Forums > Events, Performances and Gatherings > New Fire Arts Community Partnership in Dallas TX Area

Posted: 25th Sep 2002
wow, Silver Eyes,

congratulations from OrangeFire/ SoCal, we're hoping to develop along these lines in the future in our region ourselves.

props to y'all, know how much work, dedication, love of fire, & embracing attitude to your pyro family & to your public which this takes.

looking to your beacon to see how you flame it large!

break a huge, huge leg!

~ Mike & your pyro family at OrangeFire/ SoCal

molten cheers,

~ FireMike

FireMikeZ@yahoo.com (personal messages welcome, no promo spam, please!)
Laguna, California, US

Posted: 26th Sep 2002
Thanks, Mike! Hey, I'm still looking for that promised input for our "Pyros in History" page...

Posted: 9th Oct 2002
Hey, I'm not sure if y'all are the same 'pyrokinetic' that practice in a warehouse on Northwest Hwy, but if you are....

I must have left before the people with talent showed up. I heard about how much experience y'all have and was hyped up to meet other fire people in the area until....
I watched a guy spin fire staff who was a total beginner (and shouldn't have been spinning fire since he couldn't hold the staff longer than 30 seconds) and managed to catch himself (his hair, no less) on fire 3 times and struggled to put himself out because the "safety" holding the leather blanket was too mesmerized, or distracted to actually do anything. I'm impressed with the website, but unless y'all added some really experienced people, and took some very basic safety classes, I would be afraid to spin with you again. Furthermore, I'm really surprised that your group booked actual performances before training/teaching people basic moves, as well as safety procedures. Of course, I've never seen your peeps perform, so maybe they weren't the same people that were at the warehouse.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm the shit, but I'm also not claiming to be a professional....

If your group hasn't changed some very fundemental principles, then I'll probably watch you in horror on the news thinking it was just a matter of time...

Posted: 9th Oct 2002
toneman #730, respect for a veteran's eye. was this a PyroKinetic event?

how're things goin with the new programs, Silver Eyes? didn't see you on Betwixt & Between's calendar thru the end of the year yet, got a first class there planned?

toneman's right, ya got a kewl lookin website, i got a design question/ small idea to flourish da frames pages, will e-mail that to you by end of weekend, howzat?

_________________________________________________________________________

Pyros in History

you're ready now, Silver Eyes? i'm not quite, gimme about a week to finish some webwork myself. one thing we did get sorted out, for those who care about actual fire history, is some deep lore on the South Pacific origins of poi, which i'm going to try, even after using it, as what i got sounds authoritative and rare, to confirm. and after finishing a look & slight feel revamp of our site, i've got lots of full-length fire stories to post for us too, including some history in the spiritual sections, and later on we'll look deeper yet into fire as close to play as we can, besides human disaster fires. we are going to link to firefighter sites which have first-hand accounts of fires they've faced.

for Pyros in History, we should really start with the Creator (maybe arsonist) of the Big Bang!

warm as flame on your face,

~ Mike

molten cheers,

~ FireMike

FireMikeZ@yahoo.com (personal messages welcome, no promo spam, please!)
Laguna, California, US

Posted: 9th Oct 2002
hey, i wanna see more pics of you firechicks lit up at Ozzfest!

Talon, Dragon Lady. . . y'all know Ebony Flame, dontcha?

molten cheers,

~ FireMike

FireMikeZ@yahoo.com (personal messages welcome, no promo spam, please!)
Laguna, California, US

Posted: 10th Oct 2002
so where and what time is this going down and where?????
pleze hurry and answer!!!!!!!!!!

-LuNcHbOx, Aka. Nathan...Give a man to fish, and that man knows where to come for more fish...Teach a man to fish and you have just destroyed your market base...

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
all that i can say is...well..tonmean...good point. not to insult anyone or anything in the pyrokinetics...but poor safety is not a good thing...especially when playing with fire..hospital visits are no fun..

congrats however on the join up..hope all goes well...

best wishes

[ 12 October 2002, 10:42: Message edited by: XtremRavR ]

Peace Luv Uni-t Respect Responsa-what?!?! Xtrem

Posted: 12th Oct 2002
answer the post pleze i really want to go to this ....pleze...
i'm begging!!!

-LuNcHbOx, Aka. Nathan...Give a man to fish, and that man knows where to come for more fish...Teach a man to fish and you have just destroyed your market base...

Posted: 13th Oct 2002
Tony - I think you came out once with Ryan back in the early days when we were still conducting auditions and locating talent in the DFW area; we went through a number of such interviews to identify the folks that have gained us our current successful lineup, people with both talent and the ability to adhere to certain professional standards.

Allow me to ease your mind about the 5 o'clock news scenario. We have an ongoing positive relationship with the City of Dallas Fire Dept., which has some of the most stringent standards for fire performances in the state. Not only are they happy to work with us, but they've openly complimented us on the quality of our fire prevention preparation and protocols.

Being allowed to have an open flame performance in one of the city's oldest theatres (the Arcadia) is quite an achievement. Our standards are also sufficient for House of Blues to allow us to perform on their premises, which is no small thing. The success we've had has been earned, with lots of hours of practice and dedication.

It helps to have a good reliable group that can work as a team, which we've been fortunate enough to build in a comparatively short amount of time.

