Paul Dunkirk-Greenbaum

Paul Dunkirk-Greenbaum is a fire performer of 9 years. He owns Burning Passion, providing quality pyrotechnic paraphernalia to the masses, and vends at many fire-oriented events every year around the country. Skilled in more than 10 fire props, Paul is an accomplished fire dancer with an outgoing unique style. Paul has worked with the Minneapolis Fire Collective, Illumination Fire Troupe, Barebones Puppet Theater and The Secret Circus. Working together with Amy Bloss, he started the Minneapolis Fire Collective and hosted a weekly spin event called Spun Out. He now hosts a weekly skill share in his live-in dance studio, The Stomping Ground, to help promote the fire performance arts in the twin cities. He has taught numerous workshops and classes around the country on fire safety, and a variety of intro and in-depth object-manipulation courses catering to many skill levels.

Basic Fire Staff Play

Fire Staff is one of the staple props in the fire dancing community. Within the realm of movement of performing with a single fire staff there is some basic building blocks which is essential to learn to continue to more advanced performance techniques. We will focus on some constructive movements like figure eights, hand rolls, passing the staff between the hands, behind the back passes, some throws and other moves which will help you get started with fire staff! Burning Passion will have staves available for purchase.

Fire Dancing Safety

This Fire Dancing Safety Workshop will cover fire safety for fire dancing performance covering everything you'd need to know to stay safe during fire play. We will talk about the importance of a fire safety, the equipment needed for being a fire safety, and all the important information for having a safe fire performance. For the second year, fire dancing is allowed again at Starwood. If you would like to fire dance you must attend one of these workshops to get a bracelet which will allow you to fire dance in the established fire dancing zone. There is no fire dancing allowed outside of the fire dancing zone. All the details will be available at these scheduled workshops.

Intro to Fire Dancing: Lighting Up For Your First Time

Fire Dancing is a sacred art form. It is extremely empowering to be able to yield one of earth's most dangerous elements with the freedom of movement. Fire Dancing is much more than just lighting stuff on fire. Learning how to respect the flame and gaining an understanding of what it means every time you light up your props through creating intention are an important part of every fire dancer's journey. We will discover how to become comfortable with the flame by focusing on the many qualities of fire, while learning about the spectrum of different fire props and the application each prop has for fire performing. This will also serve as a forum to ask any questions you would like answered for starting out with fire performance.