Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Ivory Rigney is the girl on fire. She spins flaming props and courts danger alongside her mates in the St. Louis Fire Technicians.
• I am a fire performer, also known as a prop manipulator. I take a prop, like a hula hoop or staffs or nunchaku or poi, and spin them around in geometrical patterns to create a 3-D picture in the air, using light and fire.
• Poi are balls attached to chains or ropes. The ball is made of Kevlar, so you can light it on fire. It originated in New Zealand as a form of expressional dance. The flaming hula hoop is made out of PVC, with five holes drilled along it. The holes have rods sticking out of them, with bits of Kevlar rope on the ends to light on fire.
• I do a little fire-eating. It’s really nerve-racking, but it’s a lot of fun. The No. 1 thing to remember is to never breathe in. I’ve also learned to transfer fire from prop to prop, using my tongue.
• I first started fire-spinning after I went to a friend’s bonfire and saw someone doing it. I went home and got online and found tutorials and bought props and started spinning. I taught myself, and I then started hanging out with a fire performance troupe and learning from them. That’s the St. Louis Fire Technicians. I’m also a part of the St. Louis Hoop Club.
• The first time I ever tried spinning fire, I was three or four months into learning how to spin. As soon as I started spinning, one of the poi hit me in the head and burned a good amount of my hair off. I was really scared, and I waited about a year to spin fire again. It’s important to learn your moves before you introduce the fire.
• When we’re getting ready to perform, we say, “Are you ready to go burn?”
• The moves we do with our fire props have names: There’s anti-spinning, cat eyes, and isolations, and a few are named after people, like the Jared. The most dramatic move I do with the poi is the Jared. That’s when I intertwine the poi between my legs. One leg is on the ground and one is lifted, and I move the poi around my body. It’s a very intense sequence of steps.
• The most dangerous move with the hula hoop is the Wedgie.
• The other fire performers and I have performed onstage with the Pink Floyd tribute band El Monstero. We’ve performed at the Mayor’s Ball, at First Night St. Louis, Taste of St. Louis, Let Them Eat Art… Through a talent agency, I’ve performed at casinos and other places.
• In the Fire Technicians, it’s like being in a circus. Actually, it’s like being surrounded by super-talented people excited to learn and help each other be the best performers we can be. I call them my fire family.
• One of my goals is to expand my spinning with a partner. Spinning by yourself is beautiful, but adding a second person as a partner in poi or hoops is a whole different ball game, and I’d like to get better at that.
• We perform to music. I enjoy working with live musicians, but we use boom boxes, too. The music needs to have a good rhythm, a good beat. We use hip-hop or electronic music or jam bands.
• My mom and I went to Abuja, Nigeria, in 2011 and brought four suitcases full of clothing to donate to people in need. Then I bought the materials to make hula hoops and donated the hoops to a bunch of kids. It was an amazing experience.
• The way to make a good hula hoop is to go to the PVC pipe section at Home Depot or Lowe’s and cut them to make the size hoop you want. Then you put the ends of the pipe into really hot water so they expand, then join them with a connector.
• I love to spread the love of spinning and how great it makes me feel. For instance, I was working at a restaurant, and I made all my co-workers a hula hoop—I made 26 of them. It was great to get feedback from people when they actually used them.
• Fire-spinning takes me away from thinking of the past and planning for the future and brings me right to the present moment. It’s like a high form of meditation.
