Flying fitness: Cathy Rigby’s tips for soaring while nearing 60

DALLAS ― Peter Pan never grows up. Cathy Rigby, who has made Peter her signature role for more than two decades, doesn’t seem to have aged much either.

Peter’s secret is fairy dust, but Rigby, who turns 60 in December, relies on a sprinkling of pulverized herbs sprinkled on fresh food and regular exercise to perform Peter’s cartwheels, flips and flying during her national tour.

She spoke about her fitness routine before a recent Dallas show.

“There’s something really joyous in doing the things I still do, although I shouldn’t be able to,” the 4-foot-11 former Olympic gymnast says. “It brings out that competitive Peter Pan quality in me. It’s fun, and it keeps me mentally much younger, especially being around kids. Their zest for life is contagious.”

Eating right is a good first step, Rigby says. Before she sets out on tour, she picks fresh tarragon, basil and parsley from her garden, which she refers to as her fairy garden because there are statues of fairies that she and her grandchildren pretend are real, along with a small pond containing koi and turtles. There’s even an aviary with finches and cockatoos.

She grinds the fresh herbs with a mortar and pestle, mixes them with sea salt, and packs them in a plastic bag.

Rigby eats lightly before a show and not at all three or four hours before curtain. Usually, breakfast is hard-cooked eggs, a piece of toast, a cup of coffee and some fruit, with lunch a salad, often with apples, pecans, carrots, balsamic vinaigrette and a drop of mayonnaise with olive oil for flavor.

Her big meal, which she cooks herself in her “Peter Pan bistro,” as she calls her Dallas kitchen, is after the show, when she needs to replenish her energy: pork chops sauteed in a pan with a little olive oil, rice and chopped carrots, and fresh tomatoes and burrata (an Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream). Sometimes, the menu will consist of chicken and vegetables in a slow-cooker, with carrots sauteed in olive oil, a little butter and white wine.

The other essential component of her regimen is exercise, which Rigby has adapted as she’s gotten older. When she was a competitive gymnast, she worked out six to eight hours a day, doing 100 sit-ups at a time. When she hit her 40s, she discovered that a 30-minute session of Pilates along with light weight work and core exercises could keep her muscles strong without straining her joints.

She varies her workouts, sometimes raising her legs while lying on her back wearing her Peter Pan flying harness, other times lying on her stomach and lifting her upper body. While in Dallas, she’s gotten her exercise walking miles in the Dallas Zoo and traipsing up and down the stairs in the theater. The key, Rigby says, is to warm up for at least 30 minutes to an hour before the show starts, something she sees the dancers who play the pirates and lost boys do, too.

Afterward, instead of cooling down, she takes a hot bath.

She’s attentive to her body’s signals. If, during a performance, she feels a twinge in her leg when she lands or her back or neck while she turns, she’ll ease up slightly rather than pushing harder.

While some let themselves go when away from home, Rigby says she finds it easier to stay fit without the distractions of being a wife, mom and grandmother.

“When you’re on the road, the priority is your show, so you tend to take better care of yourself.”

By Nancy Churnin

(The Dallas Morning News)

(MCT Information Services)