PART 1: The History of Fire Performers SA, South Coast KwaZulu-Natal
Hello dear readers,
We’ll be diving into our history at Fire Performers SA – where it all started, prepare yourself as it is quite an interesting read and lore into the past of where we started and how far we have come.
Before Fire Performers SA was officially founded in January of 2024, there was a lot that happened before concluding our actions to start this amazing journey, with all of the brilliant people and souls we have met along the way. The beginning of our story starts at Fire Academy Education in January of 2021. Fire Academy Education was a private study center that focused primarily on the CAPS & American GED Curriculum. As the name of the company implies – they had a bit of a special extra-curricular activity that they were known for in the past before the 2020 lockdown.
Fire Academy Education was founded on the principles of Fire Performance and further education, the class of 2021 joined when they had re-opened for physical classes and down the road we met a ton of wonderful people who have both come, gone and some of which are still with us today. Fire Dancing was extremely popular on the coast during Fire Academy’s legacy of roughly 20 years in the business. Zhevaun Roberts (Zee for short) was part of the 2021 class and after a few years graduated his studies and proceeded to begin working at Fire Academy Education, focusing on academic goals for the business and organizing and managing the traditional Fire Dancing on Friday’s on Uvongo Beach.
The business and fire performance was doing exceptionally well. However, the owner of Fire Academy Education (our old Fire Elder) had decided it was time to retire from the South Coast at the end of 2023 and move to Cape Town.
That concludes this story for now dear readers!
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PART 2: The History of Fire Performers SA, South Coast KwaZulu-Natal
Continuing on: The fire elder sold the company to an individual and the business as with new management, always does undergo a lot of changes and challenges along the path, the centrum then dedicated the majority of its focus not on Fire Performance, but rather on academia instead. The class of 2021 had stayed with them throughout this period, while everything was changing too fast the fire performance and fire dancing Friday’s was put on the backburner until further notice, there was an occasional gig here and there under new management, but nothing major.
The new management of Fire Academy Education – or its new name Point @Education #Academy, had relocated the company’s branch and some of its staff members to Gauteng. It was a heartfelt and heavy goodbye to some, not so much to others, during this entire period; Zee had still worked for the company, but decided to stay and try his luck on the south coast instead. With the help of the local community and a handful of members of the 2021 class Zee founded Fire Performers SA in the beginning of 2024 and the company has grown to 20+ members with 15+ in training, the practice sessions had begun again with the assistance of the community and close and supportive friends, opportunities provided by the Sweetdale Night Market and Margate is Magic’s Mardi Gra, these opportunities combined with the consistency and support of everyone behind Fire Performers SA we were crafted and hardened to stand our ground and continue to build.
Followed by endless hours of practice of fire props and practice props, to learn how to make the equipment, fix the equipment and maintain the equipment we acquired several gigs last year that were great investments for our magnificent group of performers and community. To date, we had doubts, but we carried on and persevered despite that. We couldn’t be more thankful for the enormous amount of support and help from our team, friends, family and community without our south coast family, we wouldn’t be able to achieve what we have to date.
Until the next one dear readers!
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The Sweetdale Night Market & Fire Performers SA, South Coast KwaZulu-Natal
Hello again dear readers!
This time we’ll be going into our history at the Sweetdale Night Market! By the time we discovered this gem of a night market it was already fairly popular and had been going for about 2 years. A few team members had decided to take the night out and enjoy the experience at this beautiful market, and then we suddenly started talking about potentially performing at the Sweetdale Night Market and this wonderful atmosphere, not even a few moments later – one of the organizers spoke with us and we told them what we do and how we loved this establishment.
A few days later, we were contacted by the Sweetdale Night Market with a wonderful first time opportunity to perform for them at their venue for the next market. The amount of excitement that went streaming through our system was absolutely hilarious. We are surprised we are still standing after that. Then came the big day that we of course had to make a good impression for our gig and of course ensure the safety of the fire performance area, the dipping station, whether it was safe or not for fire blowing and so on!
We ended that night performing at random times on the clock, just to get a feel for it and try out the experience. After that brillant night, the crowd and staff loved it and we have been performing every month for the Sweetdale Night Market ever since. We could not be more thankful to everyone at Sweetdale, The Packshed, Sweetbike and Sweetgang for welcoming us into their little family so gracefully.
The Sweetdale Night Market is on the last Friday of every month from 18:00-22:00. It is a one of a kind market and we would highly recommend anyone looking for a wonderful night out after a long work month to spend it there, the local produce is great, the food is divine and the atmosphere is the best, accompanied by supportive and brilliant people.
Be sure to check out the next one on your calendar and mark it.
Come and see us, sit with us, ask questions and we’ll be happy to answer any you have in person.
That concludes this story dear readers.
Until the next one!