In a studio in Hilo, a group of aerial artists taught kids and teens circus arts, including flipping upside down using silks, balancing on a hoop, and juggling hats.
The energy was loud and supportive as one teenager, who is nonbinary, said they always wanted to be a clown. With enthusiasm, one instructor taught the group how to give the illusion of making their head disappear using a hat.
Last week was the grand opening of Aerial Arts Hawaiʻi's Queer Youth Circus Club. It’s a free social club that teaches self-identifying LGBTQ+ youth circus arts while connecting them with like-minded peers and instructors.
“I wish I had those kinds of role models when I was a kid,” said Zoë Eisenberg, co-founder and creative director.
She said she wished this resource had been available in the early 2000s while growing up queer in Connecticut.
“Circus artists don’t fit into the traditional fold, which is why so many of us are queer and neurodivergent, because we already were looking for things that are a bit outside the box,” she said.
The social club was also a direct response to the Trump administration’s policies, such as the elimination of the 988 suicide prevention hotline option for LGBTQ+ youth.
Eisenberg said she and her partner, Bella O'Toole, wanted to create a safe space for LGBTQ+ teens to be themselves and develop confidence while learning aerial and circus arts.
The studio is 1,800 square feet and large enough to fit 150 people. It was a former warehouse that Eisenberg described as rundown when she and O'Toole found the place. With some renovation and saving up for equipment, the co-founders spiffed up the studio.
The Queer Youth Circus Club was community-funded by donors who contributed $4,600 to make the program free for LGBTQ+ youth ages 11 and up.
This was something that surprised Eisenberg because the company's adult program was criticized in the past.
“We’ve had homophobic pushback, so to be able to hear loudly from members of the community like, ‘No, we do want you here. We do support you.’ It’s really great,” she said.
Breaking barriers
Circus arts, particularly aerial arts, have been gaining increasing visibility within the LGBTQ+ community.
Aerial yoga instructor Patrick Faris, who is gender fluid, grew up as the only gay child in the 1990s in Iowa. Faris’ father took them out of tumbling, saying it was “too girly.”
Faris got into aerial arts 15 years ago when they were in Iowa as a way to stay in shape, but it has become so much more to them. Many say that aerial and circus arts are a way to break down gender stereotypes and misconceptions.
“Defying gravity is something I think we’ve all done,” Faris said. “A little kid having a flying dream. We don’t have them as much as we get older. In my 40s, being able to look at myself now, my 20-year-old self, my teenage self, is looking at me saying, 'That’s not me.'
“I do believe it takes effort, but it gets better. This is one of many different avenues that have made it better for me," Faris said of aerial and circus arts.
Three kids signed up for last week’s class. Two belong to Hilo resident Malialani Dullanty.
Her youngest, Kai, has already been attending the studio, practicing silks. Her oldest kid, Rory, is new to circus arts.
“Having a nonbinary kid in a space where being nonbinary is difficult enough,” Dullanty said.
She said Rory came out when they were 9 years old.
“It felt like a perfect space where we already knew a lot of the adults, and they felt comfortable with them,” Dullanty said.
Dullanty said Rory has had a tough time for the past year, to the point where she had to pull them out of public school because they were bullied for being nonbinary.
But seeing her 12-year-old in the club gave Dullanty a sense of relief.
“It's been so good to watch them laugh and enjoy themselves and have fun,” Dullanty said, adding that she didn’t anticipate them attempting the more complicated aerial arts in the class. “I thought that they would kind of stick to clowning, but it's cool to watch them try the more complicated stuff.”
The social club is available every Wednesday, with this week’s class already doubled in size.
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