An Interview over Pho with Anatolia Fire Goddess
Anatolia Fire Goddess is an international fire and belly dance performer, and we had the opportunity to sit down for a brief interview when she taught a few workshops with SpinCo last month. She gave us some insight into what it takes to be a professional flow arts performer.
Transcript
Jo: We’re here at Pho Saigon with Anatolia Fire Goddess. We just finished up her amazing belly dance contact juggling workshop (to be followed up by belly dancing with Fire Fans tomorrow) and she is sitting down for an interview with us! So we have a few questions- Let’s get to know Anatolia better!
Jo: So Anatolia is a stage name; Why Anatolia?
Anatolia: Well, Anatolia is the earth mother goddess that I kind of got fixated on. I really liked the goddess and what it represented. I was traveling through Greece and Turkey and I kept seeing this image of this particular deity and when I decided to become a fire belly dancer, I wanted a name that was epic. Like, if I’m going to do this, I want Conan the Barbarian stuff. Anatolia was a nice stagey name and the fire goddess is a nice name that relates to the client what I’m doing. It’s like a female empowerment name.
Jo: That’s awesome. So, what got you into belly dancing in the first place?
Anatolia: I liked the way it looked. I liked the aesthetic of belly dance. Then I didn’t like the way it looked alone and I liked it with fire and I liked that aesthetic.
Jo: How long were you doing belly dance before you started adding fire?
Anatolia: That was maybe 10 years. But I took a little hiatus though, so..
Jo: Alright. Aside from performance art, what else do you dabble in artistically?
Anatolia: Oh wow. I paint and I do sculpture. I went to school for visual arts so I do a lot of visual arts stuff. I try to incorporate what I do as a visual artist, anything with editing to sculpture, collecting mica and making fire crowns. I try to incorporate it with my fire. I make my own fire props, magnetic fire masks, all kinds of crazy contraptions. So I try to incorporate fine arts into what i do.
Jo: That’s awesome, thank you! So what does your practice look like? And how do you push yourself to make yourself better?
Anatolia: I do a lot of practice too. I take a lot of workshops so I’m always keeping fresh with belly dancing. I tend to combine belly dance with flow arts, (or that’s what I do, essentially) so I try to drill belly dance routines with flow prop moves. I drill certain moves until it fuses together and forms nicely together. I notice certain moves pair well with other belly dance moves so I drill those and just practice insanely. I always try to keep things fresh with new choreography. I go every year to Asia and practice on the beach and perform. I do this full time, you know