Telling children that people just cannot fly on their own may not be a good idea. After all, it could be a little embarrassing to be proven wrong by the little ones’ creative minds. “I want to share the experience
Telling children that people just cannot fly on their own may not be a good idea.
After all, it could be a little embarrassing to be proven wrong by the little ones’ creative minds.
“I want to share the experience of what it’s like to do dance in the air,” Annabelle D’Artois said.
The Canadian-born dancer/circus performer has been teaching aerial silks on Kaua‘i for a little over three years. Despite having students ranging from 4 to 50 years old, she says her focus is on the children.
“When they start something young the potential is limitless,” said D’Artois, adding that she’s only been doing aerial silks for six years. “If I had started young I have no idea where I’d be right now, and I can just imagine all the possibilities.”
D’Artois’ bread-winner is performing aerial silks, teaching it, dancing and playing with fire. After all, she’s a fire dancer, too.
D’Artois said the children usually end their first class exhausted but “really excited.” When the class is over they don’t want to leave or let go of the fabric.
“They walk away, and then they run back and jump back on, trying to sneak something in,” D’Artois said, laughing.
As a performing artist, D’Artois can easily spot the children making up their own art on silk, even at their first class.
“We are like monkeys. We like to climb on things,” she said. “We like to move our bodies and find different ways to move our bodies. It feels good,” she said. “They don’t even know that they like that, but their bodies tell them that they like to move and try new things.”
As soon as she shows the children that what they’re doing is safe, they start to create new positions, she said.
“I’ll teach them my little routine, and they’ll throw a move in there, something I’ve never seen before. They say, ‘Oh, I made this up,’” D’Artois said.
D’Artois teaches different classes all over the island, mostly outside. She carries a rig that can be set up in as little as 10 minutes. The rig expands to 17 feet high, and as long as there’s flat ground it’s good to go.
But she also uses the nature to her advantage, hanging her silks from trees.
“The kids love it,” said D’Artois, explaining that the children get excited from learning by the mountains and the ocean, over the grass with the wind blowing all over the place.
At first glance, seeing D’Artois perform looks like something out of this world, impossible to imitate. But that’s not what she says.
“If they come to a class I’m able to get them into positions, and get them doing tricks on that first day,” D’Artois said. “To be able to share that with people and say, ‘here you can do it too,’ it’s so amazing.”
Surprising to most, the prettiest things in aerial silks are usually the easiest ones to learn, she said.
D’Artois’ athletic and flexible body looks quite strong, but she swears she can’t do even one pull-up.
“I have a different type of strength. It’s more to do with coordination,” she said.
To those who think it’s a dangerous art, D’Artois says it’s a lot safer than it looks. She said she tried surfing before, but was scared.
“I can’t control the ocean, but I can control the fabrics,” she said. “You have complete control the whole time.”
There’s a building process, she said, but this process goes pretty quick.
Despite that the majority of D’Artois’ students are girls, boys also attend her classes.
D’Artois says she loves to see how the children transform during her classes. Some of her students are so shy that they won’t even talk to her in the beginning of the class, she said.
“At the end of the class they’re yelling, they’re singing, they’re asking to do more. Their confidence just blossoms,” D’Artois said. “You see these kids completely evolve into something else.”
It’s difficult to imagine that just a little over three years ago nobody was teaching aerial silks. And D’Artois only started teaching it because some of her friends asked her to teach them.
Now D’Artois’ classes have become so popular that one of her students has gone on to teach her own class. Other who have learned from her now perform professionally alongside her on Kaua‘i and even O‘ahu.
“What I’m doing is trying to give them a spark, give them something they can choose to play with for the rest of their lives and take in a million directions. It’s like giving them a new tool that on this island wasn’t available to them before I came,” D’Artois said.
Check out D’Artois’ performance Dec. 4 at the Cirque du Kaua‘i, at Common Ground, Kilauea.
On Dec. 18 D’Artois will perform again, this time at the Jungle Night Festival, at the Church of the Pacific, Princeville. On this show, her little students will perform for the first time for an audience.
Go to www.cocoonaerialdance.com for more information, or contact D’Artois at 634-8731 or annabelledartois@gmail.com for class schedules.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@kauaipubco.com.