How Students Dance With Fire: Prometheus Behind the Scenes 

If you saw Tyler Schimpff ’26 with a badly broken arm, you wouldn’t expect the other one to be spinning a staff doused in fuel and set ablaze in front of hundreds of people. 

“About a week before [last year’s] orientation show happened, I had an accident, and I very badly broke my left arm,” Schimpff said. “I made a sling out of a cotton shirt, and I did the orientation show performance with only one hand.”

Now, Schimpff is one of the captains of Prometheus, the University’s fire art performance group. The club recently performed during first-year orientation activities, manipulating flaming props to create mesmerizing visual effects.

They are preparing for another performance on Friday, Oct. 24. The fire-bending looks magical, but behind the scenes is a group dedicated to safely spinning props.

Prometheus started as a part of the Alpha Delta Phi Society (ADP) in 1988, but due to interest outside of the fraternity, the club soon diverged.

“The name is from a titan of Greek mythology called Prometheus, and there are lots of different accounts of the stories,” Schimpff said. “Some people say that Prometheus was the one who created humans by making them out of clay but, pretty consistently, Prometheus is the entity that gave humans fire for the first time. So that’s where we get our club name.”

The organization, colloquially known as the University’s fire club, soaks wicks in fuel, lights them up and spins them. According to the captains, all performances are freestyles because choreography may be forgotten in the adrenaline rush produced by loud, hot, glowing hoops of fire. 

“It is really loud,” Schimpff said. “You wouldn’t expect that, but you have giant torches that are whooshing by your head over and over and over again.”

While risk is inherent to the practice, the club mandates specific safety measures. The fire they use burns at a very low temperature, lowering the chance of harm. New members must also pass a test and go through fire safety training.

“In order to [practice with] fire, [new members] have to accomplish two things first,” Schimpff said. “The first of which is to pass what’s called a three-minute test with their prop.”

During the test, dancers must perform without fire for two of the captains; one of them watches for technique, while the other watches for safety. They have to perform for at least three minutes without dropping the prop, hitting themselves, or doing anything that could potentially be unsafe. They must also include at least five different tricks.

“For new members, we have them go through a whole crash course, where they learn how to put themselves out, how to put other people out, and the general rules about fire,” captain Stuart Conrad ’26 said.

Conrad typically performs with poi, a chain with tethered weights on each end that comes from Polynesian culture. Schimpff likes the staff, and captain Soren Stokes ’27 uses both. Prometheus has a large assortment of props: staffs, poi, swords, whips, rope darts, fans, juggling objects, and more. As long as something is fire safe, they do it.

“I did a fun little task of organizing the Prometheus closet before the start of this year,” Conrad said. “So I discovered that we have a lot more insane random props than I thought we did.”

Last year, fire safety restrictions prevented the group from doing more than one show. They are currently rebuilding and welcoming new members of all performance confidence levels.

Practices are held in the Zelnick Pavilion from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. 

If you want to show your parents how to safely play with fire, you can start attending practices to prepare for Family Weekend.

Either way, don’t miss the Prometheus performance on Friday, Oct. 24 on Foss Hill.

Claire Farina can be reached at cfarina@wesleyan.edu.