Gaea’s Fire Origin Story

Hi! I’m Gaea. This is the story of how I became a Fire Wielder & the co-creator of the Ignite Fire Keepers with Kiki Mason.

A true Sagittarian, I constantly seek thrills. I dreamt of being a performer as a child; I would dance in my own costumes, use the magic I felt in the everyday, and move with the elements that create our universe.

I am a dancer. I live and breathe art.

Here’s where the fire comes in.

I first saw fire dancing at a Chicago underground event, Resonate, when my best friend pointed out Pyrotechniq spinning onstage. I was like “cool, that’s fascinating, but not really my jam”.  My friend told me I’d be an amazing fire dancer, and invited me to talk to his troupe about it.  (He was also the one who brought me my first hula hoop, despite my protests that “it just wasn’t my thing…) 

A few weeks later I encountered the rabbit hole of art-collective living that I had been searching for my whole life. I dove right in, knowing these were “my people”. I met my future (ex) husband that night, and my best friend kept seeding events that he would be at so I could see him again. Then, after an invite to “Combustion Thursday”, I decided to pursue this new way to move and flow. It was SO hard to move objects around my body. All I wanted to do was dance. I started off with poi, guided by my friend Allison “Squirt” (which I hated, then loved, then hated, then loved). Shorty & my fire momma Liz prompted me with hoops, and finally April saw me dance and put her fire fans in my hands. I promptly lit them up with no hesitations. I instantly felt the power of the fire, the reverberations in my soul. I was hooked. 

I felt the depth in the fire. I wanted to go there.

I returned to Combustion Thursdays over and over, started attending the Chicago Full Moon Jams, and then starting helping organize them.  I began going to our regional burns, and then Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, where I helped organize our Great Lakes “conclave.”  We were a group of 20+ fire spinners performing an hour-long, fully choreographed and conceptualized fire show before the “big burn” on Saturday night, alongside around 16 other groups of 20+. It was epic to be a part of a community, a vast network of fire humans all communing with this element in totally different ways. I loved it. 

In those flames, I found myself. 

In the fire community, I found all aspects of myself had a place to shine: beauty, fury, rage, ferocity, sensuality, elegance, connection, play, fae, grief, sorrow, love.

I felt the fire amplify them all.

That year at Burning Man, I saw how *many* ways there were to approach and flow with the fire. I performed with Beats Antique in a huge dome, with incredible fire dancers from around the world. I felt alive. I found the gumption to unleash my authentic improvisation & flow, as me and only me, in all the ways I could be. Here, I found my dance, my place, my desire. Fire enabled me to MOVE in the way I wanted to, not the way the choreographer or teacher instructed. It opened me up, completely.  Fire enabled me to be primal… wild...elegant...ethereal…magical.  I became my own wild enchantress.  I became “Gaea” in these years, and transformed into the human I envisioned myself to be. 

Fire showed me that our human sensuality is full of depth and magic.

One early morning, in a fire circle at the Freakeasy (perhaps in 2013), I found my sensuality while dancing with the flames.

Now, I’ve always been a sensual being. But this moment was one of deep realization and awareness.

I already loved the feeling of the heat, the sound of the flames pulling oxygen into themselves, & the present moment awareness brought on by intensity, gravity, and a little bit of fear. In this moment, performing on a Chicago rooftop at an underground dance party before dawn, I found what it was to truly love myself through dancing with the fire. It was astounding.

I unearthed a new depth of my fire dancer- a dakini using the flames to pour my heart into the world.  

Okay, Let’s back up a bit. 

Since falling in love with the stage & dance at the age of 5, I was told the only way to “professionally be a dancer” was to get accepted into a concert/classical dance company in a major city, to be on Broadway, or in music videos. Yet, in my mind, I envisioned myself dancing my own dances in my own artistic costumes, expressing my elemental fae self, and doing non-conventional movements solo or in small groups in nature or stages. It was whimsy, magic, impactful, and enchanting… and it felt tangible. I just didn’t see how it was possible as a career, or a “profession”.

Everyone told me it wasn’t possible, how was I going to make my living doing *that*?

Well, here I am. IT IS possible. I find myself walking my own path today, creating exactly what I envisioned as a tween.

Back to the fire: In the 2010’s, I still deeply wanted belonging within a troupe, a company, a group - that “dance company” for legitimacy.  I started my own with a group of friends called “Solaire Fire '' and we performed underground events all over the city.  We created spinning flags (it was there that the weighted veil was born!) and fire shows, UV reactive body painted acts, and choreographed contemporary pieces.  

Belonging to a troupe, a community, gave me a new life. We rocked it, together, and inspired each other, sharing skills like capoeira & bellydance, practicing our fire weekly, and making some super epic shows for about 2 years. I really learned that fire is a dangerous element, and that it WILL burn you if you are not attentive and return to it in practice and humility.

Yet slowly, all members of the troupe eventually peeled off in other directions. I was the only one from the troupe remaining who envisioned fire dancing as a career: everyone else wanted the security and stability of dayjobs. My friend Kelly and I began dancing together with veils, hoops, and fire together as Chicago Hoop Dance/Solaire Fire, eventually landing resident gigs at Untitled Supper Club and other venues in the city as a duo.  When she became pregnant and couldn’t perform any longer in 2014, I was devastated. I truly didn’t believe that I could make it as a solo artist, that I needed a partner or a troupe to “make it”.  I couldn’t see myself as an independent performer, forging ahead as myself. I doubted my self worth, my talent, my expression, my artistry.  I didn’t think I could hold an audience’s attention myself, alone.

