Temple of Poi 2009 Fire Dancing Expo & 7 Year Anniversary

What: Temple of Poi 2009 Fire Dancing Expo & 7 Year Anniversary of Temple of Poi
Where: Union Square (Geary and Post)
When: April 25, 2009 at 7:50 pm sharp!
Cost: Free!!

After party follows in the East Bay.

Bring a chair and a blanket and join us April 25, 2009 at 7:50 pm for our free fire dancing show in San Francisco’s legendary Union Square (Geary and Post) for the fourth annual Temple of Poi Fire Dancing Expo.

This year’s show is a veritable who’s who of internationally renowned fire dancing performers hailing from 3 continents including:

In addition, the show will feature 5 student performances by:

• Nick Griffin
• FireFlyGirlz (Susan & Brenda)
• Divine Light (Nicolle, Marla & Brenda)
• Supreme Beings of Fire (Susan, Michael, Melinda, Karishma, Brenda & Audrey, Entropy)
• Dark Side of the Rainbow (Vlad, Susan, Shelly, Phoenix, Michael, Mallika, Jen, Beautium & Entropy)

The 2009 Expo also marks the 7 Year Anniversary of Temple of Poi — to the day! The City of San Francisco and Union Square have added this event to their Jewels in the Square Program. Jeweles in the Square is an ongoing series of culturally significant presentations made in San Francisco’s Union Square in an effort to make diverse entertainment available to the public for free.

The creation of this event – selected in 2009 for the 3rd consecutive years as one of Bay Area Dance week’s Cornerstone events – is a tremendous leap in the efforts to legitimize fire dancing as an art form by taking it out of parking lots and putting it on landmark stages like Union Square. The Expo celebrates safe, legally permitted, public fire dancing performance in honor of National Dance Week, an annual 10-day week of free public dance events in the Bay Area designed to showcase the dynamic diversity and critically acclaimed quality of Bay Area dance.

Temple of Poi supports this vision by creating an unprecedented opportunity to celebrate fire dancing at no cost to the artists or audience. This event is a not for profit event created with the intention of:

• offering more performance opportunities for fire dancers
• giving novice artists who might otherwise not have an opportunity
  to perform in a public setting an opportunity where they can
  invite friends and family to see them express their art
• increased exposure to the flow fire art forms by creating
  a legally permitted public event at a San Francisco landmark
  location
• raise the awareness of fire dancing as a prestigious dance
  form by holding this event on the opening night of National
  Dance Week

This $5000 event is being financed by Isa “GlitterGirl” Isaacs, Temple of Poi and Union Square Park and San Francisco and generous donations from the community by:

• Daniel Van Olst
• Melinda “FireCracker” Sanders
• Allen “Entropy” Santos
• Jim Rudoff
• Mallika Prakash
• PixieBird.com
• Gokul Krishna
• Shelly Ross
• Alan Gentry
• Benjy Feen
• Scott Barney
• Jen Weinberg
• Carlos Walker
• Martin & Julie Matthews
• Nancy Tovin
• Christopher Dayson
• Rebekah Cook
• Nicolle Morehouse
• Silvia Beck
• Marla Weinberg
• Kris Grabowski
• Sumana Kesh
• Matthew Freedman
• Kelly Peterson
• Rikki Kiefer
• Susan “Tiger Lily” Drews Watkins
• Sacred Flame
• Lisa Burger
• Kate Houlihan
• Paget Norton
• Adam Crocker
• Rich Goldstein
• David Yu
• David Williams
• Mike Crane
• Gregg Brown
• Tamara Johnston
• Brenda “Manzanita” Fagan
• Carter Yu
• FlowToys
• Michael Parker
• Karishma Haji
• Lynn JT Kelley
• Andy Kurtzig