Today we’d like to introduce you to Tina Arons.
Tina, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Like all good stories, this one starts with a hold-my-beer moment. I saw a spectacular fire show by a troupe called Solar Rain at Texas Renaissance Festival in 2016, and I knew I had to learn how to perform with fire. As soon as I got home from the weekend trip, I ordered a pair of fire fans.
The rest is history — I spent the next couple years training as a fire performer and belly dancer. I didn’t grow up performing or dancing, so all of it was new and (at times) terrifying to me. And now I perform professionally and run a monthly event with many types of performers. It feels a little bit like a fairy tale some days. But it’s not. It’s my real, hard-earned life.
What my success as a performer and event coordinator amounts to is hours of hard work over a sustained period of time. Persistent should have been my middle name. I think in life we are often presented with pivotal moments where we can do something incredible or we can settle into complacency. I’ve never been one to buck down from a good challenge. I saw something alluring in the flames that fateful day at the faire, and I haven’t been able to stop dancing with the dragon ever since.
Has it been a smooth road?
The biggest struggles I’ve experienced in the performing arts community are a lack of follow-through and a scarcity mindset. It can be really challenging for creative people to materialize their visions without pragmatic and concrete thinkers on the team. That’s where I’ve always found my groove as an organizational leader. Creative projects require concrete action planning in order to succeed, but it can be challenging when working on a team that doesn’t value the balance between visionaries and dreamers and logisticians and planners.
As for the scarcity mindset, it can be easy as a performer to view other performers as competition. I experienced a lot of this when I first joined the fire performance and belly dance communities. Several performers who’d “earned their stripes” so to speak were unfriendly and unwelcoming to me as a newcomer. It’s as if the more experienced performer thought that they’d get less kudos for their hard work if I also worked hard and produced quality art.
What a silly and destructive competitive notion!
I’m a much bigger fan of an abundance mindset, which allows us all to view each other as team members or colleagues and not competition. If everyone operated under this type of belief, I think there would be less backbiting and undercutting in the performing arts community. I know it can be hard not to operate from a cut-throat, gotta-get-mine attitude when performing is your only livelihood – trust me, I’ve been there too — but it’s absolutely necessary to foster a community that grows and thrives together. I believe we are stronger when we work together, and we are stronger when we lift each other up.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I’m known as the Queen Bee of Fort Worth Fire Beats, a monthly performing arts event that fosters community and creates a space for performers to learn, grow, and play together. It’s a reoccurring nightlife event like no other, combining hippy vibes with Burning Man culture.
Our two year anniversary will be April 2020. I’m so proud of the monumental work from a team of talented people who help make it happen every month. It’s not easy to keep a creative project in motion for that long, not when most of us have full-time employment in other fields. As a performer, my personal specialties include fire fans and balancing sword, although my arsenal of performance tools include over two dozen different fire and LED props. I also teach workshops at regional festivals.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex is the perfect climate for performing arts, especially with fire performance. It’s a unique set of skills that fit a variety of themes, and fire contains an element of danger. Who doesn’t like to see something both mesmerizing and dangerous?
The flow arts community has really stepped up the amount of workshops, classes, and events that happen in the last few years. So, I think it’s the perfect time to get started. Beginners can now find lots of ways to learn, not just self-taught or hunting down a mentor for private lessons with the occasional regional flow festival. I can’t wait to see what this scene grows into during the next couple of years!
Pricing:
- Fort Worth Fire Beats tickets ($5 Advance, $10 Door)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wildfiretina.com
- Email: wildfireperformer@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/wildfiretina
- Facebook: facebook.com/wildfiretina
- Other: youtube.com/c/wildfiretina
Image Credit:
Sergio Zuniga
Suggest a story: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
