Athletic arts are the focus at a new school in Green Valley

Thursday, June 15, 2000 | 9:02 a.m.

Peter Foy is putting his career on ice.

The man who taught Peter Pan to fly on Broadway 50 years ago has fulfilled a dream with the recent opening of Foy's Athletic Arts Academy in Green Valley.

The Academy is part-ice rink, part-fitness training, part-drama school and all fun.

The 14,000-square-foot facility includes a 7,200-square-foot rink, a theater arts studio and a wall-climbing room where students eventually will be taught to fly.

"It's a mishmash, a little bit of everything," Foy, born and raised in England, said. "The purpose of the academy is for the children to have fun as well as to teach discipline and perhaps prepare them for a professional career.

"Discipline is important in every business (not only theater) -- how you present yourself and having confidence are important."

The academy, on Annie Oakley Drive, opened eight weeks ago. The "mishmash" of things offered at the academy includes:

Foy's goal: "To infuse our students with an enthusiasm to pursue the art forms (that) best express their own unique, individual talents, whether it be gliding effortlessly over the ice or the action of jumping, spinning, climbing or flying."

Jim Masden recently took a group of children from the Sports Club of Las Vegas on a one-day field trip to Foy's dream house.

This was the first visit for members of the Sports Club, who are attending daytime summer camp and routinely make excursions to bowling alleys, swimming pools and other activity centers.

"I think this will be a regular thing for us," Masden said. "The kids just love it. There's a whole variety of things for them to do."

"It's really fun," Sarah Carl, 8, said as she rushed to get into a safety harness to make her fourth ascent of the academy's fake-rock climbing wall.

Josh Bray, 10, couldn't have been happier with his two-hour stay at the academy. "There's ice skating, wall climbing and snacks," he said. "And the people here help the children."

Although the rink is available for birthday parties and for use by organizations such as the Sports Club, its main purpose is to provide a place where young people can take classes that will teach them self-discipline while giving them a taste of the theater.

Much of the program at the academy is geared toward a production on ice. Students (many of whom had never skated before enrolling) recently performed a "Mission: Impossible" play and this summer will do "Peter Pan."

"I want people to have the experience of the theater, of entertainment, because it has been so good to me," Masden said.

Each show also involves flying.

"Ice skating and flying are very, very similar," Foy said. "It's all a matter of balance. You do the same spins in air as you do on ice."

Foy, 75, has been combining the two since developing techniques for "The Ice Capades" in 1952. "It's absolutely brilliant," Foy said. "The skaters fly through the air and come down and continue on ice."

And he has developed techniques that give the appearance of skating on stage, with actors suspended a fraction of an inch above the stage by wires.

Foy, recovering from an illness that almost paralyzed him, has had a lifelong love of both skating and theater. He became active in both when he was a child in his native England.

Initially he was a professional actor, but an early fascination with the art of flying on stage eventually led him to the career that has consumed his interest for more than 50 years -- designing and building equipment that creates the flying effect.

He quit acting in 1958 after he became bored with playing the same role night after night. "I liked playing the part, putting on the makeup, fooling the audience. It was a game to me. But I didn't enjoy the same show every night, the same lines," Foy said. "I was bored to death."

But he has never been bored with flying. During the course of his acting career he patented equipment that revolutionized flying on stage, making it safer and more realistic. And so he left the stage for the air.

Foy came to Las Vegas in 1952 to help the late Peter Lind Hayes do a flying skit and then stayed around for other events. Hayes, who died in 1998, pioneered variety shows on television.

"When the Stardust (hotel-casino) opened we did a flying ballet," Foy said. "Then we did the MGM and then we did some big shows at the Desert Inn."

His company, Flying by Foy, is based in Las Vegas but provides equipment for productions all over the world. He is best known for his work in "Peter Pan," starring Jean Arthur in 1950 and Mary Martin in 1954. His patented designs have been used in the television series "The Flying Nun," the movies "Spinal Tap" and"Fantastic Voyage" and numerous other shows and venues.

Foy said that he has reached a point where his employees can run the company without a lot of help from him, so he is concentrating on the academy with the help of his wife, Barbara, and daughter, Teresa.

"Here I am with 33 people working for me in this country and a branch in London," Foy said. "I felt they don't need me. I'm an idea man. I live for it. (My) flying business doesn't need me anymore."

His original idea was to open an ice rink where people would join a club and skate. When he was growing up most skating was done outdoors and people belonged to clubs and skated together.

"I was fascinated with the clubs ... I loved that kind of thing, how enjoyable they were," Foy said.

The skating idea evolved into the much broader concept of an academy where he would combine his love of skating with his experience in theater and his skill in flying to teach children self-confidence that will prepare them for a career in theater -- or for life in general.

Although it isn't available yet, Foy said that an aerial arts program, in which students will learn flying techniques, will be an important part of the academy.

Flights have been delayed because crews are not available to man them. "You have to have people to help people fly," Foy said.

As a rule this is a slack time of year for his Flying by Foy company and he was going to use employees there to help teach flying at the school. But business has been unusually busy.

His staff is responsible for 300 productions going on throughout the United States and is working on a Broadway show about Hans Christian Andersen scheduled to open later this year. Flying by Foy provided the equipment for the Backstreet Boys' world tour now in progress, and is working with Royal Caribbean Cruises in a production on one of its liners.

Almost 180 children have joined the academy, which charges $25 per year for membership and has assorted prices for the different classes it offers.

Many are enrolled in the facility's summer camp program, in which the students spend about eight hours a day skating, playing badminton and croquet on ice, climbing walls, dancing and other activities.

Teresa Foy runs the academy. She has competed internationally in figure skating for both American and British teams. She has starred in "The Ice Capades" and appeared in "Enter the Night" at the Stardust.

"The children are having so much fun," she said.

And they are learning rapidly. Many of those who appeared in the academy's "Mission: Impossible" production had never skated before.

Teresa Foy attributes the rapid progress to the concept created by her father: the theatrical training, the club atmosphere and more time on the ice.

"This is great for the children whether they want to go to the Olympics, into theater or just for fun," she said.

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