Take off to Neverland with NCDT

If this year's invasion of Charlotte by political operatives or any other facets of modern-day reality get to be too much for you, N.C. Dance Theatre will offer you an antidote: a trip to Neverland.

NCDT will bring back Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux's "Peter Pan" during its 2012-13 season, which it unveiled after last weekend's KnightSounds performance with the Charlotte Symphony and Opera Carolina. I'll publish the schedule after NCDT supplies dates and such. For the moment, here are some highlights:

• NCDT will commission a new work by Jiri Bubenicek, the young Czech choreographer whose "Le Souffle de l'Esprit" -- "The Breath of the Spirit" -- was one of last year's highlights. If you saw it, you're sure to remember. In images drawn from Renaissance artworks, women gazed out from the backdrop. Beneath them, Bubenicek swept the dancers up in inventive, fluid movement propelled by music of Bach. In one section, nothing was visible except Pete Walker's hands, flexing in their own little pool of light.
• The Golden Section," the Twyla Tharp showpiece was last season's whirlwind finale, will return to give the dancers -- and audience -- another workout.
• "Innovative Works" will include a new work by NCDT's David Ingram, who leaves the company at the end of this season to rejoin his wife in Indiana, where she heads a dance school.
• Bonnefoux's "Peter Pan" retells the beloved story in about 70 action-packed minutes, propelled by ebullient Rossini music. In 2004, when it premiered, NCDT's Jason Jacobs (photo by Christopher Record) was a natural for the title role. Since then, Jacobs has moved on. So Bonnefoux will have to pick a new dancer to wire up and send aloft.