Kimberly Nicole Forman

Age: 40
Occupation: Fire dancer
Hometown: Vidalia, La.

The sun is a ball of fire.

The summer is full of sun.

The fire can feel as if it’s coming at you from the sides, above, beneath.

It can spit from the pavement for hours after the sun dips below the horizon.

There are no rules.

It can feel cruel.

It can stir bitterness as it burns through all of your carefully sewn attire, singes your perfect coif into fuzz.

But what if you were to dance with the fire?

Kim Forman does.

This is her daily baptism. She puts flame on the ends of chains.

She swings them into orbit and wheels her body, up and over them, lighting the night, heating the day, just daring the air to turn to spark beneath her sinewy arms. She radiates a measured smile.

Summer in south Louisiana beckons us all to dance with the blazes.

And why not? We, too, can whir into September.

We can greet autumn’s bright harvest knowing something new.

Embrace the fire dancer’s axiom: “The fire tends to burn right through any negativity in your life,” Forman says. “There is a very good reason that the Phoenix is such a powerful metaphor.”

When Forman (second from right) picked up the poi—the technical term for the weighted ropes she whirls—she struggled with staying focused on one task at a time.

Learning intricate swinging patterns became a pastime that extended her consciousness.

Crowds gathered around her, but instead of retreating to a higher and higher stage, Foreman extended her hands.

Come, she said. I’ll show you how to dance with fire.

“While I love performing, my passion lies on teaching others to do it,” she says. “Watching someone transform from shy, or self-doubting, into a fire dancing ball of joyful confidence is rewarding beyond measure. Knowing that you opened the door for that transformation is indescribable.”

Forman will conduct a poi workshop at Mulananda Yoga on June 22. mulandandayoga.com