The members of Prometheus, the University’s only fire spinning troupe, wasted no time rekindling their passion for danger this semester. The fire spinners spent their first weekend back on campus in Beckham Hall participating in a series of workshops led by professional performers and artists from surrounding Connecticut.
Visiting fire spinners and circus performers led classes in techniques such as fire eating and flaming hula hooping. Prometheus alumnus Ian Michael Smith ’05 led a choreographic intensive class, focusing on the technical skills and choreography of advanced fire spinning.
“Good instruction in fire spinning is pretty hard to find,” Smith said. “You probably can’t find a performance and choreography class in fire dance anywhere else.”
On Saturday night, the collective of fire enthusiasts descended on Andrus Field with a jam session—an un-choreographed performance for the fire spinners to test out the new techniques they had learned.
“It’s not a performance,” said Kimberly Prosise ’11, the current captain and safety coordinator of Prometheus. “It’s just for us to get out and practice some of the things…it’s us goofing around and having a good time.”
Of course, fire spinning isn’t all fun and games. Even Smith, a veteran of Prometheus, has been burnt.
“There’s a classic burn when you’re doing staff between your arm and torso, but I’ve never been seriously burnt, and those don’t hurt that much,” Smith said. “The really annoying ones are when you hold your hand over the flame for too long.”
According to Prosise, the techniques Prometheus members use are relatively safe. However, there are certain skills, which are too risky to even attempt.
“Fire breathing is very dangerous,” Prosise said. “It involves taking fuel through your mouth and blowing it through a flame. I don’t allow that in Prometheus because it is so dangerous. People die from it or are permanently injured.”
Despite the obvious risk factor, Prosise and Smith noted that fire spinning is on the rise, particularly on the East Coast. Prosise got the idea to hold the Prometheus event after attending WildFire, a bi-yearly fire spinning retreat held in Ashford, Connecticut.
“On the West Coast it’s lulling a little bit,” Smith said. “It used to be an underground fun thing where no one’s really that good, then people started taking it very seriously, which discouraged others.”
Smith traces fire spinning back to pre-colonial New Zealand, where warriors used poi—a ball on the end a string that evolved into the poi used by fire spinners today—to train their wrists. After being colonized by the English, poi became incorporated into dances performed by native New Zealand women.
Fire spinning first appeared in the U.S. in San Francisco, where performers would dance with flaming knives.
“Modern fire dancing comes from the Internet,” Smith said. “People started doing it and posting videos and it just grew. It’s developed its own technique.”
At the end of the weekend the visiting performers packed up and moved on, already looking for their next gig.
“A lot of the people who are coming to this workshop are teaching for a free place to stay and free fuel,” Prosise said. “That’s kind of how the community is.”
Smith returned to Oakland, California, where he lives in an old steel foundry, converted into a series of lofts and titled the Vulcan, which houses a growing group of fire spinners and performers.
He majored in economics while studying at Wesleyan, but took whatever dance classes he could fit into his schedule. He hopes to make a career for himself in spinning and modern dance.
Prosise hopes she will be able to continue to pursue fire spinning after graduating from the University and passing the Prometheus torch onto the next generation of fire enthusiasts.
“I want to do so many things, but I don’t think fire spinning is something I’m ever going to drop,” she said. “It’s so much fun and I love giving people a really memorable experience. It’d be nice to at least break even, since it’s kind of an expensive hobby.”