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hildren from the Hidung Merah Circus (HMC) recently shared smiles and skills with members of Pucung Growong, a stiltwalking group from Yogyakarta, in a gym at the Jakarta International School, South Jakarta.

"Before today, I had already learned how to walk on stilts, but they were handheld ones," Ajiz, one of the HMC members, said.

He claimed he was curious to learn stiltwalking without aids, like the child performers from Pucung Gowong.

April, a junior high school student who joined the circus in the sixth grade, also said she had learned stiltwalking before.

HMC, a social outreach program, currently has 45 students from disadvantaged neighborhoods in Cilincing, North Jakarta.

HMC was formed in 2008 by an expedition for the NGO Clowns Without Borders.

The program uses circus skills, such as juggling and plate spinning, as empowerment methods, in addition to teaching English, reading, music, writing and mathematics.

These skills don't provide instant poverty alleviation for the members, whose parents work extremely low-paid jobs such as shelling shellfish, but they help increase the children's self-confidence, members say.

HMC members have showcased their abilities several times through shows, sometimes held in their own neighborhood.

That afternoon, the children from HMC had the chance to learn yet another skill from Pucung Growong, through a stiltwalking workshop.

Inside the gymnasium, children and adults practiced walking on a rubber ball, juggling and, of course, walking on stilts. Some of the children were helping members of the stiltwalking group build stilts using pieces of wood, screws and bolts.

"The stiltwalking group called me up and said they wanted to teach these kids how to walk on stilts, and I thought, *That's great,'" Dan Roberts, professional circus performer and founder of the HMC, said.

He said the stiltwalking workshop also offered a good opportunity for the HMC members to socialize.

"*The workshop* is a chance to work with other social programs. It also lets the kids here work with other kids," Roberts said.

Jamaluddin Latif, founder of Pucung Growong, said the group was first formed after an earthquake hit Yogyakarta in 2006.

The disaster left many traumatized and Jamaluddin and his friends from Teater Garasi, Yogyakarta, attempted to provide relief to children in Pucung Growong, a village 45 minutes from Yogyakarta, which was heavily damaged by the quake.

The theater group visited the village and held performances involving stilts.

"I discovered that almost all of the children there knew how to walk on stilts," Jamaluddin said.

However, the stilts that the Pucung Growong children used back then were handheld ones, which did not allow the user to do much else besides walking.

When Jamaluddin and his friends performed using stilts that were strapped to their feet, thus leaving the user's hands free to do other things such as juggling and playing music, the children were intrigued and wanted to learn how to use them.

"Currently, we have 30 members, and we perform regularly in Yogyakarta," Jamaluddin said.

He was apparently in for another surprise that day.

Some of the HMC members began their stiltwalking lessons with wobbly steps and some even fell a few times before managing to walk properly.

According to Roberts, the HMC members still needed more practice to be able to include stiltwalking in their performances.

The HMC also needed time to build their own stilts. That day, only two pairs were successfully constructed.

Stiltwalking was only one of the important lessons the children learned today, Roberts added.