90&9: Healing through the arts
What happens when a circus performer and a songwriter put their talents together to help prevent suicide? In one word, “Fighter.”
The concert will be shown on Sept. 1, 2022, at the Orem Scera Shell in Utah as part of Hope4Orem’s yearly community event meant to promote mental health awareness.
Darla Day is an experienced Cirque du Soleil circus performer. Her husband, Nik Day, is an experienced songwriter. The two combined their talents to create a large-scale cirque production that addresses difficult topics with spoken word, original pop songs, singers, circus acts, dancers, and aerial performers.
The “fighter” is about a phoenix rising from the ashes. The main message in Fighter is that our problems may never go away, but we can still lead meaningful, fulfilling lives by getting out of our own heads and helping others. Fighter encourages the audience to fill their lives with good, uplifting thoughts and actions. Fighter consists of original pop songs and spoken word pieces that are supplemented by dance numbers, and circus acts. It is sure to entertain and inspire audience members of all ages.
The show has a host of youth performers, and the helpers backstage are mostly local professionals. “You’d never know it was kids,” Darla said.
Darla and Nik Day own an event entertainment company, 90&9. It promotes healthy living through media and the performing arts. It provides experiences that help youth see the beauties of life and have an increased desire to thrive and help others.
“I grew up in Orem and went to Timpanogos High. I love Orem, it’s my hometown, and anything I can give back to my community, I’m excited to do,” Darla said. “We hope to uplift the heavy-hearted through the arts. Our goal is to create confidence and resilience in our youth and our community.”
Cathy Ambrose, Hope4Orem Executive Director said that shows such as this one can help with suicide prevention. “It’s one more tool to add to the toolbox. Modeling inclusion and resilience on stage in a way that captures the attention of youth may bring a spark of light that becomes the first step of seeing a path out of the darkness,” she said.
Sources:
- https://youtu.be/tX1Mh_wOp1s
- https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/2022/aug/21/musical-production-planned-to-help-prevent-suicide/
- https://www.90and9.org/
- https://www.facebook.com/90AND9EVENTS/
- https://us-east-2.console.aws.amazon.com/polly/home/SynthesizeSpeech
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