Dreams do come true. Especially if you are willing to work hard and put in the effort required to see a passion turn into a career like Amber Cameron did.

The current Radio City Rockette grew up on Mercer Island and spent her first 18 years dancing, taking classes, teaching classes and learning at Mercerart Dance under instructor Camille Chrysler. While Cameron graduated from Newport High School just across the water, she spent time on the Island in productions at Youth Theatre Northwest before heading to the University of Washington.

“I watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when I was little and saw the girls, and I thought they were so beautiful and glamorous. I always wanted to dance, but when I started college I thought I shouldn’t be dancing anymore, I should focus on my degree and figure out what I wanted to do with my life,” said Cameron, who joined the Rockettes in 2002. “But about a year into that, I realized there was just nothing else I wanted to do with my life, so I kind of did a 180 and I started taking more classes, auditioning for shows and just doing whatever I could.”

The Rockettes will be making a three-week visit to the Emerald City from Dec. 12 to Jan. 3, 2010, to perform their Radio City Christmas Spectacular at the Paramount Theatre, which for Cameron is another dream come true.

“It’s just such a great experience,” she said of dancing with the Rockettes. “I’ve danced at Music Hall and danced in a lot of other cities around the U.S. with the Christmas Spectacular, but this year, dancing at the Paramount, I went there as a child to see all of these shows, so to be up there on stage and to spend Christmas with my family is just going to be really amazing.”

Cameron, who has been doing some form of dance since she was 6 years old, is one of 80 women who participates in the Christmas Spectacular show and one of 160 Rockettes nationwide.

Chrysler, Cameron’s former teacher, said she was very proud of her pupil, who is one of seven former students now working on the stage in New York.

“She’s very enthusiastic,” said Chrysler, remembering Cameron’s years as her student. “She had many challenges which only prepared her for the world.” Chrysler added that she strives to make sure her students are ready for the world outside of Mercer Island because then they can be truly successful.

“It’s so nice to see her successful and accomplished,” said Chrysler.

Getting to the Radio City stage was a classic New York City story for Cameron. After graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in psychology and philosophy, she headed to New York City, living in a tiny apartment in Harlem.

“That September I moved to New York and started auditioning for as many shows and taking as many classes as I could, and it was hard,” she said of those first months on the East Coast. “I did what I had to do to make the minimum amount of money to keep on taking classes and auditioning.”

The desire and a dream paid off the following year after her audition at Radio City Hall.

“I always knew I wanted to audition for the Rockettes. I loved their poise and style,” she said. The first day of auditions had Cameron and 600 girls lined up around the famed building, learning jazz and tap combinations, and of course the famous Rockette high kick. After day one, 150 were cut, and Cameron said that having the right attitude was an important key.

“Confidence, I think, is half the battle. Then they make sure you have the technique to back it up,” she explained. Cameron got the news early New York time and automatically called friends and family back home to share her good news, despite the fact that it was 6 a.m. here.

“They were happy for me, just a little groggy,” she said.

Since then, Cameron has danced at Radio City Hall and walked in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, all experiences that she treasures as part of the dance troupe.

“It was amazing,” she said of her first show on the stage at Music Hall. “I love being on stage with the Rockettes, with the women dancing in a line together; there is such a camaraderie. You really have to dance together as a unit and work together to try and match everyone together as much as possible.” Cameron said the troupe starts practicing just over a month before a new show, usually six days a week and seven hours a day.

“Two or three weeks into rehearsal, you’ve got all the moves down and you know all the choreography, but then all of a sudden one day you can just feel it take this turn and all of a sudden you’re just dancing together as one. It’s hard to explain, but when you get that, you know we’re ready to perform.”

Besides being on stage with the other dancers, Cameron said one of the best parts about her job is the experiences that they get to have. During their visit to Seattle, the group stopped by the Museum of Glass and got a lesson in glassblowing.

“I feel that experiences like today, getting to go to the Museum of Glass and getting down there on the floor and getting to blow some glass — I can’t think of any other way I’d get to do that, and they were so kind to us there. That’s definitely one of my favorite aspects,” she said. “Then, of course, just being on stage and being part of not just the Christmas Spectacular, but the Rockettes’ legacy.”

The Rockettes first performed in New York City in 1925 and the Christmas Spectacular show was added in 1933.

The history of the group was never more prevalent to Cameron then during an evening tour at Radio City Hall, when a former Rockette from the 1940s and her husband stopped by Cameron’s dressing room.

“She saw me and she just started crying, and I started crying. She was telling me stories about what it was like to be at the Music Hall during that time because back in the day they used to live there,” said Cameron. The Rockettes still perform two numbers from the early days, “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers,” which they have been dancing since the 1930s in the same costumes, and the soldier fall, a signature move depicting a long line of toy soldiers falling together.

“To think of all the women who have been Rockettes and who have done the same numbers, to be able to be a part of that legacy is huge,” said Cameron.

In the off-season, Cameron finds time to be a part of other productions. She’s been in “Cats” and “Funny Girl,” and a variety of shows that she grew up watching. She also owns a tour business with her husband, Luke Miller, in New York.

“We have a tour company that gives tours of the city on subway and foot, called Real New York Tours. My husband is a born and raised New Yorker, and he married a Radio City Rockette, so you know, I think we’re doing pretty good so far,” she laughed.

For Cameron — who still has a lot of family in the Seattle area, including her mother, who lives on the Island — it has always been about following a dream.

“I want to make sure that people know they can do this. You can take classes; you just have to work really hard,” Cameron advised. “Just know that you can grow up on Mercer Island, move to New York and become a professional dancer and be a Radio City Rockette. You just have to keep following that dream.”

The Rockettes’ Christmas Spectacular show will open in Seattle at the Paramount Theatre on Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. and will run through Jan. 3. For more information on tickets and show times, visit www.broadwayacrossamerica.com or www.stgpresents.org.