At about 9 p.m. on most evenings, you can find Steven Wang swinging his fire fingers in the air, creating six flames that resemble huge fireflies. When combined, these flames can create a massive-looking firebomb.
Wang practices twirling and encircling his fire fingers a couple hours a day, continuing to perfect the art of fire dancing, a rare and dangerous talent that has become more than a hobby for this ASU marketing student.
"Usually we use safety precautions," Wang says, jokingly. "But half the fun is the danger, the thrill of spinning fire and the excuse to play with fire."
Wang has three different types of fire dancing tools that he uses during performances: fire staff, poi, and the aforementioned fire fingers. The fire staff is basically a long pole with two flames at each end. Fire poi are balls of flame that are attached to metal strings that can be spun around similar to a yo-yo or glow sticks on strings, and fire fingers are metal sticks that wrap around individual fingers with fire balls at the ends. Wang is also able to breathe fire, but limitations on space prohibit him from doing it as often.
In fact, Wang needs only about an 8-by-8-foot square area to create mesmerizing streaks of flame that encircle his entire body, leaving the viewer in a trance.
The fire poi is Wang's specialty, but one would be amazed to know that Wang only picked up practicing fire dancing about one year ago.
One evening last winter, Wang was at Club Freedom when the fire dancing troupe known as "Valerie and the Vibe Tribe," performed to a packed club. Wang stayed until 4 a.m. when the show finally ended, joining a mailing list for those interested in fire dancing.
A few weeks later, he received an e-mail from "Fire Goddess Veronica" from the Vibe Tribe, stating that she was teaching a clinic in San Diego on fire spinning with poi. Wang jumped on a plane to Southern California and participated in her clinic.
Soon thereafter, Wang had enough confidence to bring out his poi on New Year's Eve 2003 at Club Freedom, where a few other fire dancers and breathers were performing. Asking the deejay for consent, Wang lit his fire poi and began dancing.
"I was nervous beyond belief," Wang recalls. "I was concentrating more on not burning people than my actual technique."
However, although Wang received a few more invitations to perform fire dancing at other events, he was committed as an exchange student at the University of Leicester in England, and left to study business for the spring semester.
To his amazement, Wang learned that a lot of people knew how to fire dance, and during his exchange trip, Wang improved his skills and learned new techniques.
"One day we were coming back from a rave in London and the tube broke down," Wang says. "We were standing outside the station at 6 in the morning when I met someone who was at the rave, and we ended up teaching each other poi techniques while we were waiting for the next train."
Since he has returned from England, Wang has taken his fire dancing seriously. He is planning upcoming performances during Sparky's Carnival over Homecoming weekend, and also at Spirit and Cultural Day. However, fire marshall regulations as well as a lack of third-party liability insurance has hampered his performance schedule.
Wang is looking for other fire dancers to begin a troupe, and is working on a Web site to promote himself. He is also teaching one other student the basics of fire dancing. Wang says one can learn the basics of fire dancing in a few to several weeks, with proper instruction and plenty of practice.
However, even when practicing, one can hurt or burn him/herself, as Wang remembers.
"One time I missed a beat during a song and grazed my face with a poi. I just shrugged it off and kept spinning," Wang says. "The problem was, when I went home that night, I saw in the mirror that my eyebrows and eyelashes were singed, and the front part of my hair was burnt. The worse part was when I was taking a shower, and I smelled old, burnt hair. It took two or three washings to get the smell out."
And even with the possible dangers of fire dancing, Wang's parents don't seem to mind that he uses their backyard to practice playing with fire.
"My mom once came out and sat down and critiqued me on my fire spinning," Wang says. "She said, 'Well, from my perspective, you might want to improve this,' and 'this seems a little hesistant, otherwise this part is good.'
It was pretty cool, getting coaching from my mom on fire dancing."
Reach the reporter at steven.ganczaruk@asu.edu.