Flying through the Air with the Greatest of Ease: Aerial Arts on Hawai’i Island
By Ma’ata Tukuafu
If you’ve ever been to a circus, the trapeze performersʻ seemingly effortless performances might have intrigued and inspired you. In the past five years, several people on Hawai‘i Island have begun teaching different forms of aerial arts to all ages.
Zoe Eisenberg entered into aerial arts five years ago, at the age of 25. She moved to Hawai‘i Island from the East Coast to be with family and then discovered the performing arts community in Kalapana. Within walking distance of her home were two aerial programs, one at Kalani and one at Seaview Performing Arts Center for Education (SPACE.) An author, screenwriter, and film producer, Zoe says she had been creative mostly in the mental realm until she discovered this form of physical creativity, which was life changing for her.
“Aerial arts is the first physical type of creativity I’ve been able to explore. It’s both acrobatics and dance, and I can see improvement in what I do. You can see yourself become more fluid and stronger if you put the work in. That’s how I got hooked,” Zoe explains.
Aerial arts encompass an array of apparatuses: aerial silks, trapeze, lyra (steel hoop), straps, slings, and rope. A relatively new trend, aerial arts has gained in popularity all over the world including Hawai‘i Island. There are several aerial studios and dance companies on island, and just a few years ago, local aerialists didn’t even know about each other.
“This is the reason Bella [O’Toole] and I started our company Aerial Arts Hawaii—because we were [all] spread out over the island and missing out on the opportunities to collaborate. People didn’t know we were here. Event producers looking for aerialists would fly talent in from off island. So we gathered up. We are not a true agency in that we don’t take a cut. We launched the company really just to help people find us,” says Zoe.
In 2013, Zoe and Bella started producing shows to give Hawai‘i Island aerialists a place to showcase their talent. In the shows, they perform a duo aerial hoop act, under the stage name Bella + Zoe. The community has responded so positively, they continue to create shows twice a year. Their last show on February 9, 2018 was Love in the Air held at the Hilo Palace Theatre, which sold out. Their next 15-act show at the Hilo Palace Theatre will be a Halloween-themed variety show called Creepshow, and will be held October 26 and 28.
Bella O’Toole began aerial arts about five years ago, falling in love with the art after her first class. She knew this was what she wanted to do. After about a year and half, she became an assistant teacher, and a year after that, a teacher. Within three and half years of her first class, she opened her own company, Mirabilia Aerial Co.
“I teach mixed ages, from eight years old to 50. You don’t have to be flexible or have strength,” says Bella. “It’s so mesmerizing when you see it. Then you try it and it’s so different. You are using your body to do things in the air and it’s amazing because you can do anything, you’re defying gravity.”
Bella used to teach at SPACE, and has moved her classes to Pacific Gymnastics in Hilo. Her passion as a teacher is seeing students progress from where they start, seeing them build strength as they have fun flying in the air.
Two aerial instructors who also started aerial arts later in their lives are Shanon Sidell and Ronja Giesser. After taking their first class, Shanon and Ronja knew they wanted to learn more.
“Sports are not my thing. But aerial movements are different from daily life and something fired off in my brain,” Ronja says. “At that first class I said to myself, I don’t care what anyone thinks, I’m just going to do this.”
In early 2013, both completed their aerial teachers training through NECCA (New England Center for Circus Arts), as they wanted to make aerial arts available to everyone. Starting their company, Hawaii Aerial and Performing Arts (HIAAPA) in the same year, Ronja and Shanon hold classes in both Waimea and Waikoloa. Shanon has a background in theater, holistic medicine, dance and yoga, and had already turned 50 when she decided to attend the teacher training course.
“Anyone can do this if you break it down to their level and ability,” says Shanon. “The focus is fun, fitness and creativity for the average person, young to old, flexy-bendy to rehabbing an injury. Many of our students began in ‘mid-life’ and have grown steadily from there. Our senior class is ages 60 and over.”
The first thing students are taught is safety, which is paramount when dropping from silks or spinning on a hoop. Warm ups, strength training, conditioning tips, and stretching are a must. Beginners learn proper body positions, muscle usage, and basic positions and balances. Respect is taught toward the apparatus, whether silk or trapeze, and all students may learn at their own skill levels and pace.
As Shanon explains, these classes give adults a space to try something they may not have done before. The sense of accomplishment students feel when they are able to try something new is what the teachers strive for. They hold classes for special groups: seniors, people with disabilities, and students who need physical therapy after major surgeries. Ronja adds that though aerialists are athletes, they are not competitive with each other. Students are encouraged to help each other and to work at accomplishing their own goals. After a six-week class has ended, HIAAPA holds a showcase to allow students to present their skills to family and friends.
