any procedure, she will not do it 98 percent — she will do it 100 percent,” says Dr. Imad Jandali of All Pediatric Care. “You have 100 percent compliance, which is a big victory for a physician.”
Jandali also reassures Ashlyn that her asthma, connected to her allergies, does not handicap her athletic potential.
“I always advise her, ‘You are not normal. You are more than normal,’ ” he says.
Kim Bolton says she has seen children melt down over not getting a piece of pizza, but Ashlyn handles her food restrictions with maturity.
Ashlyn has been dancing since she was 2 and twirled around the living room. It’s impressive to watch her now, her mother says, and how focused she is in classes.
“She wants it so badly,” Kim Bolton says. “She works so hard. She doesn’t complain.”
©2011 the Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.)
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