Twirling, fanning, spinning fire and even sporting it as a crown – for flow artistes Sarena Beri and Yacobeh, ‘to play with fire’ is not a warning but a calling. “There’s something we say among fire dancers – that fire has energy of its own, it possesses you and brings you more energy,” says Rohan Jacob, who goes by the stage name Yacobeh for his flow arts performances. An engineer by qualification, he first saw fire dancing at a concert in Goa and it was love at first sight, as he recalls, “All the performers were so in tune with the music and the audience – it felt like a reactive dance, where everyone was using each other’s energy to fuel the performance further. It was life-changing for me.” Over a decade later, Jacob, along with Beri, run Indie Flow, teaching flow arts, including fire dancing to Bengalureans, while bringing their awe-inspiring fire performances to private events, breweries, festivals and this Saturday, to Wonderla.
At the core of it all is ‘wellness through play,’ explains Beri, who was a lawyer before deciding to pursue her passion. “We often get asked ‘What does this do for you?’ It wasn’t an immediate attraction for me and I didn’t understand it till I started practicing with Jacob and another friend, when there was nobody else doing this in Bengaluru,” says Beri, adding that the practice is different from the end result people see.
“Learning a trick can take 30 minutes, a few days or months. But as you’re doing the same thing over and over again that’s when movement meditation and the concept of wellness through play comes in – the repetition has a calming effect on the mind. What you see in shows is us adding tricks, choreo, expressions and making it a performance,” she explains.
For the duo, who taught themselves through YouTube videos and had to import props like poi (prop with a ball and wick on each end which are set on fire) at great cost in their early days, it took two years before they were ready for their first fire dance performance. Now they make and sell them too.
Starting off with learning poi, they expanded to fans, hula hoops, dragon staffs and more. Recalling a moment that always gets a big reaction, Jacob shares with a smile, “There’s a move called an orbital with poi in which you interlock the chains together and create a rippling buzz saw effect, which goes on for a long time. It never fails to get the audience going, ‘Wow, what have I just seen?’.” Sarena adds, “I love fans and palm torches because they allow me to express myself in a more dance style – they’re feminine, beautiful props.”
With the beauty, though, comes caution too, even as Jacob notes that ‘The thrill of exploring always takes over the fear of getting burnt.’ Sarena explains that precautions start well before ensuring a safe venue layout and having fire extinguishers ready, saying, “The first line of safety is that you need to be skilled enough not to drop a prop. We also use a relatively non-volatile fuel like kerosene for the fire, wet our hair and wear cotton-based costumes – no polyester, paper or feather costume elements.”
