Fire Dancing
The MossyBacks have joined other local pyrotechnic artists in performing with fire. The idea was sparked by the local event dubbed "Trolloween," hosted by the Fremont Arts Council (Fremont is a neighborhood in Seattle). Why not set our sticks on fire and dance (tried the hankies- didn't work too well). With some serious engineering we turned our sticks into torches (we are now up to revision 4.0).
We have performed for several years now, each time adapting a traditional Cotswold or Border dance to work with fire. We were excited that although many of the other "fire art" performers thought our performance was wonderful- they didn't know it was a morris dance.
Unlike our usual devil-may-care attitudes, we take great care and multiple precautions with these dances - the sticks are heavy and the fire is real. Here is a practice. Safety glasses are mandatory, the coats are sprayed with flame-retardant beforehand, fire extinguishers and torch extinguishing materials are close by...
