They literally play with fire
They mesmerize their audience with breath-taking dance numbers using lighted torches, fiery hoops and flaming poles
Their performances mask the fact that they support their families or earn their college tuition through their work
Outside of their fire dance performances, they act as park attendants, shopkeepers, waiters and waitresses at the Davao Crocodile Park
For the rest of the week, they are students hoping to move forward in life beyond fire dancing…
For now they enjoy what they do and at the dance floor they are the masters…
The fire is both a friend and a foe. It wants to engulf its handler into its hypnotic swirls…
Or keep them tucked forever inside the balls of fire or the trap of fame
But fire can be tamed. A brief change of props and then they come back dancing to the tune of a Filipino folk dance…
Hopping between toe-clipping bamboo poles with the traditional dance moves heightened by flaming ardor…..