I'm not sure what you're referring to as a "leather blanket", something we've never used; we use duvetyne, which is inherently flame-retardant, excellent for manual suppression and a whole lot cheaper than cow hide Our people do use leather do-rags and wraps or hats to protect their hair - singed hair tends to ruin the ambience of a performance (phew!). Of course, the proof is in the fact that almost every one of our folks has long hair, with no strange missing patches

We're working hard to create an opportunity for all fire and luminous arts enthusiasts in the DFW area to have a safe, dedicated place to practice their particular passion. Everyone's welcome to share knowledge and observations, and if you feel up to the challenge, you're welcome to apply as an instructor.

I've enclosed an excerpt of our instructor interview process below:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Instructor Qualification Process:

As an instructor applicant, you'll be requested to put together a routine demonstrating a series of moves to be taught, with a written outline of your routine submitted in advance. Applicants will be asked to perform their audition routine in front of an audience consisting of performers and technicians, in order to assess technique in terms of both proficiency and ability to provide safety support. At the time of the interview, applicants will also be asked to provide proof of liability insurance.

Instructors are of course expected to be familiar with a prerequisite fire safety class, which includes fire suppression techniques, fuel and fire types, equipment safety, crowd safety protocols, as well as the medical aspects of burn assessment and treatment as taught by our on-staff RN. They'll be expected to know where the CO2, water and ABC extinguishers are located, who the designated safety crew is for each area (fuel dump, performance area, etc.) and which kind of extinguisher to use for any given situation.

Instructors are also expected to adhere to the "no 4:20 rule"; no indulgence of intoxicants prior to classes, demonstrations or practices, whether it's the non-lit basic moves course or the actual fire arts manipulation.

Attire to be worn during actual fire exercises must be inherently flame-retardant or treated with a flame-retardant solution. (Please, no t-shirts or other baggy clothing when demonstrating flaming wraps - it sets a bad example.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If this sort of thing fits with your thoughts on professional presentation and safety, then please feel free to set up a time to audition to be considered for an instructor position; e-mail address is SilverEyes@FireInMotion.com

Requirements for guest performers are similar; I can supply details to interested parties upon request.

==================================

FireMike - can't wait to see what you've got for your fire history stuff, and yes, we know Ebony Flame - saw him just this past Thursday evening, point of fact. You've got my e-mail whenever you're ready to be in touch. As for more pix at Smirnoff - that's the lot. We were a bit busy actually performing, so we had to rely on the promoter to take pix. We'll post more as time goes on, I promise!

We're planning to begin class registration the first week of November, after we've gotten all the logistics worked out. As soon as I hand the info off to the director, she'll be posting it there (provided her web admin's accessible - small issue, goes with the territory of being a non-profit).

==================================

Lunchbox? - we're meeting with the fire Lt. to review the new location this week; if we get the all-clear, practices open to the fire arts community will begin shortly thereafter. Stay tuned for updates, details, etc.

For any comments, questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at SilverEyes@FireInMotion.com

TTYL!

Posted: 16th Oct 2002
... Perhaps I was judging what I thought was an established fire performance group with a developing group. It just seemed that when I was talking to people there, I got the impression that fire performance was a main occupation of a number of the people there. I'm impressed with the safety and training that has been developed in the time since (from your description). I don't know if we met that night, or not, but I am who you think I am. I don't know if you went back and reviewed the tapes you (being the group) made, or not, but you'll see what I'm talking about if you do. Kudos to your perserverance. Please understand that my comments were based on thinking it was a professional group when I was there, and as such, much was lacking! I've put much thought into it, and while I love spinning, I don't think my goals are performance oriented. I work much better in a small group environment that's more people hanging out spinning than choreographing a routine to perform...

If you wanna do that, let me know. I'll show you everything I know (take about 2 seconds) then we can bs!

Posted: 17th Oct 2002
Tony,

Understood. At the time, we had a lot of folks coming through, and all the principals were splitting their time between forming the fire troupe and extremely demanding day jobs. Throw in a borrowed facility that had to be set up each practice, and you have the makings of a frenzy, which isn't exactly conducive to a "best effort". This is one of the reasons we're excited to have the partnership with B&B, and are working hard to build a good trust level with the local fire dept.

We've spent a lot of time learning the difference between being crazy enough to play with fire and doing so in a polished, professional manner, and it's an ongoing process. I appreciate your candor, and you're welcome to come out and spin at any of the open spin practices we host.

We got the "all-clear" from the Dallas fire marshals yesterday for unsupervised practices, so we're going to get the details around hosting the first "open spin" out to everyone in the next few days.

Caveat: these "open spins" are only open to members of the fire/luminous arts community, not the public at large - that was one of the stipulations we agreed to. In order to ensure that, we're probably going to have folks RSVP by e-mail or phone so we can have them on the "spin list" at the gate. More info in the next few days, I promise!

~Carole

[ 18 October 2002, 06:47: Message edited by: SilverEyes ]

Posted: 17th Oct 2002
wow..that would be cool carole!! let me know when you all have this "open spin" for fire performers..im not much of a performer but i looooove to spin..you know that soo pleeeeaaaassssseee let me know when you decide to host this..

ryan

Peace Luv Uni-t Respect Responsa-what?!?! Xtrem