 Melissa Obenchain does a firedancing performance Thursday night in front of the Hartung Theater. Jake Barber/Argonaut
An ecology and conservation biology major at University of Idaho, Obenchain said she enjoys the form of dance unlike any other.
“I first saw fire dancing when I was at a String Cheese Incident
concert and festival in Oregon three or four years ago. I used to be
involved with dance and gymnastics and thought it was really cool.
While I was living in Southeast Asia I saw more of it and taught myself
how to do it,” Obenchain said.
Obenchain began by teaching herself the basic movements and practicing without fire.
Melissa Obenchain likes to dance with fire.
An ecology and conservation biology major at University of Idaho, Obenchain said she enjoys the form of dance unlike any other.
“I first saw fire dancing when I was at a String Cheese Incident concert and festival in Oregon three or four years ago. I used to be involved with dance and gymnastics and thought it was really cool. While I was living in Southeast Asia I saw more of it and taught myself how to do it,” Obenchain said.
Obenchain began by teaching herself the basic movements and practicing without fire.
To fire dance, Obenchain uses her poi.
She holds a chain that’s about a foot long that’s attached to two pieces of nylon straps in her hands and at the end of the chain is a Kevlar wick that she then soaks in any kind of combustible fuel, like tiki torch fuel or Coleman gas.
Once lit, she proceeds to twirl and swing the chains around her — a form of expression unlike any other.
Most recently she had the chance to dance with 5,000-6,000 fellow fire dancers in Nevada at the Burning Man festival, a week long arts festival that close to 50,000 people attend in the middle of the desert.
“It was amazing,” she said. “You can find anything and everything at Burning Man and there were people fire dancing with hula-hoops, staffs, fans, and swords, on stilts, all sorts of things. It is such a powerful form of expression and to do it with that many people was just incredible.”
Obenchain had the chance to perform while at this year’s String Cheese Incident concert and festival, where she first developed her interest in fire dancing.
This next semester she will be traveling to Kenya to study abroad and afterwards plans to stick around for a while to work on her undergraduate research.
She said she’ll be taking her poi along with her and she hopes to learn some new dance skills, with or without fire and that to teach some of the people there some of her dances as well.
“I’m really excited,” Obenchain said. “I’ve met some really spiritually beautiful people and I hope that I can meet more while sharing what I love.”
Last Sunday, Obenchain did something new with her talent — she taught her first fire dancing class.
Held at the Spectrum II Dance Studio in downtown Moscow, she was able to teach a small class of 10-12 people the basics techniques of fire dancing.
Shelly Werner, the owner of studio said she was pretty impressed with not only Obenchain’s talent, but her teaching skills as well.
“I really liked her teaching style,” Werner said. “She was extremely patient and she did a really great job. She went around to each of the individual students and gave them help and positive feedback. Some of the students, like me, were first time learners, while some had tried it before. I got to learn five or six different methods and it was challenging, but she’s mesmerizing to watch. It’s like the balls just orbit around her.”
While they didn’t use fire because they were just beginning to learn and were indoors, Obenchain did teach them the beginning skills to work towards the more complicated steps.
The two first met through one of Werner’s free-form dance classes at UI and she said that Obenchain has always been a lot of fun to watch.
Werner said she hopes Obenchain will want to teach more workshops and classes when she returns from Africa next fall.
“I would love for her to teach more classes in the future,” Werner said. “It’s definitely different and is just so much fun to watch.”
Werner is also hoping to get a fire permit for Obenchain to dance with actual fire next Thursday at Friendship Square in downtown Moscow as a part of the “Buy Local Moscow” celebration that will be going on.
At 7:30 p.m. she’ll actually have Obenchain dance at her studio as a part of the downtown celebration that will be going on and snacks will be provided.
The second part of the two-part fire dance workshop will be held this Sunday at the Spectrum II Dance Studio from 7-9 p.m.
The cost is $12.50 for the class and they will also be making their own poi in the class, that way the students can continue to work on their new skill.
Werner said that a few spaces are still open, and if anyone is interested in joining they should call her in advance at 882-1445
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