A high-octane group that delivers a mix of BMX biking, basketball freestyling, breakdancing, acrobatics and music will help the city of Elgin celebrate the opening of its new addition to The Hemmens Cultural Center.
Hailing from Australia, 360 Allstars will perform at 4 p.m. May 18, an hour-and-a-half after the 2:30 p.m. ribbon-cutting that formally opens the $14.4 million expansion, a project that included a new north side entrance, reception/bar area, second-floor balcony, first-floor restrooms, expanded elevator and external box office.
Tickets are specially priced at just $5.
Gene Peterson is the creator, director and producer of the 360 Allstars show, now in its 12th year. The act stemmed from Peterson “thinking like a kid in a candy store and removing all the parameters that you would normally try and create within because of logic,” he said.
“It was dreaming as big as possible — what’s the most awesome thing I can think of?” he said. He boiled things down to BMX, breakdancing, basketball freestyling and music and then went on an international search to find the cream of the crop athletes with those skillsets, he said.
“The concept is reinventing the circus with an urban twist, replacing stereotypical circus art forms with contemporary street style,” Peterson said. “Instead of acrobats, we have breakdancers. Instead of a juggler, we have a basketball freestyler. Instead of a unicycle, we have BMX rider. All these art forms feature rotation — hence 360 — and all stars because we did headhunt from all corners of the globe and put together this dream team.”
Set to music and complemented by video projections, each performer is featured and their disciplines introduced. Afterwards, they come together as a crew and that’s when “the show hits a new level,” he said.
“The beautiful thing about it is that we are all so passionate about the things we do and as soon as we’re bouncing off each other, it just becomes such a joyous experience,” he said. “We’re having so much fun onstage and it’s contagious and the audience can’t help but have that much fun with us and the vibe in the room really elevates.”
There are seven artists in the show. In addition to the other hats he wears, Peterson is the show’s drummer, keyboardist and rapper. He is joined onstage by a vocalist, and the two of them act as the show’s “ringmasters.”
“We are the live soundtrack for the entire show,” he said. “Between the two of us, we’re onstage from top to bottom and we are the soundtrack behind all the other artists. And just like they do, we get our own featured sections to showcase ourselves as musicians.”
After more than a decade, Peterson said he can’t believe the show is still going. He’s created other touring shows that only lasted three or four months, he said, and initially that’s what he told his performers they could expect. But almost immediately, he was able to book seven months of touring in his native Australia, followed by dates in Europe.
“Straightaway, we had a full year of touring and I had to recast because all the people I originally approached were only available for 10 to 12 weeks,” he said. “Suddenly, this was a much bigger project and here we are 12 years later. We have three teams now touring simultaneously; one in the U.S., one in Europe and one in Australia.”
The extra casting has proven to be collaborative, with the show becoming tighter and tighter as the casts are able to bounce ideas and suggestions off each other, he said.
Audiences respond to the high energy and spectacle, and the show has become an international hit with its world-champion and world-record-holder performers, he said. It has been presented millions of times to roughly 10 million people around the world, and has sold out Broadway twice, the Sydney Opera House and the Edinburgh Festival.
“(The show) speaks to all generations, all demographics,” Peterson said. “It’s not dumbed down for kids, it’s not inappropriate for kids. It’s all ages having a good time. We had a lady on our last U.S. tour come to the show to celebrate her 100th birthday.”
Tickets are available at hemmens.org/tickets.
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
