2013 Fire Dancing Expo Lineup

What: 8th Annual Union Square Fire Dancing Expo
Where: Union Square, San Francisco, CA, USA
When: April 27, 8 PM
Who: Read below
Cost: Free

Bring a blanket, chair, ear muffs, hot drink and join artists from around the world for this fire dancing extravaganza! Temple of Poi, in conjunction with Union Square Live, are pleased to present the largest, free, legal, public fire dancing show in the Western Hemisphere celebrating it’s 8th year in 2013. Enjoy a 2+ hour family-friendly program featuring artists of all ages and skill levels as they wield a variety of flaming tools on this beautiful Union Square stage.

In addition to the fiscal support granted through Union Square Live and Temple of Poi, we wish to give a special thank you to those who made this event possible because of the generous donations to our Kickstarter.com 2013 Fire Dancing Expo campaign.

Here’s a look at what’s in store for you on April 27 in Union Square.

	VestaFire Entertainment (Karina Strong & Katlan Irvine) The beautiful song “Cosmic Love” by Florence and the Machine inspired the creation of this act, along with exploration of the similarities between off body hoop and contact staff. Our focus in choreography was always the relationship between the characters, and incorporating dance, interaction, grace and beauty.
Elsa Seal Since 2008, Elsa has used the hula hoop for regular mind-body practice to understand & unlock movement. Through the hula hoop she blends meditation-in-motion with a fluid rhythmic dance that releases her spirit and captivates audiences.
	Flashtastic & Don of Solar Flare Flashtastic and Don of Solar Flare weave soulful, sensuous choreography with unusual tools and a dramatic flair. When not dancing with fire, Flashtastic (Rachel Rajput) is the owner of Left Coast Power Yoga in Grand Lake, Oakland (www.leftcoastpoweryoga.com) while Don (Keenan) spends his time practicing Capeoria, fine art dealing, and creating original paintings and sculpture. For booking info, check us out at http://www.solarflarefire.com!
Rebekah Paramour Rebekah Paramour is an East Bay based fire performer, flow arts instructor, and freelance professional badass. She is dedicated to spreading the joy of movement, flow, creative expression, and playing with fire.
	Difinity (Cressie Mae, Chelsea Loops & Britt Dawg) Difinity’s Cressie Mae, Chelsea Loops and Britt Dawg represent the infinite flow of devine energy and love!! This mesmerizing trio brings to the stage, for the FIRST TIME ever, Twizzle Hooping…ON FIRE! Enjoy this fiery, funky twist…twizzle hooping with the Difinity crew, simply isn’t your ordinary hoop dance!
Juggling John Goodwin John Goodwin returns the Union Square Fire Dance Expo this year with his fire devil sticks. He is an artist local to Oakland. John is a Fire Dancer, Martial Artist, Magician, Fire & Flow Arts Teacher and sometimes Clown.
The Pyroneer Originally from Constance Lake First Nations, and now residing in Toronto, Canada; The Pyroneer is a multi-talented fire spinner who has spent years developing his talents wielding a multitude of fire toys. Specializing in Poi, he can dazzle audiences with his exceptional skill and style. The Pyroneer was given his name after he was the first person to use Fire Poip; a new fire toy which combines Poi and Fire Mini Hoops. He has also developed skills with Staff, Hula Hoop, Native Hoop Dance, Devil Sticks and Juggling.
	Lara Hopwood and Krissy Humphreys of the Vulcan Crew Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Krissy Humphreys and Lara Hopwood of Vulcan Crew and Enlightened Fire combine over ten years of fire dancing and prop spinning performance to create beautiful and breathtaking entertainment for a variety of audiences.
Katlan Irvine of Vesta Fire Entertainment At the age of 14, Kat’s father promised him $100 if he could learn how to juggle. Well, he earned that $100, took the skill and ran with it. Less than ten years later, Kat is a well rounded performer specializing in juggling, single and multi ball contact juggling, poi, contact staff, folding fans and rope dart, just to name a few. He also enjoys candle-lit dinners and long walks on the beach.
	Wonderland (Satise Dizon, Cressie Mae, Scotty Poi Simpson & Nicole Wong) Wonderland is a fiery fairytale for the ages. Journey with Bay Area performance artists Satise Dizon, Cressie Mae, Scotty Poi Simpson, and Nicole Wong through their smoldering, sinuous retelling of Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland, where everything is not always what it seems.
kahunahula Kahunahula rocks his hoop all over the Bay Area as a soloist and as a member of the fire and glow troupe, Solar Flare. His innovative performances combine power, fluidity, and dexterity into an engaging high-energy dance. Honored to be returning to the Expo, Kahunahula will show you firehooping like you’ve never seen it.
