Fire Dancing On Tuesday Night

I normally blog about pool here, but this time I wanted to post about my Tuesday night.

It all started last Tuesday night when I wanted to do something different with my kids. The Corning Preserve in downtown Albany is a pretty neat place, so we went to McDonalds, got food, and brought it to the preserve to 'picnic'. There's a playground there so after eating we played tag. Then we walked down the path along the river to get to the floating dock. We watched the bait fish jumping for a while and then started to head back since it was starting to get dark. That's when Caitlin heard it.

Bongo's. OF COURSE Caitlin couldn't resist!! I'm pretty adventurous, so I said, "Sure.. let's go see what's going on.."

Apparently every Tuesday night a group of people get together at the amphitheater at the Corning Preserve to Fire Dance. No joke. Colin, Caitlin and I walked into the MOST amazing thing!! To turn the corner and have not only bongo's, but 12 string guitars, a sax, and people flinging fire around like it was cool was just beyond words.

So beyond words.. I just HAD to give the exact experience to others. So, I started inviting friends and family to an event that they had to just go to, but not know what it was. Knowing would ruin the whole 'unexpected' experience. Guess what? People actually came even though they just truly had to trust me! These are the people that went (minus Colin & Caitlin who were also there):

From left to right: Tauss, Camile, my brother Mike, Bill, Stefan, Darla & Hayner

We had the MOST amazing time! We all met at the Golden Cue and left from there. Of course I was late.... what's new. But they were all patient and off we went. I forgot my camera so all the pictures are from my iPhone, which takes the most horrible pictures ever, so I'm sorry the following aren't very good... but you'll get the point!

Here there were three people using what's called Poi. Basically, that is the two balls of fire on separate ropes. The large ball of fire you see is someone that is at the start of their sequence.. they dip the Poi in a fuel then set them on fire.. they have an excess of fuel at the start so to prevent the fire from actually flying off the Poi, they remove it by twirling fast into the ground.

And this is Caitlin :) Last week she danced to the music and someone taught her and Colin how to hula hoop (which, mind you, I then had to go buy hula hoops on Wednesday!) This week she wanted to do the Poi.

Now this guy was just sick!! He actually could juggle SEVEN!!!! And he'd change the pattern of the throws.. this guy was amazing!! And clever... I got to talk to him briefly at the end - neat guy.


This is a better view of how they remove the extra fuel.. check out the line of fire. Some would use extra fuel on purpose and create a ring of fire around them - that was cool.. sorry I didn't get pic's of that!!


This was one of the bars. They could roll this around their necks, arms, shoulders! Colin and Caitlin made a friend that let them use her Poi that lit up with led lights. They had soooo much fun!!


Here's just another cool pic of the Poi in action.


That's the friend that Colin and Caitlin made and the light up hula hoop. But do you see the guy with what appears to be a ball of flame in the background? Well... that's exactly what that was.. a ball of flame! He had on sleeves of fire retardant material and 'played' with the ball of flame up and down his arms!! No joke! He couldn't keep it on his arms very long.. it would drop and the guy would shake his arms, I can't imagine how hot that was!! They were standing way back because this group of people really were very safety orientated. They were all very, very careful. Anyone new to the group had to ask permission to light up and then be watched very carefully with the safety throws. The guy in the next picture could juggle bowling pins on fire and he would stand way far away also. The city knows and allows this group to get together every Tuesday, I can't say how impressed I am! Of the city AND of the performers!!


I'm so horrible with names! I talked to this guy for a while. His dad was a clown and even was in an Elvis movie!! He was soooo good with Colin and Caitlin. He let them touch everything and he even sat and taught them the beginning juggling moves. Great guy!

So..... next time I ask you to do something, but you just have to trust me... do it!