4ISH offers a high-energy party onstage

 By Jan Gaillard

Correspondent

The energy of the streets comes to the stage in 4-ISH, a show that combines inline skating, street dance, break dancing, bungee jumping, acrobatics and martial arts. 

As if that weren’t enough, it also puts a half-pipe onstage for skating stunts, and a DJ to spin tunes.

Marco Gerris, a Filipino-Belgian skater and dancer, created this frenzied mashup, putting the “ish” in the name to emphasize his multidisciplinary approach.

Gerris, 32, built up this show from an original company, called ISH, that he founded in 1999 with seven cast members. The U.S. tour stops tonight at Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News.

Raised for three years in a Philippines orphanage before adoption by a Belgian couple, Gerris lived in Antwerp until he completed one year at the Antwerp School of Theatre and Dance.

“I was 12 when I started figure skating on roller skates,” Gerris said in a phone interview. “When I was about 19, I bought inline skates and fell in love with them.”

He won the Netherlands 1999 freestyle skating championship  and used that as a springboard to pursue his dream of  becoming an actor.

“After a year taking dance, I decided to do musicals.  I was in 'Endless’ and had a solo, so I asked the director if I could do it on skates, and he said yes.”

After that, it was an easy-ish glide to fame.

“The producer came to me after that and said we should make a show of my own,” Gerris said.

“I wanted to show that there was so much more you could do on the stage if you make it a little arty. I wanted to be free, with an open mind, and help them respect what’s on the street.”

There is a loose plot to the 4-ISH show, Gerris said, of a boy trying to “find” himself.

“People are really blown away by the energy on the stage, but there’s a lot of humor in it, too,” he said. “It’s a universal thing, and everybody loves it. There’s a DJ in the background, and it feels like a party onstage.”

That’s important to Gerris, as the dozen or so cast members are friends in real life who explore different cultures together on international tours.

“I learn new things every day, and the show changes and is fresh every year,” Gerris said. “It doesn’t have to be perfect, but we just try it out. I’m a skater, and I’m not afraid to fall.”   Jan Gaillard, jangaillard007@yahoo.com