Peter & Blue’s Birthday Party

Peter & Blue’s Birthday Party is the latest installment in the Peter & Blue ballet series by the Singapore Dance Theatre and I got to take our eldest along last weekend.

When you have more than one it’s always good to have special treats for each of them.  My eldest has recently been doing ballet at school and so when I saw this show it was a no brainer.  Not only was this going to be her first experience of real/adult ballet but also mine.

For me the best way to get there is by MRT as it means you have to walk through the underpasses.  There is always an interesting exhibit along the walls just before you get to the Esplanades.  At the moment this includes some 3D peacocks and fun for the kids to see.

Peter & Blue’s birthday is the third installment in the series of written of kids ballets that the Singapore Dance Theatre have put on.  Something that hadn’t occurred to me was that ballet is dance and that there is no speaking or singing.  So you kind of have to know or guess what’s going on, luckily for this performance they had Peter’s granddad as a narrator to let us know what was going on.

The hour-long show was a real fantasy with Peter, his dog Blue and cat Calico hosting a birthday party with their friends from the forest.  There are the Apple Blossom Girls, Blueberry Boys, Flower Fairies, Tree Sprites, Butterfly and Dragonflies.  Mixed in with the ballet are also sequences where Peter and the Blueberry Boys play with footballs, Blue tries to show off to Calico and other humorous dances that lighten the performance for the kids.  A real nice touch is that most of the time the dancers who are not dancing are sat around watching so the kids watch too also Blue is playing around.  Don’t think my little one noticed but the older kids in front definitely did.

Afterwards there was the opportunity to have photos with some of the cast who were great sitting for ages as all the kids queued up to have their photos.  Also there were free balloon sculptures that the kids could get, be it a sword or flower, which my younger one was fighting over once we got home.

All in all they really put on a good show for the kids and touches like a maze game in the program and free balloon sculptures really helped to make it a fun outing. Their next kids show is an introduction to the Nutcracker on the 6th of October but it’s sold out so we will have to wait until next year to see them again.

To keep up-to-date with the Singapore Dance Theatre program check out the website.