Irene Hochgraf-Cameron feels a connection with fire. As a child, she developed a fascination as she would poke around roaring fires in fireplaces and run her fingers through candles.
“I’ve always been drawn to fire,” said Hochgraf-Cameron, an osteology inventory specialist with the LSA Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. “It’s always been something that’s intrigued me and sparks some passion in me.”
Growing up in Ann Arbor, Hochgraf-Cameron’s interest in fire flourished in high school as she and her friends started experimenting with cooking and trying complex recipes that included intricate fire techniques, including crêpes suzette and Saganaki.
Her group eventually focused on learning new fire tricks, and one of her friends introduced to her a local flow arts community called Flowjo.
Flow arts consist of several movement-based practices including aerial silks, juggling, hula-hooping and fire spinning. Through Flowjo, also referred to as Ann Arbor Fire and Flow Jam, Hochgraf-Cameron met fire performers and spent years honing her own craft. She found a love for moving with the fire in front of her friends and for crowds.
Over the years, Hochgraf-Cameron and her fire dance partner, Justin Tesmer, have developed several routines where they dance to songs, preferably with heavy drumbeats, or themed for the events where they perform.
Throughout the past few years, Hochgraf-Cameron and Tesmer have performed their fire spinning at several festivals including the Michigan Nordic Fire Fest and Bay City’s Tall Ships Celebration.
“For me, it’s a lot more about the interaction of dancing with the fire than it is about being paid to do something,” Hochgraf-Cameron said. “There’s a passion to just dancing with the fire, whether there’s an audience or not.”
Before performances, Hochgraf-Cameron wraps her fire props with Kevlar and soaks them in gas or kerosene. She also takes several precautions to respect the safety aspects of spinning fire, including wearing natural fiber clothing. During the performance, someone acts as a spotter and holds a fire blanket as an added measure.
“There’s danger to it, but, I mean, there’s danger to just about anything, and I think that, especially with something like fire, the more you know about it … it’s just about keeping the respect for it,” Hochgraf-Cameron said.
Hochgraf-Cameron counts fire spinning as one of many hobbies. She said incorporating hobbies from several disciplines helps keep her grounded and motivated in her work life as well.
“I love hobbies, and in general, I like picking up all kinds of new things. I like to learn new things,” Hochgraf-Cameron said. “I don’t think I’m great at any one of them, and I know that for me, I feel like the more things I’m doing, the more I feel capable of.”
One of those passions is Argentine tango dancing. She started tango dancing as an undergraduate at U-M through the university’s tango club. She eventually started teaching for the club and branched out to teach her own classes in the local community.
More than 15 years later, Hochgraf-Cameron continues to practice Argentine tango dancing and travels to dances across the country.
“It’s a huge passion in my life, and it’s something where anywhere you go in the world, or any big city that you go to, you’ll find people that you sort of share this language and culture with,” Hochgraf-Cameron said. “So even if you don’t speak a common language, you still have this really deep, amazing way of connecting with people all around the world.”
Throughout the years, Hochgraf-Cameron has incorporated elements of her Argentine tango dancing with her fire spinning performances. She has found the two art forms complement each other in their energy and use of movement.
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“It’s been really fun to try to incorporate different moves or aspects of either tango or chacarera. I actually feel like the Argentine folklore dances are really beautiful with fire,” Hochgraf-Cameron said. “Some of them use a handkerchief when you’re dancing, and so replacing that with fire can be really amazing because it’s meant to be a symbol of passion, and it just translates really nicely.
“So, that’s been kind of a cool way to translate between tango and fire performance.
The fire props used in the performances help elevate the music and movement, with some props creating dramatic and explosive effects. When performing with charcoal poi — a fire prop that emits sparks of ember — Hochgraf-Cameron sometimes feels as if she’s “in the middle of a cloud of fire fairies.”
One of her favorite feelings is the sensation of fire spinning with the charcoal poi outside in the rain.
“I really enjoy spinning fire around a bonfire with some friends, but some of those times on my own are when it feels the most magical to me,” Hochgraf-Cameron said. “It’s sort of a euphoric state when it’s just you and the elements, and some of my favorite times for spinning have been out in the rain when you feel like you have fire in your hands.”