	Fire Proof (Antonio Gomez & Jim Hendrickson) Fire Proof, is a second year fire performance project made up of two very dapper gentlemen, Antonio Gomez and Jim Hendrickson. Antonio and Jim bring complementing styles of capoeira, urban dance, gymnastics, and acro-free style disciplines to their high-energy, hot to the touch fire performance.
FIRE-n-BLISS (Chris Armas, Jennie O’Keefe, Barbie Demman, Heather Delleney, Riko Tagashira & Chris Crescent) FIRE-n-BLISS is a newly formed fire dance company from Los Angeles, CA. We use fire tool manipulation with dance to extend past the limitations of the human body to create unique imagery, movement, and expression of the human spirit. This year’s performance, “The Fire of Fosse”, is a tribute to renowned dance choreographer Bob Fosse, and a playful examination of how Mr. Fosse may have utilized fire tools in his choreography. “Live like you’ll die tomorrow, work like you don’t need the money, and dance like nobody’s watching.” ~ Bob Fosse
	Jeremy Croxton Jeremy Croxton is an Orlando based flow artist with a true passion for play. Blending the theatrical and the technical Jeremy creates a fairly unique, if slightly unhinged, style; captivating his audience and leaving them with a smile on their face.
Tori Johnson Tori Johnson has been spinning poi for roughly five years. For her poi has become a beautiful outlet of self expression and passion. She will be performing a freestyle act, enjoy.
	Rachel Blue Rachel Blue with solo rope dart, performing to Emancipator’s “Safe in the Steep Cliffs” as remixed by Erothyme.
Firish Colleen Sullivan & Kimi Keating Firish was created in 2010 by founding member Pixie Sullivan, who brought together her skill as an Irish dancer with her love of fire performance. Firish has included an evolving and revolving group of performers over the years and is very excited to be participating in it’s second Fire Expo.!
	Nova Nova is a professional fire dancer, teacher, samurai and ninja, working and teaching at Temple of Poi. He started spinning fire dart, swords and staves in June of 2010 and two months later, picked up poi and fell in love with it. In September of 2010, after attending his first fire festival, he decided to make fire dancing more than just a hobby and it became his life.
Intergalactech Tara McManus and Krisstina Hawks Tara and Krisstina are co-founders of the Floasis in Brooklyn, NYC, a communal space where flow artists can come to practice, learn and share their skills! Their work organizing and teaching at the Floasis and at festivals around the country keep the skill shares and community flowing in NYC and beyond! Krisstina Hawks is not only the cofounder of the Floasis, she is also cofounder of Ninja Pyrate, a modular fire and flow equipment company. Her favorite hobbies are kit drumming, fire spinning (Double Staffs, Dragon Staff, Contact Staff, Fans, and whatever you hand her to play with), break dancing, aerial and partner acrobatics, making stuff and doing stuff!
	Sarab Elnar (Mirage of Fire) Patricia Aishah, the Random Spark & Jamie Gamal Sarab Elnar (Mirage of Fire) is a Middle Eastern inspired duet featuring the debut fire performance of their multi generational act by two professional Rak Sharki dancers. Dancing to modern poetry (by Sufi poet, Antoine Lammam) combined with a very classical Arabic drum solo; “We are very excited to share a spicy taste of the exotic Middle East with you; fusing Fire, Poetry, Music and Dance in one art piece.”
David & Sonali David and Sonali are a performing duo from the San Francisco Bay Area with a fire act heavily influenced by geometry and symmetry. They paint a picture with fire, as they tangle and weave together in a fun-to-watch performance.
	Emily & Izzy These two local ladies, Emily Urie and Izzy Dennis, are bringing you their first collaboration: The Promethean Caper. A combination celebration of clowning and conflagration… OK, not conflagration, but clowning and fire arts! Emily is a long time circus nut and a veteran of the Expo stage. Izzy has been a fire dancer for three years, and a professional goofball for as long as she can remember.
Cirque Mei Mei Rae Rae, LoLo, Melanie and Cheryl Cirque Mei Mei (meaning “sister” in Chinese) is a collaboration between hoop and belly dancers of a family local to the San Francisco Bay Area. Rae Rae and LoLo bring their sassy jazz experience to fire hoop dance. One generation above them is their mother and aunt, Melanie and Cheryl who also as sisters have been performing belly dance together for over 6 years.
Infinite Ballers Paul Savage & Russ Megowan Paul Savage and Russ Megowan are two super boss firespinners out of Oakland, CA. Due to fire marshal regulations, they can’t throw their props on stage, so they decided to throw themselves around and do flips while looking like bosses. Be sure to check out their super awesome boss piece this spring!
