Patrick Frenette, as Peter Pan, dances with his shadow. (Photo courtesy Orlando Ballet)
Get ready for swashbuckling pirates, flying Lost Boys and loads of fairy dust as Orlando Ballet heads toward the second star to the right and straight on ’til morning, completing its 2020-21 season with its take on the classic J.M. Barrie tale “Peter Pan.”
Join all the classic characters — Peter, Wendy, John, Michael and Tinkerbell— as they take on the dastardly Captain Hook in the Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts April 15-18.
To take up the role of the titular character, Orlando Ballet has brought in the talents of Patrick Frenette, who has danced with American Ballet Theatre for eight seasons. Frenette not only makes his debut with the Orlando Ballet Company as a principal guest artist, he will also be performing in front of an audience for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
“I’ve been incredibly grateful to be able to come back to work and have daily company classes, daily rehearsals of course with you know, rigorous health and safety protocols, so everybody stays safe but this is just something I haven’t had in over a year because of COVID-19,” Frenette says. “The work that I did with ABT were performance pods where we would stream the new works that we were creating. But not in-person performances and not working in our own buildings, so this is been absolutely fantastic to be able to stay in shape this way and rehearse.”
Frenette spoke with Watermark ahead of his Orlando stage debut in “Peter Pan” about getting back on stage and what it’s been like becoming the the boy who wouldn’t grow up.
I read that you started dancing at the age of three. Where did the love and passion for dance come from?
My passion for dance came from my sister. This is the story for a lot of guys in dance, usually they get into it because they have a sibling that partakes as well. So my older sister Emma, who actually used to be a trainee with the Orlando Ballot, we’re very close in age so I found myself being very attached to the hip with her. So when she started ballet, I would sort of follow her around and make these little interruptions when she would be dancing.
I was also really drawn to the musical aspect of it. I was a very active child, I think the physicality of it and the connection to music was definitely what drew me into it. I really resonated with that, even at a young age. My sister and I both started training pre-professionally around age seven or eight because it’s such a short career and you start so young, it’s not like you go to college for five or six years and then get your job. You want to go pro at like 17 or 18, so you have to start your pre-professional training very young. So just the whole environment of it was really enthralling for me and I just couldn’t get enough of it. If it wasn’t for my sister, I wouldn’t be the dancer I am today.
I also read that you endured a lot of bullying growing up because of your dancing. How did you get through it and what advice would you give young dancers who are going through the same thing?
It was challenging. I mean, the basic root cause of the bullying is very simply what is socially acceptable for a guy to do? You know the typical boys should be in sports or boys should be Boy Scouts, looking at joining the military. So dancing, and more specifically ballet, was not very well received by my other colleagues because they couldn’t understand why I did it. I mean if you see an ad for a ballet studio you’re typically not going to see a guy in a white T-shirt and black tights, you’re going to see the little girl in the pink little dress with her ballet slippers.
It was typically a female-centric gender norm that ballet is for girls and I’ve always really resented that notion because it’s the same sort of language they use when a woman wants to become a lawyer or astronaut or nuclear physicist, and it’s like, “oh you’re entering a man’s world.” It’s that same sort of harmful logic just applied in a different way.
I was luckily that I didn’t have to deal with the intense cyberbullying of today, but there was a lot of exclusion and name calling, just resentment. But how I got through it, and the advice I would give someone dealing with the same thing, know in yourself that you are pursuing something that means a lot to you. When you pursue a career in the arts it really becomes more than just a job. It’s your passion, it’s your way of life; your belief in that is what carries you through … I had that goal set in my mind and would say “yes, I’m getting bullied right now and maybe nobody showed up to my birthday party, but I have my mind set on what I want to do with my life and that’s going to take me to a place where I want to be.”
As a kid, I knew that if I could just make it past these troubling times I was going to grow up, I was going to get a job and then I would be a dancer amongst other dancers … Eventually, even if it was going to take a long time, I was going to be in an environment with other dancers who accept me and see me for who I am.
(Photos courtesy Orlando Ballet.)
How did you come to get the titular role in Orlando Ballet’s “Peter Pan”?
I was actually back at work in one of those dance pods that American Ballet Theatre had set up. I was in Silver Bay, New York rehearsing for a new ballet with my company. I don’t know if you’ve ever been there but it’s absolutely beautiful. It was a snowy winter wonderland when I was there, so I was just out on a walk and taking in the environment and I just casually checked my phone and I saw this email from [Orlando Ballet’s Artistic Director] Robert Hill.
He reached out and told me there was interest in bringing me on to do Peter Pan. I was absolutely overjoyed because there was some level of uncertainty before I got this offer. I had two weeks to go with ABT but what does the rest of my year look like? What is the rest of my season going to look like? I didn’t know if I was going to be teaching, choreographing, taking classes; I didn’t know and then this offer fell out of the sky. I immediately set up a Zoom call and I talked with Robert and Cheryl [Collins; Orlando Ballet’s Executive Director], and they were so accommodating and very complementary. Robert is a former celebrated dancer with American Ballet Theatre. I actually have DVDs from when I was a kid there I would watch him performing with ABT. So he’s an absolute legend in his own regard and for him to reach out was amazing.
Robert reached out to Kevin McKenzie, my artistic director at ABT, they were both dancers in the company at the same time. They corresponded and Robert said, “I need a Peter for my for my production” and Kevin put my name up and gave me a recommendation for this. This just shows how during these really tough times, dance companies can come together and support one another. Orlando Ballet gets to bring in someone from the New York dance scene and I get to make my Orlando Ballet debut in such a celebrated role.
Is this your first time playing Peter Pan?
Yes. I have never played Peter before unless it was pretending in my backyard.
Does the ballet follow pretty close to the original “Peter Pan” story book or the beloved animated Disney film?
It follows the book and the Disney version of the story well. Obviously with Disney World being a stone’s throw away and there being such a magical entertainment industry down here, I think Jorden [Morris’ “Peter Pan’s” choreographer] did a wonderful job finding a balance between both. The whole “You Can Fly” musical number that takes place in the London bedroom is so wonderfully personified on stage.
Most importantly the magic is there and there’s some wonderful chemistry between Peter and Wendy, my ballerina Rachele [Eusebione]. She has just been the most fantastic person to dance with. She embodies the role and she embodies being a ballerina so well. I’ve enjoyed connecting with her and my Tinkerbell, Junna [Ige].
Since we are talking about “Peter Pan,” will we get to see you flying on stage?
I don’t want to give too much of the magic away, but we had some training yesterday on that bedroom scene where John, Michael, Wendy and I are all getting ready to take off for Neverland. I have to say I have never felt more like Peter Pan than I did yesterday it was fantastic. Even under the mask, I was just beaming ear to ear. I couldn’t get over the sensation of flying.
We’ve been getting familiar with our equipment in the theater, getting use to what our movements felt like in the different harnesses that we wear. The harnesses are obviously made for performers so they’re engineered to inhibit movement as little as possible. A couple times while I was going through my choreography, I almost forgot it was there. It’s definitely a difference sensation but nothing that’s going to prevent me from performing at my best.
Orlando Ballet’s “Peter Pan” runs April 15-18 at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets start at $45 and are available to purchase online at DrPhillipsCenter.org.
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