Fire dancers warm up Kadagayaan nights

TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte, June 27: Playing with fire is generally known to be a bad thing, but dancing with fire? Well, that's something else entirely.

Fire dancing heated up the opening of cultural nights of the Kadagayaan Festival, in celebration of the 46th Araw ng Davao del Norte on July 1, 2013, with this year’s theme: “Kulturang Dabaonon: Paghinumdum (remember). Paghanduraw (revisit). Pagtahod (respect).

 The ancient art of fire dancing has been practiced by the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand to increase flexibility, strength and coordination.

This life-threatening art is a passion shared by Kim Murtz, 22, with his cousin Jeremiah Maulit, 23, both residing at the Palm City of Tagum.

Jeremiah recently introduced fire dancing to Kim and formed the group “Sela Lewana,” an Alibata word which means blazing light.

“Gipili namo kini nga pangalan kay mao kini nag-simbolo sa among pasundayag na lage kaming sumusiklab sa liwanag hangtod makab-ot namo ang kalampusan. (We chose this name because it symbolizes our performance that we are always blazing thru the light until we achieve success),” explained Murtz.

The group takes fire safety precautions before every show considering that it is a very dangerous performance art. They have been practicing it for almost two years, with special appearance during the 2011 Musikahan Festival of Tagum City.

Before mastering their moves,  fire dancers learn the basic steps of 2-beats and 4-beats of weight with choreographed routines and heart throbbing music.

They then expand to fire twirling with a pair of roughly arm-length chains, fire staff using a metal or wooden tube ranging from 1-2 meters long, which even levels up to fire breathing and fire juggling.

Aside from the fire dance exhibition, the cultural nights of the 2013 Kadagayaan Festival also consist of live band entertainment, games and surprises.

The Kadagayaan Festival, which is grand festival to commemorate the abundant blessings, as well as, draw hope for more successes to come, has been primed by Davao del Norte Governor Rodolfo del Rosario to be a major cultural festival in the region and the whole country. ( Nice Tolibas/DavNor PIO)