Kinetic Fire is a 4-day fire performer’s paradise, held May 19th – 22nd in College Corner, Ohio. The event is designed to provide a fun and open-share communal environment in which object manipulators and fire artists from all over the Midwest and the world can learn, teach, and advance together in the fire and flow arts. Kinetic Fire focuses on an amazing workshop program, high energy performances and designated spin time to high-quality music. Fire enthusiasts of all skill levels are encouraged to participate in this exciting opportunity for growth and development as a fire artist, with other motivated members of the fire family at the largest annual gathering for fire dancers in the world.
To stay up to date with Kinetic Fire, follow their facebook page and join the 2016 event.
This year for our first annual Instructor of the Year contest, the Festival directors nominated several outstanding instructors who are pushing the boundaries of teaching and skill excellence.
Doodle
Taught at:
- FLAME
- Kinetic Fire
- FireDrums
- Pacific Fire Gathering
What’s your secret power?
- My secret power is my imagination and creativity, both of which are derived mainly from passion and refusal to be bored, My other secret power is to inspire people to think differently, about fans in particular, which causes may cause a desire for me to teach Then when I teach, I try to teach creativity and imagination… bringing it full circle.
my other secret is practice…..
When you aren’t a flow superhero, what is your Clark Kent alias?
- I am an independent contractor specializing in stamped and decorative concrete finishing
What are your main classes?
- Sliding, Stacking and Folding 2.0 Beginner/intermediate | A lot of tech can be found with these three simple theories. This class will explain the differences between Sliding, Stacking, and Folding, and how they can be used to your advantage while spinning. After we have gone over these concepts the next part of the class will be to work on using these concepts as a transition tool in your spinning. We will work as a group on making some simple variations as well as small sequences to help integrate stacking into your personal flow. This class is ideal for all tech-interested spinners, both new and experienced. There is something here for everyone!
- Body Tracing With Fans Intermediate | Body tracers, even or maybe especially with fans, can be one of the most fun illusions to play with and a good way to incorporate movement into your spinning for both tech spinners and dancers alike. We will go over some simple ideas and basic fundamentals and explain how body tracing works. After we have gotten the feel for what we are doing, we will work on a few simple drills and variations that will have you well on your way to mastering body tracers and incorporating them into your own style and flow.
- The Geometry of Fans (beginner-advanced) | Let’s take a look at Fans from a different angle. Here, we dig a little bit deeper into the tech fan world and start giving it some definition. This is a class not just for the fan spinner trying to learn new tech, this is a good class for spinners of all props to come and see first hand how their prop translates to or from fans! First thing we will go through are all the different core relations for fans (X, S, O, etc). These will be our basic building blocks for this class. Next, we will go through some various grids and hand paths that are very translatable from other props and see what geometry will look like from a fan point of view. Lastly, we will go through and define the differences in hand positioning through all of these ideas. This isn’t a class your not going to want to miss!
Additional Teaching:
- Texas Flow fest
- Universal Flow Gathering
- Spin Summit
- Playthink festival
- Florida Flow fest
- Symposium
“I wouldn’t be who I am today without the amazing help of the flow community and everyone it in.”
Drex
Taught at:
- FLAME
- Kinetic Fire
- FireDrums
- Pacific Fire Gathering
What’s your secret power?
- Deep in the heart of Nova Laboratories, a young intern by the name of Ben Drexler was accidentally exposed to fantastic cosmic energies that, in the hands of a mightier person, would have given him powers beyond comprehension. Unfortunately, Ben instead wound up with the power to transform beautiful poi movement into overly verbose and utterly incomprehensible jargon. Taking his transformation to heart, this mild-mannered intern now known as “Drex” traveled the world, eradicating evil by boring to death before retiring to the fire festival circuit. Here, he has at last found a home for his power by spending his days among people who actually give a damn what the words polyrhythmic antibrid mean…god help them all.
When you aren’t a flow superhero, what is your Clark Kent alias?
- I’m a full-time flow artist–making props and educating via both my YouTube channel and in-person lessons.
In my life before being a flow artist, I was a programmer, musician, human rights activist, designer, writer, and comic book artist.
What are your main classes?
- Title: Fundamentals of Tech, Part 1Description: This class is centered around demystifying tech both by focusing on the movement over the jargon as well as building up to complex movements based upon smaller and easier ones–students learn everything from basic antispins to Zan’s Diamond!
- Title: The Art of Prop PerformanceDescription: This class applies many of the lessons I’ve learned in the modern dance world over the course of the past three years to make performances with any prop move beyond trick showcases to statements by the choreographer. Come learn to tell a story or share an idea through your craft!