	The Evansville Fire Family Chris Albert, Brandon Edwards, Kayla Dahmer, Sarah Jones & Chris Owens The Evansville Fire Family was established in 2010. Born and Raised in Evansville, IN, we represent the heart of the Mid-West. Our motto is, “In Fire, We Lust”.
GlitterGirl & The Amazing Zihni Shimmering across the fire circle at a local festival in 2010, seasoned pro performer Isa ‘GlitterGirl’ Isaacs was reinvigorated when the captivated, youthful and fledgling artist Erol ‘Zihni’ Efendioglu caught her eye. Sparks flew as they began working together, cultivating their super hero identities through both partner poi workshops and their emerging performance duo. 2013 catalyzed the second installment from this unlikely pair as they bring their playful energy back to life and swing (dance) into action in the fire premier of their piece, “Rivets & Rhinestones.”
	Dylan T Bradley In the two years since Dylan Bradley moved from Alaska to the west coast, he has fallen head over heals for hoop dance. After attending Fire Drums in 2011 Dylan became filled with inspiration and dove deep into hoop practice and training. Hooping changed his mind, body and spirit and and he began to feel passion for something like never before.
Controlled Burn Jason Smokey James Brown, Beau Borders, Roger Stimson, Carlyn Perona, Dave King, Erika Wesnousky, Nicole Fairfield, Jenny Lynn Herz, Alexander Sizzle Porten, Tiffany Marie Sharp, Annamarie Marzilliano, Brenda Ashworth, Mark Ashworth, Evonne George, Alissa Warner, Denise Warner, Bryan Warner, Tom Fougner, Amanda Brown, Kurt George, Bernie Beauchamp Controlled Burn is Northern Nevada’s all inclusive fire performance group. We were founded in 2000 as a non-profit volunteer organization. We are committed to performance, education, and training of interested individuals in our performance arts.
Luna Del Fuego Luna Del Fuego is an alternative model and performance artist based out of the Southern SF Bay area. She has been performing on stages across California since 2007, and has been featured in various popular media and press around the Bay Area. Her performances are a mix of her background in Musical Theater, dance and stage performance, mixed with fire of course.
photo coming soon!	Cary Jerome Cary Jerome has been dancing with fire since 2008. This will be his second appearance in the Union Square Fire Expo, in an attempt to follow his debut performance, in which he set the bar pretty high by stripping down to his boxers.
photo coming soon!	TaleSpinners Paul McCluskey, Will Long, & Connor White Student trio with a red hot tale to spin.
MzJan Returning for her second appearance in the Fire Dancing Expo, this 59 year old mother of three will show you how to put on your red shoes and dance the blues.
photo coming soon!	Justin & Pierre (Justin Widmar & Pierre Baudin) Having spun together for years this is Ministry of Flow’s Pierre and Justin with their first choreographed Duet.
Connor and Pique (Connor & Pique) Connor and Pique have been spinning fire for about six or seven years, but just crossed paths in April 2012, when Pique’s fire troupe was scouting for conclave recruits and she stumbled across Connor at a local spin jam. The two formed an instant and easy connection, both realizing that they’d just met the fire partner they’d been searching for. They began practicing together immediately and within a couple months had put together their first choreographed fire duet. Connor & Pique began performing their work publicly in August 2012, at taverns, clubs and private parties. They are both members of Aries Fire Arts Collective, continuing to work on new duet pieces and larger group choreography.
	Glitch (of Aries Fire Arts Collective) & Danablaze (aka sk8mama) (of Raven Us) Danablaze and Glitch met about a year ago in the North Bay sharing in the joy of fire dancing. Glitch, 27 has been a performer with Aries Fire Arts Collective for 4 years performing with staff, poi, fans and hoop. She has been fire dancing since she first experienced the joy of flames in college at UC Davis. Danablaze, 53 started in midlife as a fire spinner and loved it from the first rush of heat while learning fire poi. She performed in the 7th Annual SF Fire Expo with Raven Us and with Sekhmet’s Tribe in the Fire Conclave at Burningman. Tonight these ladies perform a slow dance piece together as similar Elements Tantalum and Niobium flowing through the Universe.
Fire Afoot Glenn and Patrick are performers with Fire Arts Collective Conclave. They started preforming rope dart together a year ago and are excited to have the chance to come together with a rope dart duet.
photo coming soon!	Vanessa Kent & Jeff Beckman This contact staff duet is set to the tune of a jazzy, big-band sound. The contemporary take on Lawrence Welk’s music from the 1950’s scores the creative and playful dance of this pair. Vanessa and Jeff create a whimsical duo that harks back to a simpler time.