In Kona, Sarah Parnell teaches aerial arts to students at the Hawaii Action Academy. With an athletic background of rafting, snowboarding, and rock climbing, her first exposure to aerial arts was at Burning Man in 2013. Sarah says she was awestruck by a woman performing on aerial silks who created something magical in the moment, and knew she wanted to try it. Intimidated, it took her a few months to work up the courage to go into a gym teaching aerial silks, however she finally did.
“I was at a point in life where I was craving a new hobby and needed diversity. With this extracurricular aerial activity, I found my people,” says Sarah. “I ended up in Hawai‘i with a turn of events and began taking lessons at a yoga studio here. I got a yoga certificate but wanted to deepen my knowledge of aerial arts. I then went to Italy to complete my beginner certificate and six months later, passed my intermediate level with the same program.”
Sarah began performing for benefits at the Ladies Artisan Market in Kona and a friend connected her with Bella and Zoe. Sarah has performed at their shows in Hilo, and will be the opening act in Octoberʻs Creepshow. Her classes include silks and aerial hoops and she teaches all ages. Sarah says as long people are inspired and open to learning, they will be successful. She creates and hosts retreats around the world which feature yoga and aerial arts, and holds six-week-long aerial camps for kids in the summers.
At Hawai‘i Community College (HCC) and UH-Hilo, Annie Bunker teaches aerial dance, which can take place on any apparatus that allows one to move in a variety of modalities. She uses the single point trapeze, invented apparatuses, lyra and sling, and works with students from age four to adults. A bit different than aerial arts, Annie explains that aerial dance is about transitioning, and the moments between the arrivals, (where the “dance” happens.) The dance, Annie explains, is in those transitional moments between what is referred to as “events,” or what aerial artists call “poses.”
“The concept is that those who are true to aerial dance employ slow time. Slow time is what gives meaning to the transitional moments, those moments between hangs and events with a partner,” Annie says. “Aerial movement which comes from the traditional circus doesn’t make that connection as deeply as the dance, and it is a balanced partnership.”
Annie has always been a dancer and along with her husband Chuck, created a flying modern dance company, O-T-O Dance in 1985. Her first exposure to aerials was a defining moment for her when she watched her mentor Robert Davidson, considered the grandfather of aerial dance, perform on a low-flying trapeze. After Annie received a grant, Robert taught her company for two and a half weeks, a total immersion into the art of aerial dance on the high and low bar trapeze. Their company out of Tucson presented the first aerial dance in the southwest US.
A couple of years ago Robert passed away, and Annie says she is committed to continuing his work of aerial dance, mixed with the modern dance she has blended with it. Authentic movement is so important to our psyches, she says, and her students tell her that after participating in her classes, they find their minds change.
Lilia Cangemi also studied under Robert Davidson. A dancer all her life, Lilia has performed many types of dance and has been with many dance companies. Professionally trained in medicine and journalism, she has a successful practice as a licensed massage therapist and aquatic bodyworker, but has taught dance and performed wherever she was living. Until the lava flow started in May, Lilia was teaching aerial dance and coordinating the aerial department at SPACE.
When the SPACE pavilion was completed, the classes teaching circus arts were mainly targeted to children, and Lilia was collaborating with their instructors assisting in teaching partner acrobatics, modern dance and choreography. When adult classes in aerial arts were offered, the activity became very popular. Eventually Lilia started teaching the adult and children aerial classes at SPACE, while Bella was teaching at Kalani. Soon they joined forces. The women have collaborated on aerial shows, and Lilia has been performing in them since their inception. Currently three of SPACE’s former students are professional dancers, one of whom performs for Cirque du Soleil.
“Aerial dancing develops both strength and flexibility in the upper as well as the lower body. It is exhilarating when you do your first drop, and you can proceed at your own pace, learning in degrees. It is really fun and easier to do than you might think. You surpass yourself very fast, if you are willing to face your fears,” says Lilia. ❖
For more information:
Aerial Arts Hawaii, Hilo: aerialartshawaii.com
Hawaii Aerial and Performing Arts (HIAAPA), Waikoloa & Waimea: hiaapa.com
Hawaii Action Academy, Kona: saraheparnell.com
Annie Bunker, HCC and UH-Hilo: otodance.organne@otoance.org
Lilia Cangemi, Aerial arts teacher at SPACE, Kalapana/Seaview: aquaticdance.com
