Each October, a colorful jungle sprouts next to the Kohala Country Fair on the Big Island. One year, it was a jungle. Forest sprites swayed from aerial roots, balanced across fallen branches, jumped across divides, and climbed up trees. They tumbled on the ground with complicated somersaults – with an occasional hit-and-run crash.
OK, they weren't really sprites. These were young performers, ages 6 to 16, dressed in shining white suits with a camouflage print of breadfruit leaves. They happily bounced off trapezes, poles and mini-trampolines in carefully choreographed moves. This year, the stage may be different but the impact will be the same. And the artists always draw an applauding crowd. Pleased and proud, the performers bite their lips in concentration, their minds and bodies tense with discipline.
Concentration? Discipline? These are not traits we normally associate with our keiki. But this isn't just any group of kids. This is the Hiccup Circus.
The Hiccup Circus is based in Puna and led by Graham Ellis, who's been in Puna since 1981. A former school teacher who loved juggling, he helped to found the nonprofit Hawai'i Volcano Circus in 1984, a collective of professional artists and teachers who promote the healthy development of children and the community using performance and circus arts.
A year later, the Hiccup Circus was born, a community outreach program and school for unicyclers, acrobats, jugglers, stilt walkers and clowns. Today, the gray-bearded Ellis, a 56-year-old kid himself, has reason to be passionate about his work.
When the school day in Puna is over, dozens of children trek to Ellis's Belly Acres, a 12-acre rainforest surrounded by Kîlauea's 1955 lava flow. They are drawn to the promise and glitter of show business, but they learn far more than theater: They learn life's most elusive skills.
"Children come here, and they quickly realize that circus acts are not all that easy," Ellis says. "Unicycling, for example, takes enormous focus and energy. The kids must develop perseverance, concentration, discipline – exactly the stuff they try to avoid when in school. Here, however, they want to learn. There are enormous challenges to overcome. This is where the real growth takes place," Ellis says.
"And they have to trust," he continues. "I get these tough kids with this attitude 'stay-away-from-me.' Well, on that unicycle, they'll fall unless they hold my hand. What are they going to do? They want to be on the stage, so they stick with it."
Credit where credit is due. The Hiccup Circus did not invent these insights. Its knowledge, inspiration and work are modeled after the famous Cirque du Soleil, which for the last 13 years has been working with inner-city homeless youth.
At its peak, the Hiccup Circus averaged 40 tours a year and visited schools and libraries across the state and nationwide. Ellis has scaled back the traveling, preferring to concentrate on the Puna community. And that's a noble undertaking. In this isolated rural area, as in so many Hawai'i communities, risky behavior runs high, especially drug and alcohol use. "A lot of times, it is a cry for attention," Ellis explains. "Obviously, in the performing arts, once you are on stage, you have that attention."
Few positive after-school activities are available for kids, but marijuana, ice and alcohol are plentiful. The after-school circus keeps children away from these riskier alternatives. When kids are busy, they don't have time for anything else.
Or, in Lyla Bell's words: "It is always something that I feel really good doing. I look forward to it every week." Bell is a 16-year-old student in Puna, a unicycler, acrobat and fire spinner, who has been with the Hiccup Circus since age 5.
Does theater, such as the circus, really help in the fight against substance abuse?
"Fact is, more than 50 percent of all kids do not use drugs or alcohol," says Alan Shinn, executive director of the Coalition for a Drug-Free Hawaii. "But we can't predict who they are. And of those who experiment, about one in six will run into problems – the national average. We can't say who these are either. So it's best to create prevention programs that address all of our youth. The problem is about engaging kids and getting them involved. Alternative activities, like the circus and the performing arts, can do that."
But the performing arts have an even greater power. Low self-esteem is a risk factor that increases the chances of a child making an unhealthy choice. The performing arts address this issue head-on.
Accepted and welcomed for who they are, kids learn that everyone has something important to contribute. Differences are embraced and utilized. Cooperation is rampant. Practicing together, helping each other, the younger keiki learn from the older, stronger ones. Gaining a sense of equality is, of course, an important building block in growing up healthy, caring and responsible.
The children make new discoveries about themselves, such as, "Wow, I can sing!"
"Kids gain social skills, they learn to collaborate and negotiate," comments Carolyn Wright, director of Drama Education at the Maui Academy of Performing Arts. "These are skills that, out there in the world, allow a child to put forth his or her own stance when offered an unhealthy choice, without giving in to peer pressure."
Formal research to prove the effectiveness of the performing arts is scanty. No one knows exactly why the performing arts are so powerful in building self-esteem. But never mind statistics. The University of Michigan recently concluded a 20-year analysis with a statement that the impact was undeniably real. The Arts Education Partnership in Washington, D.C., has compiled a vast document – Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development – in which numerous studies show a direct connection between dramatization and self-esteem. Medical organizations nationwide are experimenting with the use of the performing arts as a tool to teach healthier lifestyles.
Although the Hiccup Circus is unique, several theaters across the Islands actively involve our keiki, motivated by similar values. These programs have no doubt that the performing arts strengthen relationships, build trust, and bring people together. When the stage is the school, life's driving issues – let's say, for starters, love, sexuality, hate, greed or grief – become the curriculum.
Performers rehearse until they uncover their own deepest truths. This is self-discovery at its finest. What a powerful tool for a child.