Fire Performers FAQ's

 Flow Arts is usually used to describe the meditation of movement-based artforms that put together dancing while using tools, props or toys to create beautiful patterns using said tools. Prop manipulation in its finest form. Fow Arts can be used to describe a few more well known things such as Hula Hooping, juggling and sphere manipulation, but there is a large list of much more. We primarily focus on Fire Dancing which is using props designed to sustain the heat of fire and create mesmerizing performances.

 Fire Performance / Fire Dancing is not an activity to take lightly. Behind the scenes there are several safety procedures that international fire performers follow that are your basics, such as your first aid kits, fire towels, wet towels, dipping stations, fire extinguishers, fire spotters and safe words for when parts of the body does (in the extremely rare instance) catch a light. It is a safe practice under the correct safety requirements and arrangements as well as self-awareness and a level of crowd control for areas such as street markets or tight spaces. We religiously practice safety routines such as “spinning off” your fire equipment and performing basic moves for the first 30-45 seconds of lighting up a piece of equipment to allow the excessive fuel to spray off. During the spray off period and the first few seconds are the most dangerous, however, under the correct training, concentration and focus the risk is phenomenally low that you will harm yourself or anyone else.

We highly recommend that you only wear non-flammable or somewhat fire-resistant materials such as cotton clothing. Additionally, if you have long hair, we recommend tying that up or wearing a hoddie that you can tuck your hair in. Depending on both your confidence and skill, you could even wear baggy clothing. However, we recommend you get to intermediate level with your training first before that!

The trial period we have is merged with our community lessons which are every first two Friday’s of the month from 18:00-20:00. Additionally, if you want a private one-on-one trial session, that is also possible. You may reach out to us via WhatsApp or email for further information.

 Head over to “Services” on our Website and select “Fire Performers Training”

You should bring something to keep you hydrated. Wear comfortable clothing that you find easy to move in, either barefoot or with cushioned, padded or soft soles. Wear something comfortable, but not too baggy for your first few lessons, as the equipment can get caught on your clothes while trying to learn.

That would be a rather interesting and adrenaline rush situation, but fortunately you will not have to worry about that. We have our actual props and then we have our practice props and toys. We will allow you to use our practice props during your training period.

This field is extremely flexible and has little to no end to learning the possibilities of different props. Staff is a light start to get you going on the basics and we highly recommend that as a starter to your journey. While our lessons do aim to have individuals confident in their ability to handle a prop, do a few tricks and movements within a month, but at the end of the day with learning skills, everyone does progress at a different pace when it comes to intermediate and advanced stages. The discipline, commitment and hours that you put into your practice both at the sessions and at home will determine your timeframe to learn.

We prefer pupils aged 10 years & higher. However, we can cater for lessons for younger age groups starting at 8 years of age. Please reach out to us via email to finalize details for those below the preferred age.

At Fire Performers SA, when you, yourself feel confident enough to start the process it is up to you, however, we do have a schedule in place of movements and tests that we would prefer you take to ensure that you are fire ready. The tests usually involve things such as not getting completely tangled up in your equipment primarily while performing different movements. You have to have guts to be ready to perform with live fire and we will be happy to assist you getting there 🙂

When we speak about tools, props, toys we are referring to the performers’ staff, poi, dragon staff, contact staff or any other type of equipment that they use while they perform.

Hiring Fire Performers is a high-risk activity and can be quite pricey, but we can guarantee you that you and your guests will not be disappointed with the performance that we provide. Feel free to head over to our “Services” section and select “Hire Fire Performers” for fees & pricing. Additionally – you can also make a reasonable offer to us via email or WhatsApp and we are more than willing to consider your request 🙂

Yes, we do. Currently we sell practice props & fire equipment – Staff & Poi only at the moment. We do aim to sell more items in the future, such as contact staff, dragon staff and a large selection of other props.

On very rare occasions do performers get burnt. But yes, it has happened and when you play with fire you are bound to get burnt! But please take note, this is only under irregular circumstances, we have practices in place to prevent anything of the sort happening in the first place that we follow from our safety manuals.

There are very limited legalities behind fire dancing and fire performance. While certain areas and venues allow it, it is prefered to check with your local area first before attempting to play with fire and it depends on where you perform, too. Fire Performers SA is currently in the process and mission of finding the correct information and requirements for fire performance. Night Markets such as Sweet Dale, Mardi Gra and certain establishments such as The Hillbillion Estate and TO Strand in KwaZulu-Natal have allowed us to perform for them. Additionally, our old team members – Fire Academy Education moved to Cape Town and performed for one of the biggest U18 Events in South Africa in 2022-2023. But when they performed at certain beaches they were informed that permits were needed or a more isolated beach was preferred. As it stands now, this is a variable and depends on location from location in South Africa. Our mission is to make it completely applicable with the correct safety requirements and permits, if needed.

We use Paraffin to light up our fire equipment that is made out of Kevlar. We set up a dipping station at each venue and pour about 5LTRS of paraffin at least into our dipping container and the equipment is then soaked into the Kevlar left to stand for a few seconds or until the bubbles stop.

We currently have just over 20+ professional performers in our group and around 15+ to-be-performers who are interested or currently learning.

Apart from the physical, mental and emotional benefits, there are several others. When joining our team at Fire Performers SA, we act as agents for all of our performers through the gigs that we acquire through our pages and interactions with individuals interested. Full time and “graduated” performers are given access to hundreds of content collected for learning new skills, lessons and the opportunity to learn among other professional peers in the field. With the vast amount of skills, movements an individual can learn in Flow Arts, it is really quite never-ending, so we provide you will full time support, assistance, guidance, information, endless streams of lessons and a free copy of our “poi” book which is filled with all sorts of guidelines and moves from beginner to advanced.

You can join us on South Coast Beaches KZN – usually Uvongo Beach as that is in the middle of where the majority of performers are and easy to access and get to without much hassle. We perform every first two Friday’s of a month from 18:00-20:00, followed by about 45 minutes to an hour after the event concludes by talking about movements, skills, events and many other things!

We of course would love to get to that stage, but at the moment that is still in planning and if we are to travel nationwide the fees would take a bit of drastic change. So we plan to open up multiple branches with our team leaders around the country, until then we do not perform nationally, but only on the KwaZulu-Natal Coast.