“Flying Bach,” a Red Bull-sponsored show fusing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach with breakdancing, is returning to Chicago for a three-day run at the Chicago Theatre, located at 175 N. State St.

The show, which has been enthusiastically received in 28 countries including the U.S., was inspired by the trips artistic director Vartan Bassil took to classical music concerts in his youth. 

Bassil said his mother, a fan of what he called “high art,” took him to many concerts growing up, and he found the hours-long classical music concerts “boring.”

He hoped to find a medium that could mix the high art of classical music with his passion for dance. After consulting Christopher Hagel, a prominent classical music enthusiast, Bassil said his crew went to work to find exactly whose music to use.

“[Hagel] liked the idea, so we started to talk about it,” Bassil said. “We needed some famous composer, and also something that was really important. He came up with Johann Sebastian Bach and his work on the piano.”

According to Bassil, the challenge came in interpreting Bach’s fugues for breaking.

“Every dancer took one of the voices [in the fugue], and it was easy to bring moves from note to note,” Bassil said.

No stranger to unusual combinations,  Christopher Hagel rose to fame by conducting operas in unique places such as museums and subway stations. For this production, he shares artistic director responsibilities and serves as accompanist, playing the piano. 

Bassil said that he was overwhelmed with support from the United States crowd and its positive reactions to their interpretation of breakdancing.

“Breakdancing [came] from America, so for us as a German group, we can present to them how we interpret breakdancing with music from a German composer. We were nervous to see how Americans accepted us as a group,”  Bassil said. 

After their first stint in Chicago ran for six days and sold more than 50,000 tickets, Bassil said he is excited to come back to Chicago, because of the shows previous successes and for personal reasons.

“I’m a big fan of Michael Jordan [and] I collect specialty Jordan [shoes],” Bassil said.

According to Kelsa Robinson, a lecturer in the Dance Department and an experienced breaker, the dance form began in the early 1970s when hip-hop got its start in South Bronx, New York.

Robinson said historians credit DJ Kool Herc, a Jamaican immigrant, with creating the music that inspired breaking.

“[Kool Herc] recognized [Bronx residents] were playing funk and soul music and when all the sounds in the music dropped out and you primarily just had the percussion, that’s when folks would really go crazy and get down at the parties, and he wanted to extend the length of those breaks,” Robinson said.

Robinson said one of the key elements involved with breaking is “reinventing” the style and according to their website, “Flying Bach,” and the World Breakdance Champions Flying Steps have created a “one-of-a-kind, innovative adaptation” with this production.