FringeNYC 2013: Peter Pan and Stardust Dances

Review by Carissa Cordes · August 11, 2013

Peter Pan and the Stardust Dancers is the anticipated returned of choreographer Eva Dean to FringeNYC with her family friendly dance shows. The dance begins with story of Peter Pan (George Hirsch) and Tinkerbell (Katherine Moncebaiz) looking for Peter’s Shadow (Jessy Smith) They are soon discovered by Wendy (Klara Beyeler) who convinces Peter to be friends. The mischievous Shadow is reattached with the help of Wendy and Wendy tries to kiss Peter Pan much to the dismay of Tinkerbell. Wendy is then whisked away to Neverland. Shortly thereafter Capitan Hook (Alexander Glaz) and Smee (Hiram Pines) manage to capture Peter. But Peter is saved when the hungry Crocodile (Julien Kanor) comes looking for the rest of Hook.

Unfortunately, the Peter Pan story stops there when the house lights are turned on, the lights are changed and we are taken to world of light-up balls that are swung around by the actors, and a sneaky dance is performed to ‘Spider Pig’. That world is changed when the house lights go up and a single woman, Esmeralda (Moncebiaz), starts dancing to music from what is listed as a Peter Pan ballet. The house lights go up and two women (Smith and Moncebiaz) come on stage with a large globe for ‘Bounce 09’. Hrisch rollerblades onto stage bringing smaller bouncy balls and blowing bubbles. The piece ends with Hirsch doing a clown bit with four large Physio balls. The house lights go on and Klara Beyeler emerges with a globe and two glowing balls for ‘Odraz’. Moncebiaz, Smith and Hirsch all come on stage with their own glowing balls and they join to create something akin to fireworks with their spectacle of light ending the show.

The show is very light and meant to be fun. However, there are only a few displays of intense physicality and technique. Glaz and Kanor did strong work in their Hook and Crocodile battle. Hirsch has a boyish charm that suits him to Peter Pan and allows him to succeed as a clown and earn some delightful young person giggles. Moncebiaz and Beyeler both worked well as the scorned Tinkerbell and the charmed Wendy. Smith was a goofy shadow and displayed physical grace in her pieces.

The harsh breaks in between the pieces were hard as an audience member, and I would have appreciated at least some tie-in with the other pieces. The pieces that employed story were simple in their devices while others seemed to be more abstract and less story oriented. While ‘Esmeralda’ is listed as being from a Peter Pan ballet, seeing the costume and dance without any context I immediately thought of the gypsy Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Whether it was a strong display of physical ability, story complexity or some sort of spectacle the show did not seemed geared towards charming the adults. However, my audience did have significant amount of young children in the audience and they all seemed to be paying attention, pointing and giggling, and bursting into chatter when the show was over. And maybe this particular show is more for the younger audiences. And that is a welcome addition to FringeNYC.