Peter Pan, a ballet filled with action, adventure

Peter Pan is a beautiful fantasy and ballet that opens this weekend at Kenya National Theatre, courtesy of the Academy of Dance and Art in Karen.

“We wanted to stage a story that everybody knows,” choreographer and co-owner of the Academy, Juliet Duckworth tells the Weekender. “So, we selected the story of Peter Pan.”

Not everyone knows about the mischievous boy who never grows up and knows how to fly. But whether you know or don’t know the story, one need not be a child to enjoy the way the Dance Academy has choreographed and costumed this lovely show.

The story is basically about how Peter Pan (Arnold Osondo) arrives at the Darling home one night and charms the three restless children, Wendy (Muthoni Githinji) and her two little brothers (Ian and Thad Wolf). He then whisks them away to his home in Never Never Land, taking several side trips along the way.

It’s a fantasy filled with action and adventure as the children encounter fairies and mermaids, Pirates and ‘Red’ Indians, gypsies and lost boys, crocodiles and a crafty one-eyed Captain Hook.

“We started developing the concept of the ballet early this year,” says director Robert Policarpio who is also one of the four choreographers. “But we didn’t start doing the choreography until after Easter.” The other three are Juliet, whose mother started the Academy in 2009, Arnie Umagam and Rachel Kinyanjui.

Peter Pan was originally written as a play by the Scottish writer James Matthew Barrie at the turn of the 20th century. It has been performed as a colorful ballet for decades. It’s been made into a movie several times as well. But the Dance Academy devised their own choreography and selected their own music that they felt more appropriate to the storyline.

The show has been an ambitious undertaking, especially as no less than 100 children and adults are involved in the production, the youngest being four and the oldest in her sixties (playing one of the four Shaman elders). All have fabulous costumes designed by Juliet and made in the Academy’s own costume department.

The five set backdrops are also well done. They were originally conceptualized in miniature by Arnie and Robert after which they were colorfully painted by Arnold Osondo who coincidentally plays Peter Pan.

“We met Arnold four years ago and have been working with him ever since,” Juliet says, clearly pleased that she managed to pluck him from Kisumu where he had been dancing with the Yawa Dance Company.

“I had come to Nairobi to meet a friend who suggested we go see a ballet that the Dance Academy was putting on,” Arnold recalls.

“I could see they had so much more to teach me about dance that I decided to stay. I have been the Dance Academy ever since,” the 27-year-old dancer whose leaping ‘Russian splits’ stretched so high and wide in one scene that one could see why he had to pick for the part of Peter.

Other outstanding male dancers in the show are Eddie Karani who plays Mr Darling, Bet Omondi and Alexis Ndagwa who are double-cast as the character of Captain Hook. Ndagwa also plays the Crocodile who bit off Hook’s hand and who found him so delicious he has been looking to feast on him ever since.

The most marvelous ballerinas are Muthoni who plays Wendy, the wonderful storyteller, Rachel who plays Mrs Darling, Annalise who plays Tinker Bell, Arya Joshi as the Lead Water Fairy, Brianna Ogando as the lead Flower Fairy, and Prisha Amin as the lea Forest fairy.

The story is filled with emotive highs and lows. Two of the most terrible moments are first when Wendy is shot through the heart by an arrow and ‘dies’, only to be resurrected with the magical fairy dust sprinkled by the ethereal Tinker Bell.

The second time is when Tinker Bell herself dies, drinking poison that had been planted by the pirate Captain Hook to eliminate his nemesis, Peter Pan. Fortunately, there’s enough fairy dust to be found to revive the good little fairy as well.

The ballet is filled with joyful experiences, like seeing children fly across the stage. But for some, the crocodile might be too scary for some to watch. Chances are they won’t mind the sword-fight scenes between Captain Hook and Peter Pan.

Peter Pan, the ballet, is a heart-warming production that celebrates the innocence of youth and the aspiration of many to be ever-young.