By Alex Goetzfried
The infamous fire hoop.
Photo by Alex Goetzfried
On a cold February night at a beach in Sag Harbor, the last thing you would expect to find is half naked women swinging chains around their heads with balls of fire attached to the end. But at Harbor Frost 2013 that is exactly what you would find at the beach adjacent to Long Wharf.
Prometheus stealing fire from Zeus.
Photo courtesy of www.maicar.com
Fire and dancing have been a part of human culture since our earliest ancestors learned to control fire. According to Greek legend Prometheus a Titan, and an immortal of the first pantheon, stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. Native tribes of the South Pacific, India, and the Americas all had intense ritualistic dances involving fire in their pre-colonial pasts.
Harbor Frost is a wintertime festival to get the community out of the house, and offer some family fun with a little bit of theatrics. What festival would be complete without some type of dangerous, primal, pagan ceremony?
One dancer creates a worm hole of fire.
Photo by Alex Goetzfried
For this purpose the powers that be of Harbor Frost brought in The Fiery Sensations as the opening act of the grand finale. A fire safety officer was brought down to supervise and the savagery began.
The Maori Tribes of New Zealand originated the most popular form of fire dancing known as POI. According to sacredfiredance.com POI was used to train men for battle and to keep the wrists of women flexible for weaving. This is the only evidence of functionality for fire dancing that is on the Internet.
Encircled in flames.
Photo by Alex Goetzfried
Functional or not, the ceremony of fire dancing to intense music is wildly entertaining. The days following a blizzard are normally spent in the throws of cabin fever and mild depression. Watching beautiful women in belly shirts whip around fuel soaked poi balls in a dizzying inferno is a wonderful method for combating wintertime insanity.
