Taking a tumble
Jesse White group bounds into Morris
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| A member of the Jesse White Tumblers flies over the group's founder, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, during their performance at the 2008 Grundy County Corn Festival. (Herald Photo by Heidi Terry-Litchfield) |
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For 50 years the Jesse White Tumblers have been flipping their way into hearts in the Chicagoland area.
In 1995 Kim Scerine and Shantal Leisure decided the team should tumble down Liberty Street.
“We (On Broadway Dancers) have been working with the Jesse White Tumblers since 1990,” said Scerine. “We thought we should bring them to Corn Festival to give back to the community.”
Leisure said she has been a hair dresser in Grundy County for nearly 20 years and bringing the show to Corn Festival is a way to say thank you.
“We did floats for a while but we thought the tumblers brought a lot more entertainment,” she said. “Our clients look forward to it so we keep doing it.”
The Jesse White Tumbling Team has been performing since 1959 around the country.
According to their website the team can be seen during half time shows for the NBA, NFL, and pre-shows for MLB.
Many of the tumblers start out at as young as six years old and often are residents of some of Chicago’s public housing developments like Cabrini Green and Henry Horner.
The rest of the team are residents from 10 communities within Chicago metropolitan area.
The goal of the team was to proved experiences for the member which would help to keep them out of trouble.
“This is a juvenile delinquency prevention program that is designed to help youngsters grow tall and straight.” the Web site reads. “The members are required to abide by Jesse White’s strict rules, which include staying in school, maintaining a “C” average in academic coursework and staying away from gangs and drugs.”
Over 10,000 young people have been a part of the Jesse White program where he serves as a coach, teacher and often times a surrogate father.
The On Broadway Dancers were established in 1988 as a way to give rural young people an opportunity to participate in performing arts.
The dancers have teamed up with the Jesse White Tumblers on many occasions to perform including at Chicago Bulls half time shows.
“We do shows with Mr. White annually,” said Scerine. “We draw a large crowd at Corn Festival each year.”
She said her team doesn’t do a lot of shows locally so participating in Corn Festival is a way for their community to see them in action.
“It’s nice to do something for our community,” she said. “We do the Bulls and DePaul and perform in Chicago but we don’t have the opportunity to do it on a local basis.”
She said her dancers have been overseas several times and have performed at the Taste of Chicago for over 12 years.
Leisure said as long as White agrees to come out for the festival she will continue to sponsor him.
“I was surprised when the first show brought in 5,000 people to watch and even with the attendance at about 3,000 each year we feel it is a success,” said Leisure.
