Spinning Fire

You may recall the first time I tried a fire hoop in November 2008, I fell over and banged myself up. I did a little better this weekend at the beach, when Roon Roon generously allowed me to spin with her fire hoop and air fire toys. Tod and I shot some video of the action and I edited together a little memory piece:

The fire adds an interesting complication to my hooping. Many of the tricks I do automatically and the way I transition between moves would catch me on fire. The rich experience of the sound and light in the fire hoop is overlaid with a constant stream of internal chatter: hey, no you can’t do that outside break; watch your eyebrows now; will jumping through the hoop singe my legs; oh, hotter than I expected; whew, safe!
Should I make the effort to become proficient with a fire hoop? I think the obvious answer is yes. So now maybe I need to go play/practice with the fire people at Shinjuku Zatsugidan and buy myself some quick wicks from hoopdrum