Review: Onyx Productions 360 ALLSTARS at the Peacock Theatre

I say “I believe” because the post-Covid tradition of theatres providing scant programme information to their audiences via QR codes was taken to its reductive limit here with just ONE paragraph of information about the show! Audiences deserve more.

That this show opened at The Peacock Theatre in London’s West End was a relief since the auditorium had endured a long lay-off while closed for maintenance and refurbishment, and its absence was sorely felt on the London dance scene. 

For me, the big question was whether a show could sustain itself with a succession of acts specialising in rotation. The answer came with three muted cheers since the mix of cabaret, competitive, and circus acts was generally entertaining, and rousingly backed by some compelling music, although squeezed into the sketch show format were the dull encores of some one-trick ponies.

Basketball freestyler, Jun Hasegawa (AKA Pafo), can certainly spin a Wilson ball on his fingers and bounce it closely between and around his crouched legs, with appropriate insouciant, grinning bravado, but once those tricks have been demonstrated, did we really need to see them again, or was it simply to prove that the first times were no fluke? Pafo was, it might appear, a late addition to the schedule, since the basketball man in the promo photos is clearly not him.

In the absence of written information about the show, I did some research, and it turns out that 360 ALLSTARS was created in Brisbane and has subsequently toured the world.  Sometimes there are no fewer than three versions of the show and three casts running simultaneously across the globe in a brand that clearly has traction.

BMX rider, Peter Sore, had plenty of party tricks, such as riding with the handlebars inverted, bouncing the bike in a circle and so forth, but – no disrespect to his undoubted super-elite skills – it really wasn’t especially interesting after his first solo.

The Cyr wheel performer was credited as acrobat Josh Curtis, and the ubiquitous circus wheel certainly met the 360-degree brief. It was a solid if generally unremarkable stint (the BMX rider proved his versatility by having a brief spin in the wheel, later on).

The undoubted headliners amongst these Allstars were the two extraordinarily talented breakdancers, Peter Sette (“Bboy Sette” from Australia) and Jared Graham (“Bboy Leerock” from New Zealand). Both are successful, competitive B-boys who have honed their skills superbly into entertaining physical theatre. Given the Raygun controversy at the last Olympic Games, it was refreshing to see that the Australasian Region has some world-class breakers. They appeared several times, both in battle and performing on point in their unity. All the power moves were there: head spins, windmills, flares and much more besides. This street virtuosity was exciting to watch, and I wished that the breakin’ element of the show had been extended. 

Gene Peterson was an exceptional drummer, and although I have seen the same musician play the drums and keyboard in the same show many times, I have never seen them played together at the same time by one pair of hands.  His solo drum performance, accompanied by impressive, tight projections of his skills, was superb.  And, as well as being an outstanding, soulful singer and impactful MC, Mirrah Fay-Parker, was the only non-male or male-presenting performer on stage, which was a shame because are there no female 360 Allstars?

It occurred to me when watching the breakers that the programme could also have included a freelance ballerina with great turning skills! Putting 32 (or even 48) fouettés into the mix, plus a few of the Italian variety and some rapid pique turns, would have added something to the programme, but that is probably just me showing bias!

Graham Watts

Graham Watts is a freelance writer and dance critic. He writes for The Spectator, Tanz, Shinshokan Dance Magazine (Japan), Ballet Magazine (Romania), BachTrack and the Hong Kong International Arts Festival and has previously written for the Sunday Express, Dancing Times, Dance Europe, DanceTabs, London Dance, the Edinburgh International Festival and Pointe magazine (USA).  He has also written the biography of Daria Klimentová (The Agony and the Ecstasy) and contributed chapters about the work of Akram Khan to the Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet and on Shobana Jeyasingh for the third edition of Routledge’s Fifty Contemporary Choreographers.

He is Chairman of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle and of the UK National Dance Awards and regularly lectures on dance writing and criticism at The Royal Academy of Dance, The Place and (until the war) for Balletristic in Kyiv.  He was a nominee for the Dance Writing Award in the 2018 One Dance UK Awards and was appointed OBE in 2008.