Everyone always asks: “How did you get into fire dancing?”

 

It’s a valid question. I wasn’t embedded in luau culture growing up in suburban New Jersey. I always loved dance and cheer but the closest exposure I had to anything resembling flow arts as a young person was hula hooping at field day in elementary school and playing with devils sticks as a teenager at Phish concerts. I didn’t even know anything like fire poi existed until I was 19 years old and made a new friend who introduced me to the art in Berkeley, CA. 

 

Sanaz was a part of a Polynesian cultural club at the University of California. She used to practice in our backyard and I’d never seen anything so enchanting before in my life. All I knew was that I wanted to try. I had no agenda about showing any talent or becoming skilled in fire performance. At the time, I was a busy student taking summer courses and working as a lifeguard and swimming instructor at the university so I set a goal to learn someday when I had more free time. Someday…

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There’s a lesson here about listening to your gut when you’re called to do something. Truth be told, I put the idea on ice for a few years. But it resurfaced from the ether. Fire dancing – I always wanted to try that! I'd lost track of my old friend Sanaz by then so where in mid 2000s San Francisco could anyone find anything? The answer was our neighbor, Craig. He had a list. And sure enough, I typed "fire dancing" into the search and found a woman named Belva Stone offering lessons in her SoMA loft.

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Belva was from Vancouver and learned poi from Nick Woolsey, who is arguably the granddaddy of modern fire poi dancing. We met twice a week for six weeks learning poi fundamentals and fire safety. Belva was also a stickler for flowing to all types of music and not just the locally popular deep house and psytrance sounds of the time. "Moving Right Along" from The Muppet Movie and the Red Hot Chili Peppers cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" featured in our warmup playlist every time the class met.

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For our last session, those of us who wanted to try fire went to the rooftop together and took turns burning and cheering each other on. The only things I remember from my first burn were the skyscrapers of downtown San Francisco in the background with the loud swooshing of the flames. Fire is loud! But I loved it so much and I wanted to keep going.

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Fire has kept me going through the majority of my adult years and has led me to experience many new forms of creativity. It’s my hope that sharing my story about how I tried fire for the first time inspires you to try something new that has been tugging at your heartstrings. It doesn’t have to be fire specifically, it can be anything that moves your soul. It’s never too late to try something new even if it is something unconventional. 

 

Listening to your intuition and honoring your inner flame may lead you to some of the greatest experiences of your life. Be brave!