The Chicago Children’s Theatre brings in the New Year with the Chicago premiere of the international sensation 4- ISH. The Amsterdam based performance troupe combines Acrobatic stunts, street and break dancing, dancing on inline skates, video art, a live DJ and more.
I was really impressed by their ability to utilize such an amazing array of diverse and unique talents and marry them in a way that eloquently showed off each person’s total uniqueness.

The children in the audience totally enjoyed this show. It had a very MTV- X games feel to it and in fact one of the performers, skater Sven Broekhorst actually won first place at the X games, the Gravity games and the ASA Pro Tour World Championships.

Speaking of unique talents, Thor Vandenbossche, a beat boxer known as “the voice master” was the voice or MC of all the players onstage and was able to emulate both women’s and men’s voices , special effects, musical sounds and accompaniment of all sorts. After the show when I asked him how he was able to stay in sync with all of the constantly moving and dancing players on stage and Thor wisely answered that he meditates every day and that this allows him to slow down time by a few seconds and “see around the corners of things”, which makes perfect sense to me, as I have noticed those effects from meditation myself.

The video art that served as a backdrop for the show was beautifully trippy and I was glad to see youngsters exposed to this kind of art and music as I feel it has a mind expanding effect. When I was young the only place I saw anything remotely like this was in the movie Fantasia!

Adults were equally entertained by the spectacle and precision of the dancing and inline skating. At one point, the lights went out and all you could see were the red and blue toe lights on dozens of skates magically gliding up and down the giant half pipe set without crashing into each other. When I asked acrobat and break dancer Liam O’Callaghan after the show how it was done without mishap, he simply smiled and said, “It’s a secret! We have to keep it a secret!” I asked Liam if there had been any injuries partly because I was a little jealous of all their healthy young knees. It was obvious the things they were doing would wreck anyone over thirty with any cartilage left, and Liam answered me when he simply lifted up his blue jeans to show me a knee rife with thick purple and blue scars and told me he had just had another surgery to remove water from his knee. So this kind of work is not without its sacrifices at any age!

I highly recommend this current 4-ISH production. My own young friends Jimmy, and Jonny, who aspire to be break dancers were absolutely blown away and inspired by the show. The look in their eyes of awe and wonder and “HOW did they do that?” was great to see. Also, the other children in the packed house seemed to be energized and enthused by this performance in a way that few children’s theatre productions evoke. It sure made me “feel like dancing!”

Be sure to catch 4-ISH before the run is over on January 28th at The Harris Theatre in Millennium Park. For more info and to purchase tickets go to www.chicagochildrensheatre.org.