Elddyrkan
I am just home from Eldyrkan, a Fire show by my beloved jester group, Phire, and Wow, am I impressed. Keep in mind that these are the same people who gave me a little fire show for my birthday on the weekend, and who performed at Norrskensfesten this year, and last. Those other shows were good, but tonight's performance was at least an order of magnitude more impressive, they did a very professional job, it was clear that they have worked hard on the choreographies, and everything just flowed beautifully.
The show opened with the igniting (through the gratuitous use of fire-breathing) of a large set of fire-drums, which the boy played with flaming drum sticks. (Can one use the word "boy" for someone playing flaming drums with flaming sticks? The effect would have looked totally appropriate in a film set in a flaming Hell. Perhaps he would prefer the term "demon"? Or maybe not, not everyone would consider that a compliment.)
Since today is the Swedish celebration of St. Lucia, the opening act involved everyone, carrying various forms of burning fire-toys processing in from the back of the audience (to an intricate fire-drum beat), led by a lady wearing the traditional Lucia Crown of burning candles. Given that the show was outside on an evening that was -10 C, and thus the audiance was all bundled up enough to make it hard to turn around (or even have preferential vision) having them come up from behind us like that was really effective. Once everyone was on stage they begun to dance with their fire toys, and there were so many of them it was not possible to see everything at once, but the overall effect was Wow. I did note that Lucia took off her burning crown, in time to the music (there were speakers behind the stage to supplement and, occasionally, replace, the fire drumming). She left it on a low pedestal at the stage edge, where it burned for the rest of the show as a quiet reminder that some traditions are worth keeping, even when totally throwing them onto their heads.
After that there were a number of one, two, and three people acts that all went very well. Fire breathing, poi, fire fans, burning staffs (not necessarily in that order, and often more than one act for each). The final number was another full group choreography--this time I remembered to count, and there were 10 of them on the stage, each using their preferred burning toy of the moment, but even with so many different techniques being displayed at once, it all tied together into a coherent whole. They clearly put a lot of thought and effort into the choreography.
I really enjoyed the show, and it was totally worth spending an hour outside on a winter night, getting kind of cold (why did I not wear my nice fur-lined hood and muff?) to get to see it. I also found it quite inspiring--I think it would be fun to participate in one of these shows one of these days. I don't know when I will find the time to practice so that I would be able to, but if I ever do, I think it will be totally fun.
The show opened with the igniting (through the gratuitous use of fire-breathing) of a large set of fire-drums, which the boy played with flaming drum sticks. (Can one use the word "boy" for someone playing flaming drums with flaming sticks? The effect would have looked totally appropriate in a film set in a flaming Hell. Perhaps he would prefer the term "demon"? Or maybe not, not everyone would consider that a compliment.)
Since today is the Swedish celebration of St. Lucia, the opening act involved everyone, carrying various forms of burning fire-toys processing in from the back of the audience (to an intricate fire-drum beat), led by a lady wearing the traditional Lucia Crown of burning candles. Given that the show was outside on an evening that was -10 C, and thus the audiance was all bundled up enough to make it hard to turn around (or even have preferential vision) having them come up from behind us like that was really effective. Once everyone was on stage they begun to dance with their fire toys, and there were so many of them it was not possible to see everything at once, but the overall effect was Wow. I did note that Lucia took off her burning crown, in time to the music (there were speakers behind the stage to supplement and, occasionally, replace, the fire drumming). She left it on a low pedestal at the stage edge, where it burned for the rest of the show as a quiet reminder that some traditions are worth keeping, even when totally throwing them onto their heads.
After that there were a number of one, two, and three people acts that all went very well. Fire breathing, poi, fire fans, burning staffs (not necessarily in that order, and often more than one act for each). The final number was another full group choreography--this time I remembered to count, and there were 10 of them on the stage, each using their preferred burning toy of the moment, but even with so many different techniques being displayed at once, it all tied together into a coherent whole. They clearly put a lot of thought and effort into the choreography.
I really enjoyed the show, and it was totally worth spending an hour outside on a winter night, getting kind of cold (why did I not wear my nice fur-lined hood and muff?) to get to see it. I also found it quite inspiring--I think it would be fun to participate in one of these shows one of these days. I don't know when I will find the time to practice so that I would be able to, but if I ever do, I think it will be totally fun.