Poi/fire theory needed for essay on fire performance

hi all, i'm a keen fire performer, and am currently trying to write an essay on fire and performance for my thrid year at uni - but i'm having trouble finding some theory, books, articles, essays to back me up....so i wondering if anyone had ever come across any sort of theory on why we, as humans are compelled by fire, why we perform with it, and fire in theatrics....anything at all would be trully helpfull! thanks ! x

The reason people are amused by what we do? Fire scares people. Their fear is caused by their misunderstanding of fire. For them to see someone wield this ancient element as if it were soft, fluffy, and not dangerous at all is amusing. It is the same reason people are thrilled by stunt men and magicians. The masters appear to have no fear, and that amuses people. Think about it. The first time you saw a 3 beat it was AWESOME!! But now its old news. Now its the 3 headed poi doing acrobatics while blind folded that gets you excited. Why? Because you understand the 3 beat.

thanks for your reply, and i'm in total agreement, but i'm looking for actual theory i can quote within my essay to prove my argument....

fire performance also dates back to ritualistic and transformative rights.....does this have any relevance in todays use of the elements within performance?

Yeah FatGuru is totally right. Seeing someone weild, play, and even spin fire scares people, entertaining them.

http://eprintstetumu.otago.ac.nz/14/01/Paringatai_Poia_mai_taku_poi.pdf

http://janthonyallen.com/compositions/media/playing_with_fire.pdf

http://www.drama.org.nz/ejournal_single.asp?ID=24

http://www.nafaa.org/index.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-fire-dancing.htm

http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=1740

http://www.savodnik.com/pdf/IS_NOV03.pdf


Ok some of these are more helpful than others. Some are just other places that you can ask people.
And don't forget the history articles on our webpage

One other thing you could do is create a survey. There are a lot of websites where you can do that. And then you can get it out there by email or if you have webpage. Then you could find out why people now perform with fire.

Just some ideas