As Lakelyn Kestner spins, purple and red lights mimic her movements. Music surrounds her like applause.

Three-year-old Lakelyn, born with a defect in her abdominal wall, seems to forget her surgeries and illnesses as she dances in front of the Interactive Musical Planetarium. The device, installed May 10 on the ground floor of the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, inspires children to wave their arms, throw pretend fireballs and break into giggly dance moves.   

“Lakelyn is so girly,” says her mother, Britney Leppert. “As sick as she’s been for a huge portion of her life, she loves to dance, loves to twirl, loves sparkly things and things that light up.

“She was in her glory.”