- Title: Intro to Sticky HybridsDescription: Explore my favorite type of poi tricks–antibirds! These tricks result when you create a relationship between one hand and the opposite poi, resulting in tricks like isolation vs cat-eye, static vs triquetra, and many more!
Additional Teaching:
- Wesleyan Winter Fire Arts
- MinneFLOWta
- Monkey See Monkey Do
- IgNight
- May Wildfire
- Flow Camp
- August Wildfire
- Manipulation
“Thanks so much! I’m really honored to be up for this :)”
Ehrlich Ocampo (FireChill)
Taught at:
- Kinetic Fire
What’s your secret power?
- Telekinesis haha. Making things move of course.
When you aren’t a flow superhero, what is your Clark Kent alias?
- Haha I dunno I do performing full time now. So I guess I’m a bum? Haha.
What are your main classes?
- Starting as a Wizard: Beginner’s Short String Levitation Wand, Discover the magical art of the levitation wand and become a wizard! More than being a mesmerizing prop that seems to be floating or suspended in space, this flow art is proving to be a balance of flowful body movement and technical play.
- Starting with the Levitation Wand
- Basic Spinning Concepts and Techniques
- Dance Integration
- Expanding Your Powers: Intro to Long String Levitation Wand: Expand your powers and explore more possibilities with the long string levitation wand! Discover different ways to move around with the longer string that allows for more technical string configurations while keeping your movements free and magical.
- Starting with the Long String – String Length and Anchors
- Controlling the Wand and the String
- “Firechill” Configurations and Techniques
- Flow Acrobatics: Cartwheels, Jumps, and Turns with your Prop – he has discovered different techniques of applying acrobatic moves with different props. In the workshop, participants are taught how to open up planes and vectors to allow for these amazing power moves to be executed with various props.
- Turning Techniques and Integration
- Executing Jumps with your Prop
- Cartwheels and Integration
Additional Teaching:
- Philippine Flow Festival
- Fire Festival Korea
- Psycusix Camp Out 2015 (Malaysia)
- WildFire Retreat
“Thank you. I am very grateful for this opportunity.”
Ken Hill
Taught at:
- Kinetic Fire
What’s your secret power?
- Listening. I often can see how a person’s passion, talents and skills could unfold and I feed where I think they are going with it. As a performer, my secret power is tapping into a primal state… like an animal..but a ninja!
When you aren’t a flow superhero, what is your Clark Kent alias?
- I am a music composer, poet, philosopher and dad.
What are your main classes?
- Nunchaku Basics: Bruce Lee would be proud of this one. We’re taking the art of nunchaku and turning it into stylistic performance art.
- Accentuation / Performance Class: Accentuation class teaches flow artists to look beyond their hands. The goal is to make their body, movement, emotions, and thoughts as expressive as the patterns that they make with their props. This is often a fire festival favorite.
- Ninja Staff Spinning: Perhaps the opposite of contact staff, ninja staff spinning focuses on creating whirlwind motions in footwork and staff spinning. The goal is to complete freedom of movement while creating rapid and fluid patterns.
Additional Teaching:
- Flowcamp
- mini-ninjas online everywhere!
“Woohooo!”
Willow Solow
Taught at:
- FLAME
- Kinetic Fire
- FireDrums
- Pacific Fire Gathering
What’s your secret power?
- Listening. I often can see how a person’s passion, talents, and skills could unfold and I feed where I think they are going with it. My secret power is a relentless commitment to maintaining motivation as a closet spinner. While sharing and performance have their value, I find the most joy in spinning and juggling as a form of meditation, best taken in giant gulps alone in nature. 🙂
I try to share this with others, implicitly or explicitly.
When you aren’t a flow superhero, what is your Clark Kent alias?
- I’m a photographer, designer, and web developer. I do a million other things and love the various flavors that life can bring. Jack of all trades is an honorable title in my opinion.
What are your main classes?
- People are more eager than ever to learn No-beat tosses for poi. No beats – how to do them, the finesse in technique, progressions of tricks, and frameworks/notation for limitless explorations.
- ‘let go of your poi’ – the world of tossing is endless. with this workshop, we race in all directions to see if we can approach the limits of what is possible. define a variable, define another, multiply and permute!
Additional Teaching:
- Lots of juggling festivals! 🙂 EJC was a hoot…so many people eager to learn.
“I feel special. Thanks, everybody!”
Comments 1
I follow this man up as a child and the best in the world my idol you are a true champion ken hill