Show & Tell: Meet Summer Ferguson

A: I’ve been out here since I was 8, so I grew up here. We moved around a lot when I was growing up. We lived in California a few years, then we moved to Canada and Washington state and then to Vegas.

Q: Were you fugitives?

A: No, no (laughs). It was just that my dad worked all over. He built houses, so we’d go wherever we needed to go for that.

Q: When did you become interested in dancing?

A: When I was 2. … I was pretty much strictly a ballet dancer. That was what I trained for my entire life. By the time I was 5 years old, I was dancing, like, six days a week. I was just in love with it. … And by the time I was 13, I actually went into home schooling and danced with Nevada Ballet Theatre.

Q: Did you know then that you wanted to pursue dancing professionally?

A: Yes. I actually always thought I’d stay in a ballet company. I didn’t think I’d switch to dance in a show on the Strip. I never really saw that in my future.

Q: So how did "Crazy Girls" happen?

A: I left the ballet company when I was 18 … and somebody invited me to see the show. At that time I wasn’t dancing. I was a shoeshine girl.

Q: A shoeshine girl?

A: I’m kind of a neat freak, so I liked it (laughs). It’s kind of weird. So I was a shoeshine girl for about eight months at Mandalay Bay and The Venetian and the convention center … . And when I first saw "Crazy Girls," I realized I missed dancing and auditioned the next day.

Q: And you made it. What was it like to move from ballet to contemporary dance?

A: Ballet is very structured. Here, it’s a little bit more free, a little bit more fun. … My first show, I had a lot of fun. I wasn’t even thinking. I was just in the moment and going for it. That’s what I love. I just love performing, I love being out there and I love just doing it.

Q: Of course, the costumes are different.

A: With ballet, the costumes are tight. You always wear a tight leotard … . You can see the body, and with our show you can see the body, so it’s not really any different to me.

Q: "Crazy Girls" is such an iconic show. When you told people you were joining it, what did they say?

A: When I told my mom, she laughed. I wasn’t sure how she was going to respond because I’ve always been a ballet dancer. So, when I told her I was going to audition, she laughed and said, "Oh, that’s the first show your father took me to when we moved here." I was, like, "Way to go!"

Q: And, of course, there’s that famous statue. Do people ever ask you which butt is yours?

A: When we promote the show, we have a lot of different fliers and coupons, and it’s normally (featuring) our butt shot. So they always ask, "Which one are you?" (laughs) We get that a lot.

Q: But you joined the show six years ago, so you’re not on the statue. Do you just lie?

A: I just pick the tallest one (laughs).