360 ALLSTARS Bring Circus Arts to Sitka

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Category: News

Created on Tuesday, 29 October 2024 15:20

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Instead of traditional acrobats, you’ll see breakdancers on stage Wednesday in the 360 ALLSTARS circus show at the Performing Arts Center.
Instead of a juggler, a basketball freestyler; instead of a unicyclist, you’ll see a BMX stunt rider.

BMX flatlander Heru Anwari rides up to Sitka High School students in Amanda Chambers’ physics class, from right, Shane Tincher, Jackson Harmon and Bryce Calhoun, before jumping over them today, in the school commons. Anwari, of Indonesia, is with the 360 ALLSTARS, an urban circus, in town to perform 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Performing Arts Center. 360 performers, including breakdancers, musicians and acrobats, were giving demonstrations in Sitka schools today. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

“Essentially what we’re doing is replacing stereotypical traditional art forms with contemporary street styles,” explained 360 ALLSTARS director and founder Gene Peterson. The show is 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Performing Arts Center.
“It’s an ‘urban circus,’ with BMX, acrobatics, live music all together in a supercharged high-energy production,” Peterson told the Sentinel.
The show at the PAC, presented by the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, is part of the urban circus’ tour. The group of eight musicians, dancers and circus performers arrived Sunday from California, and was spending today doing demonstrations and teaching kids at Xóots Elementary, Keet Gooshi Heen, and Sitka High School, where a BMX rider gave a demonstration and answered questions in a physics class.
The 360 ALLSTARS has performed before sold-out audiences on Broadway, the Sydney Opera House and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Peterson estimates more than 1 million people have seen a 360 ALLSTARS performance some time in the past 12 years.
This is the group’s first time to Sitka although it has performed before in Anchorage. The show is geared toward all ages, for big towns as well as remote locations.
Peterson said the show carries the same message for all audiences, as they see what hard work, dedication and practice can yield.
“The key takeaway is that you can do anything, as long as you’re disciplined and stick to it, and apply yourself, to whatever you’re passionate about,” he said. “There’s so much on display in the show, and it stretches beyond the performing arts. Certainly we have music, dance, circus, but lots of things you wouldn’t associate with the performing arts or a career.”
Seeing a talented breakdancer or basketball skills master turning their passion into a career can be validating not only for kids but for their parents, he said.
“They can see their hobbies have an actual career path and potential; they can see the people on stage have found a way to become a professional touring artist, and you can get paid to travel the world and do this amazing cool thing,” he said.
Peterson said he created the show as an adult but is firmly in touch with his “inner child,” which we all have.
“When I made this show, I was thinking like a kid, ‘what is awesome? BMX? That’s awesome. Breakdancing? That’s awesome. Basketball freestyling? That’s awesome. How many different types of awesome can I put on one stage, like a kid in a candy store?’” he said. “It was born of a childlike mentality and I think fun is universal: we never lose touch with being able to have a good time just because we are older.”
Audience members who came of age when breakdancing, BMX and juggling were popular will get the “double-whammy” experience of enjoyment and the opportunity to connect with their kids.
Lily Pérez, an Americorps volunteer serving at the Fine Arts Camp, said SFAC was interested in presenting art forms that aren’t often seen in Sitka. And the presentations in the schools are giving the performers a chance to experience and better understand the community, and learn what Sitkans might appreciate.
“So they get to interact with people in a format outside of the performance,” Pérez said. “For the kids who get to participate in those workshops, and they get to see the show, they’re getting a much fuller appreciation of what’s happening on stage. They get to see people they have a connection to, and they’ve met, which can be really exciting and inspiring.”
The group’s next stop is in Anchorage, then to Idaho, Wyoming and Canada –– “anywhere and everywhere,” Peterson said.
Tickets to the show are $30 for the balcony and $45 for orchestra level, closest to the stage, and are on sale at fineartscamp.org and at the door.