Ballerina squeezes into the tiny shoes of Tinker Bell

By BERNADETTE RAE

Tinker Bell, being a fairy, is so small, according to her creator J.M. Barrie, that she has room for only one feeling at a time - and that is almost always feisty, furious and extreme.

Thirty-year-old Jane Turner, 1.55m tall and weighing around 44kg, has no trouble fulfilling Tinker Bell's physical dimensions, in the Royal New Zealand Ballet's tour of Peter Pan.

One of the ballet's best assets, Turner has a perfectionist's attention to technique and artistic detail, packed into an exquisitely light and delicately proportioned frame.

But her usual roles are the young, innocent and demure characters: Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake's Odette/Odile. In the 1999 production of Peter Pan she played the role of Wendy but Tinker Bell is different.

"Tinker Bell is almost cartoon-like," she says. "It made me nervous, at first, she is so extreme. I wondered if I could do it."

But with the national Peter Pan tour now on and just Auckland and Hamilton to go, Turner is enjoying the change of pace - and persona - that Tinker Bell offers.

Her long hair is tucked under a short and up-swept wig, complete with the Tinker Bell star. She flies through strangers' nursery windows whenever she pleases, adores Peter Pan with all her might, rants and rages and is generally obnoxious for 99 per cent of the time - and every child in the audience loves her.

"She is great," Turner says, "although I do get a real facial workout every performance."

Turner especially enjoys the reaction of the children in the audience.

"One night I was making my second entrance, and there was total silence. Then a little voice rang out, 'That's Tinker Bell'. It is such a fantastic family show. Often ballet is not so accessible to the younger audience."

Peter Pan is choreographed by Russell Kerr, designed by Kristian Fredrikson with an original score by Philip Norman, and proved a hit on its first outing in 1999. Sir Jon Trimmer again appears as the swashbuckling Captain Hook.

Traditionalists will love the fact that the story remains true to Barrie's 1904 play, which he later rewrote as a novel. The design also remains true to the period, although it is wickedly embellished by Fredrikson in some of the fantasy scenes.

Alex Wagner, Shannon Smith and Ben Conquest can all dance Peter Pan. Wendy is played by Megan Futcher or Brigid Costello; Vivencio Samblaceno is the alternate Captain Hook, and Natasha Purcell is the second Tinker Bell.

Although there are few surprises, the production revels in its props and scene changes from the magical flight to the Lost Boys' Island and their Home Under the Ground; or from the pirates' ship to the mermaids' lagoon.

Pieter Symonds will be missed from the cameo role of Tiger Lily in Auckland and Hamilton (he is out with an injury), but Nadine Tyson is a wonderful Never Bird, winning cheers from the audience not just for her rescue of poor Peter but also her comic genius and lyrical legs.

But the brightest star remains that small streak of sassiness, Turner's Tinker Bell.

Next year will mark Turner's 10th anniversary with the RNZB. And she has been dancing since she was 7.

She left her hometown of Invercargill at the age of 16, to study in Sydney, returned to train at the New Zealand School of Dance and then joined the RNZB in 1994. In 1996 she was named the ECNZ Young Dancer of the Year.

"I went overseas when I was studying," she says, "and did the big audition circuit. I got a few offers but it was so expensive to pay for fees over there, I decided to come back home and stay home."

Her partner of 10 years, Geordan Wilcox, is also a RNZB dancer, playing Mr Darling, the Sun King, an Indian brave and a pirate in Peter Pan.

Turner's favourite role, so far, is that of Juliet in Christopher Hampson's beautiful production of Romeo and Juliet, which premiered in Wellington in June this year, and which will tour Britain next year.

"When I first joined the company I was looking forward to some overseas travel," says Turner. "The year before I joined, the company had been to Europe and the United States."

But in the past 10 years there have been only two tours, to Melbourne, with Dracula, and the "smalls" tour to Tasmania.

Turner is looking forward to the six-week adventure next year, when the RNZB will present Romeo and Juliet and a separate triple bill of Hampson's Saltarello, Javier De Frutos' Milagros and Mark Baldwin's FrENZy, at Salford, London's Sadler's Wells, Glasgow, Edinburgh, High Wycombe and Bath.

Performance

* What: Peter Pan

* Where and when: Aotea Centre, December 3-7; Hamilton's Founders Theatre, December 10-11