So You Want to Play with Fire?

Dancing with fire is enjoying a bit of a comeback and ranges from simply dancing near candles or an open fire pit to dancing with fire fans, candles, candelabras, or pots of flame. It's flashy and dramatic, but let's face it: It's also dangerous! No matter how confident or prepared you feel, no matter how many times you've practiced a particular move safely, no matter how much you feel in control of your fire source, accidents can and do happen with potentially disastrous results. This document does not endorse dancing with fire, but if you must do so, it contains some important safety tips, but by no means all.

Important liability clause: Dancing with fire is extremely dangerous! When you do so, you are putting yourself, your venue, and your audience at risk of burns, property destruction, and even death! Following every safety tip in this document does not guarantee that you won't kill or hurt someone (or something). This document's sole purpose is to promulgate some basic safety tips to decrease the odds of injury/death/destruction for dancers already engaged in this dangerous art. So don't come crying to me if you're playing with fire and get hurt or (worse yet) hurt someone else!

That said, if you are absolutely bound and determined to play with fire, here are some important things that you should know (note: this is not a complete list. If you have other suggestions, please e-mail them to me and I'll add them here).

1. Never wear a flammable costume or veil. Different materials have different responses to flame. Petroleum-based fabrics like polyester, nylon, & acetate flare up like gasoline when exposed to flame. Worse yet, they melt and stick to things the way napalm does when they burn. Since this can cause hideous scarring or worse, you never, ever want to wear petroleum-derived fabrics when working with or near fire.

   Plant-based fibers like rayon and cotton are also pretty flammable, but at least they burn cleanly into ash. They're also not a great choice for performing near open flames.

   Animal-based fibers such as leather, wool, and silk tend to be fire-resistant. The heavier the material, the more resistant it is, so lightweight silk habotai is far less fire-resistant than heavier dupioni or silk noil. A juggler who performs with fire sums it up as follows: "When working with fire, wear leather, wool, silk, or nothing at all in that order of preference."

   A very important thing to do if you're planning to perform with or near fire is to burn-test the fabric of your costume (ideally before you make it) by cutting off a small strip (1" x 6"), and exposing it to fire (like a lit match) in a controlled manner. I like to burn-test my fabrics outdoors in a metal bowl. You will quickly see how your costume would react if exposed to fire + come to respect and fear polyester.

2. Never wear hair spray when performing with fire. Hair is normally only moderately flammable, but hair spray (and other hair & body products) can be extremely flammable. When in doubt, leave it out!

3. Realize that even if your costume is fire proof, your audiences' clothing is not! As my juggler friend puts it "very little goes up in flames as quickly as a woman wearing nylon stocking and a rayon dress". If you choose to work with fire, then you are responsible for your audience's safety, which means that you have to be 100% capable of keeping the fire away from them. Crowded venues (like restaurants) are therefore not good places to perform with open flames. I have heard stories of expert dancers who had full control of their pots of fire when an careless waiter bumped into them with nearly disastrous results!

   In the same vein, NEVER work with fire that can escape your control. For example, if a bowl of liquid fire were knocked from your head (or hands) it could splash over anyone in the audience, with deadly results. Similarly, if a tray of candles were dropped, they could roll all over the place, even up to the feet of a hapless woman in a polyester dress. Thus any fire that you do work with MUST be firmly affixed to its container. For example, candles can be firmly sealed onto the innocent-looking tray that holds them. Liquid fire is overall a bad idea, but if you must use it, try getting a metals-artist friend to bolt pumice stones and/or an asbestos wick to the container holding it and then only apply as much oil as the stones can absorb. Before you light it, turn it upside-down and shake it. Did any oil come out? No? Well, that's a big improvement over the bowl-of-oil approach and just as flashy. Test your flame's affixion to its container. Make absolutely certain that if you drop it, it won't go far.

4. Gasoline goes kaboom! I have to say this, but if you didn't already know it, please, please don't work with fire: you have far too much to learn first. Similarly, if you haven't spent hundreds of hours staring into fires, then you probably shouldn't work with it. Remember that Loki (the Norse God of domesticated fire) is a trickster, presenting himself as a charismatic friend, but turning on the unwary with sudden vicious destruction.

5. Be extremely aware of fire hazards in your venue. There may be other things besides audience members that are flammable in the location where you're dancing. I once danced in a very old building that had flammable paint on the Styrofoam ceiling panels! Worse yet, the raised stage put the ceiling at the height of my up stretched arms! Obviously, you would not want to work with any kind of flame in such an environment.

6. Have a contingency plan. Is there a fire extinguisher in the audience? Do you have an assistant who is holding it and knows how to use it in case the unexpected happens? What would they do if a person caught on fire? These are important things to know and plan against.

7. Whenever possible, use closed fire sources instead of open ones. For example, small candles set into round, shatter-resistant jars are much safer than ordinary, exposed flame candles. The ones that I like to work with are quite securely enclosed and unlikely to do anything except extinguish themselves if dropped. Of course, that still won't protect me if I dip a polyester veil into one, so remember all of the other advice.

8. Practice! Practice Practice! Never use a lit flame without successfully practicing your dance 100 times with an unlit one. Also, consider using water instead of fire for effect. It's much less dangerous & just as much of a crowd-pleaser.

9. Finally, don't get overconfident; Even if you've done a particular trick successfully before it's still dangerous! And always keep your flame foremost in your awareness 100% of the time for so long as it is lit.

If you have any other suggestions or recommendations, please e-mail me and I'll be happy to include them.