As Valentine’s Day approaches, The Conversation wanted to highlight some of the quirkier love stories in the islands.
If you've seen Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Auana show at the Outrigger Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel, you may know that roller skaters Marina Sakhokiia and Chris Tees are married in real life. The pair met 15 years ago and now perform as an acrobatic skating duo in the show’s Naupaka sequence.
The two lovebirds are not the only couple in the cast of Hawaiʻi's first resident Cirque show.
Sophie Brundish and Christian Bazan flip their way across the stage as voyagers on a catapulting canoe.
The acrobatic duo has been together since 2019. They met while working on a show in Macau.
“As we got to know each other, started to work together, we started to train some handstands together, some acrobatic stuff, which was cool. It's something he never did before, and he wanted to learn,” Brundish said.
The pair shared that it definitely wasn’t love at first sight, but they both recognized a synchronicity between them.
“We kind of like, shock each other, of like, what is going on now,” Bazan added. “It was like some big chemistry together at the same time was kind of like a bomb, you know, boom. And I was like, looking at each other, it's like, this is real or not?”
Brundish and Bazan have a gymnastics background that they progressed into acrobatic circus.
Bazan said that it can be difficult to apply for jobs as a couple, but Cirque du Soleil actually reached out to them separately for an opportunity to work on ʻAuana.
The show features Brundish and Bazan in the first act on a voyaging swing.
“We're the Voyagers, we're starting this journey and opening the stage for this crazy adventure to happen,” Brundish said. “We arrive at our destination, and then bring in the audience along with our journey and bring in the magic for them.”
“We have such a deep show that's deeply rooted in the culture here, and we have all the hula dancers, and they're really like the heartbeat of the show.”
The pair shared advice for other couples who work together.
“Trust, patience, and just talk to each other,” Bazan said. “I'm not a very talkative person, but she opens me to talk. And we trust each other. We are being ourselves, how we are in the show, how we are outside as well.”
Brundish said, “Knowing that you're going to be with each other through everything, and trusting even when it's hard, that you have that person and they always have your back, even when it's hard, and you feel like you just want to walk out the door, but just knowing that I choose him and he chooses me, I think, makes you strong, because you choose each other.”
Editor's note: Outrigger Hospitality Group is an HPR underwriter.
This story aired on The Conversation on Feb. 11, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
