KEY POINTS:
When a German stranger called Thomas Hinz drove up to the Kaurilands Skills Centre for the intellectually disabled four years ago, it was the centre's wildest dream come true.
"He said, 'I wish to start a circus'," says Shane Lardner, who then chaired the centre's trust. "I said, 'Gee, mate, you're just the guy we're looking for'."
The centre was already unusual. Its disabled clients have held the Kaipara District rubbish collection contract for the past decade. Two are members of the Ruawai Lions Club.
"They were super-fit," Mr Lardner says. "We found that having them fit, not only is their body fit but their mind gets fitter."
But he and Kaurilands co-founders Mike and Jeanne Mudford felt there was still a gap. "If only someone could teach them hand-eye co-ordination skills," Mr Lardner said.
And then out of the blue came Mr Hinz. Then 37, a former factory worker in the depressed East German shipbuilding city of Rostock, he had started a youth club for disabled people and taught them painting, sculpture - and the circus.
Burnt out after several years, he took a holiday in Egypt, fell in love with another tourist, Frances Kelliher, and came home with her to Baylys Beach, west of Dargaville. In this unlikely place he has founded a circus.
"Circus Kumarani", named after the district's kumara crop, now has a cast of 50. A third are intellectually disabled and the rest are local children, their parents and circus enthusiasts.
Baylys Beach resident Jeanette Wade enrolled her son Daniel, then aged 7, as soon as she heard there was a circus in the village.
"When you see something great, you just want to be part of it. My son was looking for something to do," she says.
She found herself roped in too. "Thomas said, 'Here's a diablo. Here's what you can do with it'."
The diablo, a two-headed top which performers throw to each other and catch with a piece of string, is one of the milder acts in a show featuring spinning plates on a stick, juggling with big daggers, smashing a piece of concrete on a performer's stomach and clowning to music.
Jason Hopper, 28, a short, scrawny, bespectacled resident in another local trust for the disabled, Greenways, could not concentrate on anything for more than about 30 seconds until he joined. Now he walks the tightrope, backwards and blindfolded.
"He wouldn't have talked to you two years ago," Mr Lardner says. "Now he walks up to you to talk."
Jason Falwasser, 35, as tall as the other Jason is short, walks on stilts, juggles and does things with fire.
Gary Calder, 28, invented the character of "Kaipara Moa" for his performances on stilts and has helped to design costumes, choose the music and suggest stage sets for the show.
A severely autistic man who can hardly speak put on a clown costume and suddenly found a means of expression.
"He took on the total persona of a clown," says Cindy Vincent, Kaurilands' programme co-ordinator. "There's been a huge change in their self-esteem and confidence. It's broadened their ability to interact with the normal community.
"You just have to see the look on their faces when they do the show.
"When you are working eight hours a day with them, you tend to see their disability.
"Thomas came in and didn't see the disability. He saw the ability and has been able to draw that out of them."
Activities like juggling build new connections in the brain, improving the ability to concentrate and boosting the intellect.
"We have one young man who wanted to learn to read," Mrs Vincent says. "Two years ago that wouldn't have been a thought in his head."
Mrs Wade says Daniel has also shot ahead in reading since joining the circus
One thing it is not, as yet, is a secure income for Mr Hinz and Ms Kelliher, who had their second child in December. They got Health Ministry funding for a year and have raised money from the ASB Trust and other charities.
Mr Hinz is now funded for a year under the Government's Community Initiatives Fund to teach circus and mentoring skills to 10 others throughout Northland, who will use the skills in their own groups.
But already the circus bug is spreading. A small Northland Circus Festival which began last summer will be repeated on a much bigger scale at Kai Iwi lakes, 35km north of Dargaville, from January 19-21, drawing performers from Europe and the United States. A buskers' festival will follow in Whangarei's Town Basin on Auckland Anniversary Weekend.
"We have a waiting list. We could run more classes, it's just that I'd have to clone myself," Mr Hinz says. "That's what I'm trying to do now with this [CIF] programme."
Where the money comes from
* The Community Initiatives Fund is paying Thomas Hinz $66,667 for a year to pass on his skills to other community groups in Northland.
* The fund, established by the Ministry of Social Development in 2004, pays up to $75,000 a year for up to three years to "innovative social development projects run by community leaders that will make a real, tangible and measurable difference within their communities particularly in relation to families".
* Other projects funded to date include a "Jones Seven" life and career planning programme for Manukau 12- to 17-year-olds, a "Future Leaders" scheme for young refugee and migrant women run by Auckland YWCA head Di Paton, and projects with Somali women and older Chinese people in Auckland and Hamilton.
* Applications for 2007 close on February 7.
