Engulfed in flames
SUPER POWERED: The shared love of fire, flow arts, and performance is what brings members of Ignite Fire Dance together, exciting locals with their flamethrower-like skills.
LIGHT ME UP: Torches, poi rings, and orbitals are all tools that flow artists like Garrett Donaldson use in performances, which can also incorporate fire.
FIERY SKY: Ignite Fire performers use a special mix of lamp oil to shoot flames across the sky.
Local fire artists find peace in the middle of infernos BY SPENCER COLE PHOTOS BY JAYSON MELLOM
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on’t try this at home,” Shayne Mastriano says before guzzling a mouthful of highly refined lamp oil. He’s careful not to swallow the liquid that his peers claim tastes like a combination of candle wax and coconut oil. Mastriano sidles over to join his troupe of fellow fire artists assembled in the backyard of a large house at the end of a cul de sac in Arroyo Grande. It’s sunset. And the fire artists are growing restless, even before they all filled their mouths with flammable oil. The group is well known across the Central Coast, from Santa Maria to San Luis Obispo, under the moniker Ignite Fire Dance—a name that has grown in stature over recent months. At the end of October, some of the troupe’s antics were featured on Comedy Central’s Tosh.O after a video of them went viral. They were filmed moving a ball of fire up a parking garage with nothing but their lungs, oil, and will power. “I feel like a lot of us have been doing this a long time and I really wanted to see us come together as a performance troupe, and breathing has really done that,” member Johnathon Felch whispers as the group settles into place. It takes precision to breathe flames, let alone in coordination with multiple fuel sources and flame wielders. Most novices practice for months with water just to get the right technique down so they can successfully spray the liquid out as a fine mist. “You’re concentrating on the shape of your mouth, the position of your tongue, the pressure from your lungs, and creating tension with your core,” Mastriano explained moments earlier. “And you have to concentrate on your breathing because you can only breathe through your nose.” Safety is of the upost importance, not just due to the risk of a random spotfire in a backyard or park, but also for each fire breather’s health. “The most dangerous part about breathing fire is not catching yourself on fire or anything like that,” Mastriano says. “It’s giving yourself chemical pneumonia through breathing in the unlit fuel vapors or molecules that get into your lungs.” Fortunately, this isn’t Mastriano’s—or anyone in attendance tonight for that matter—first rodeo. “Mm (1). Mmm (2). Mmmm (3),” Fire artist Levi Morin counts behind closed lips. Whoosh. Flames erupt from five mouths, forming an amorphous blob of fire and heat above their heads. The sound is reminiscent of a high-powered blowtorch. “It’s a little bit more empowering [breathing fire],” Morin says, before wiping excess oil from his face. “Once you’ve played with fire, there’s levels of danger and satisfaction that are achieved with breathing it over just spinning props. It’s embracing your inner child, being a pyro, and of course, that big boom.” He makes an explosion gesture with his fists. “It’s like setting fireworks off in your backyard when you’re a kid.” Gwendolyn Hodgson, decked out in a Kitana costume from the video game Mortal Kombat, says she was drawn to fire artistry for myriad reasons but in the end, it came down to the comfort and peace it offered. “I just want to be able to dance and have fun and flow,” she says. “I kept wanting to perform and have community—be a part of something that’s deeply rooted—and this is something that helps me be comfortable in front of other people.” Samantha Jones, who goes by the stage name “Sami Kat,” understands such a perspective all too well. As a sword swallower and fire eater, it’s important to be comfortable and confident in yourself and the people around you, especially when you’re licking live flames out of existence. “It’s all about timing, and uh, saliva,” she explains, before demonstrating how to properly extinguish a burning torch with her tongue. “You definitely want to inhale before you ever eat because if you don’t, you get fire in your lungs, and well ... just don’t overthink it.” ❍ Contact Staff Writer Spencer Cole at scole@santamariasun.com.
Fantastic fire
Learn more about the fire-filled flow by checking out Ignite Fire Dance on social media. Find them @ignitefiredance on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
SUNSET PLAY: Just before twilight in Shell Beach, Shayne Mastriano performs fire artistry with orbitals while fellow Ignite Fire Dance member Levi Morin tosses and twirls a fire flowerstick.
SPINNING CIRCLES: Garrett Donaldson flows in an Arroyo Grande backyard. Kevlar poi on the end of chains are soaked in white gas before they’re lit on fire.
HOOPS ON FIRE: Nikki Kaminski spins two firehoops at a wedding in San Luis Obispo for Ignite Fire—a fire performance company based out of Santa Maria.
DANCE PREP: Garrett Donaldson, Levi Morin, Shayne Mastriano, and Johnathon Felch (left to right) prepare their fire torches, poi, and wands for a performance at Spyglass Park in Shell Beach.
EAT IT: Sword-swallower Samantha Jones sticks a fire wand in her mouth. Getting burned is inevitable, she said—it’s just a matter of degree.
FIRE BREATHER: Fire artist Gwendolyn Hodgson from Ignite Fire Dance helps spit a fireball at a group practice in Arroyo Grande.
IGNITED: The Ignite Fire Dance troupe performs fire artistry at weddings, birthday parties, special events, and festivals on the Central Coast and beyond.