Kelly sat me down one day and said that I could. I *needed* to, that she knew it was my soul’s calling.  I cried. I knew. It was scary, huge, and the precipice of my life’s dream, though I didn’t know that at the time.

It was time to say YES to my performer self, fully.

I gathered my courage. I stepped into solo fire dancing & burlesque performance art in a *big* way 2013. I began to uncover my gems- those that had been inside me all along, polished by my traumas and my joys, both. 

I began to understand WHY I perform, why I dance, why I return to the fire over and over and over.  I began to find my confidence.  My empowerment. To embrace rather than hide my sensuality.  To celebrate my fierceness.  I was free to do … anything I could imagine.  

In 2015 I was offered a spot in Chicago’s premiere fire troupe, Pyrotechniq.  It was another life goal for me, to be honest. I had always desired to be a part of this big magic they created. It was delightful to work in a troupe again, but at the end of the day, it still wasn’t my vision, and there wasn’t space for me to truly create my soul’s calling.

I began creating characters, exploring performance as ritual, learning new tools and techniques like double staves and double hoops, fire eating and fire burlesque. Gaea Lady became alive in a whole new embodied way. I was filled with inspiration and inspired to create - fire, silk, burlesque, anything that inspired me. I won some burlesque awards at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, and that launched me to a new level. I decided to pursue performing and teaching what I do nationally and internationally—another of my ever expanding dreams. 

Fire became my teacher, my muse, my inspiration, my passion.  

All this time, I was running Edible Alchemy, a food co-operative project focused on local & sustainable foods.  To make ends meet, I became an event and retreat chef.  This took me to cook at Danyasa Yoga Retreat center in Costa Rica, via Envision Festival. There, I met Sofiah Thom, who saw me as my dancer-embodied, actualized-self. She invited me to cook and participate in the first event for her new school, “Temple Body Arts.” Accepting this offer catalyzed my life.  I felt my own personal power in a new way, and realized how I could use fire and performance on deeper levels. I used fire to release, to invigorate, to become my best self.  I (finally) decided I needed to end my marriage and stop running the food co-operative and step deeper into my dance.  

Temple Body Arts, which I continued to cook and hold space for to this day, led me to meet Kiki Mason, my soul fire sister. Kiki approaches fire dance and performance in the same way I did - with intentionality & a deep knowing that it changes people’s lives to dance with fire - as well as to witness it. We hosted a mini fire show together around the pool, and on the last day of the initiation retreat she asked me if I wanted to host a fire dancing retreat at Danyasa with her.  I instantly set yes and we set dates that afternoon. Kiki and TBA taught me to trust my gut, and to manifest what I wanted to see in the world by saying yes and making it happen.  

Saying yes to the fire that evening, that moment changed my life forever.

photos by Melissa Robin & Leona Waller

The Ignite Fire Keepers were born.

We took the leap and began constructing classes and workshops with an arc towards a final performance at our very first Ignite Your Inner Flame retreat in 2019.  Kiki and I had *so* much to share around the fire - healing, inspiration, sensuality, empowerment, confidence, community, play, ritual, responsibility, leadership, humility… We realized that sharing the fire in this feminine way - which we had both been committed to embodying our whole lives - was the transformational force that balances out the world. 

Listen to Kiki’s fire origin story here.

photo by Melissa Robin

The Ignite Fire Keeper retreats allow us to share the magic of deep transformation with fire to a large group of humans.  Fire is a teacher that always has something to say, no matter how many times you come to engage with it.  It’s a playful dance partner that brings out whatever is present for you, and grounds you into being present and multidimensional  like you have never been before. 

Leading these retreats and gatherings has inspired me to step deeper into my power & confidence as a space holder.  

At the Ignite Fire Keeper Gatherings, my performances, classes, and rooftop fire jams I feel the impact of what I share.

Holding space for others to encounter themselves through the fire is potent… and when we do this together in a community of humans who are in support of each person’s authenticity, we create a deep bond of belonging.  This has the power to change our lives.  Kiki and I know that sharing our sacred fires changes the world.  In encouraging humans to dance with fire, we bring them directly into their transformation. 

The sacred act of fire keeping is what I continue to grow into.

I can’t wait to see how the rest of my fire story unfolds. 

Write me at gaealady@gmail.com with your fire story.

If you desire to experience the impact fire can have on your life, join us. Kiki and I co-host 3 retreats & gatherings a year on the Pacific Ocean in Costa Rica, at a Castle the Midwestern forests outside Chicago, and at the Villa Larimar St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. We each host smaller fire classes and gatherings in Chicago & St. Croix, so please reach out.

Fire Alchemy is the perfect starter gathering, if you’re new. Or, it will deepen a fire journey you’re on already.

use the code “FIRELOVE44” for $44 off any ticket to try it out and experience it for yourself.

It’s time.

The fire calls you as it has called me.

Fire is ALL of ours to share and experience.

Step into your courage to live ignited and shining. I can tell you, it’s much more gratifying this way.

Thanks for reading!

xo

gaea