Tucson Celtic Festival Performance

I am the leader of a group in Tucson called Elemental Artistry. We were given an amazing opportunity to perform for the Tucson Celtic Festival last evening, November 1, 2008. We received a standing ovation from the crowd and their enthusiasm helped to charge our performance beyond a capacity that any of the members could have imagined. I was so proud of all of the fire dancers! We have worked so hard on this performance and many people overcame some pretty incredible obstacles. Dancing with fire can be very frightening and when you add an audience and the pressure to do a great performance it can begin to feel fairly intense. But all of the 25 members, 8 fire dancers, 8 fire goddesses, and 3 musicians, as well as 5 fire safeties all stood up to the challenge.

The performance that we gave for the Tucson Celtic Festival was designed to be a fire ritual honoring the God Samhain, as well as the New Year celebration. We had a storyline from beginning to end. The start of the show was a woman giving the audience an idea of what the ritual was going to be about, through spoken word. And then the goddesses entered the stage followed by Samhain. There were people off to the side of the stage visiting our beautiful altar honoring our ancestors who have passed away where we left candles to guide them home, incense to cleanse their passage and food for nourishment and the hope of another bountiful harvest.

Samhain took fire from the first pot and used it to light the pots of the goddesses who then used their pots to light the torches of the fire dancers. The show continues from their filled with fire eating, fire breathing, poi, long staff, contact staff, baton, fire fans, flaming swords, flaming jump rope, palm torches, big pots of fire, votive candle dancing, rope poi, music, dance, celebration, and fantastic fire manipulation skills. Thanks to one and all for coming out and supporting us and being a part of such a transformational evening. If you would like to contact us for future performances or events please contact me at (520) 990-4048, or email me at michelle@firegrace.com.

Stay tuned for our video and clips of the performance within a week or two!