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Written by Harry Cherkinian, Contributing writer
May 6, 2010
Dancer Marc Petrocci gets hoisted during a rehearsal of the Milwaukee Ballet’s “Peter Pan.” – Photo: Courtesy
The easiest way to get to Neverland is to follow the second star to the right and then head straight on till morning. But you need to be flying in order to get there.
Marc Petrocci does all that and more as star of the Milwaukee Ballet’s upcoming world premiere of the beloved children’s classic “Peter Pan.”
“Flying is amazing,” says Petrocci, who lives on the East Side. “I think the very first time I was pulled up off the ground and I was halfway up, I thought, ‘This is high.’ But it’s totally exhilarating.”
The Milwaukee Ballet celebrates the end of its 40th anniversary season with this production, choreographed by artistic director Michael Pink and an original score composed for the ballet’s orchestra by Michael Feeney (he and Pink also collaborated on “Dracula”). Members of the Milwaukee Children’s Choir as well as dancers from the Milwaukee Ballet School perform in this production.
Petrocci explains all this while sitting on the couch in the ballet’s lounge, one foot planted on the ground, the other folded underneath his lean, lithe five-foot-nine torso. Even at 25 he looks the part. And as he demonstrates his moves during the interview, the only thing missing is his ability to fly (there’s no magic dust handy at the moment).
Born and raised in Ontario, Canada, Petrocci joined the Milwaukee Ballet corps in 2003. Now in his seventh season, he looks back at the roles that helped him prepare for the original Lost Boy: Mercutio in “Romeo & Juliet” and Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Mercutio tends to thread the narrative and pull it together, and Puck has obvious implications, with his youthful ambitions.
Petrocci prepared for the role of Peter Pan along with dancer Michael Linsmeier, who dances the role in alternating performances. Training started in August 2009, working with a trainer from the Froedtert Sports Medicine Clinic once a week for 90 minutes a session. While the goal was to prevent injuries, Petrocci says the training has helped him to “feel stronger, more toned and psychologically more confident and gutsy,” an important components of Pan’s identity.
Then there’s the harness, which is attached to ropes to make the magic happen. “It’s not heavy, but it is binding. It’s quite tricky to get the hang of it,” he says.
The challenge is dancing onstage with the harness on. And then there’s the in-flight action. Petrocci must use the lower half of his body while flying and take care to not tangle himself in the ropes, but he’s completely dependent on the operator offstage handling the ropes. When Petrocci flies, the other Pan is the horizontal tracking operator and vice versa.
There’s also a vertical operator. While most actors and performers have tape marks to hit their spots on stage, Petrocci must hit is marks in the air while staying in character. “The takeoffs help” he says.
“The nature of the dance is what Peter is called to do,” Petrocci says. “I have to pace myself with the physical energy and pace myself with the emotion. This role is a chance for me to evolve in my ability to be at ease with being still and have confidence without being kinetic.”
For the young artist who had a Billy Elliot-like childhood watching his sister dance before becoming interested in dance himself, this role is chance to expand his choices as a performer as well as a dancer.
“Is he going to go back and grow up?” Petrocci asks rhetorically about Peter Pan’s fate. “But then he has to make the decision to come back to the Peter Pan that he is.”
And that’s the Peter Pan audiences come to see and watch, the forever child, steeped in innocence, mischievous, curious, always up for the next adventure.
“I hope the children have a thousand of those moments when their eyes light up and you can see that they’re transfixed,” Petrocci says excitedly. “I think there’s a lot of magic in this production.”
