Felix Chen – Pyrotechnique Dance Theatre

What’s your last name Felix?
Felix Chen – Chang? Chen, with an e, C-h-e-n

And where are you from Felix?
I’m from Melbourne. But before that? Yeah… I was born in Vietnam. But I’m about ¾ Chinese ¼ Vietnamese. My family emigrated in 1977 when I was about 2 years old. They’re all still in Melbourne.

Your fire performance is what brought you to Cairns…tell us how it began…
Alright, em… For years I had been going to Confest, on the border of New South Wales and Victoria, that was the first time I’d seen a big group of people fire dancing – I’d seen it before at dance parties but never like this. Suddenly they didn’t look like freaks in the middle of the dance floor – but something that you could actually do – a few drummers there and I thought hey that looks like fun. I thought hey I could do this – or try to do it - and I started to get really good at it, quite quickly – someone asked me to do a show one day and it started.

Any training or lessons?
A little bit at the start, but since then I’ve really worked by myself. I’ve been fortunate to have a nice space, with mirrors and all that, to train and practice – I used to do it nearly five days a week for the first few years. So I was training quite solidly - I do a lot of physical dance in my performance and I see it as a combination of everything that has influenced me in my whole life – Martial arts and my love of birds - animals not girls – to tai chi . It’s a marriage of everything, a lot of things which I’m inspired by. I started with the standard apparatus, like the stick and with time you start using others, creating your own & experimenting.

Themes in your shows?
I’ve got a few different shows, depending on the event – probably about 5 different shows I can sort-of chop and change. Depends what kind of shows people are after – sometimes I use live musicians and live drummers – I‘ve got a few choreographed shows.

Animals and life influences in your shows…? Thought I saw a peacock at Envirofiesta?
Yeah – and a few others. I saw this documentary where both the male and female bird do a courting ritual around the nest – that impressed me so much that I’ve got another dance which is very much based around that.

Do you treat each performance like a ritual yourself?
Yeah well that’s a part of it – fire is contemporary dance-come ritual and theatrical experience. The whole ritual aspect gives the performance a story.

What is Pyrotechnique Fire Dance Theatre?
At the moment Pyrotechnique is a business which has dancers and musicians, drummers, in Cairns and in Melbourne. I’m the guy who owns it but it’s a whole collection of people. I’ve got six fire dancers working with me in Melbourne – all sensational fire dancers – I’ve been fire dancing round Australia for a long time and I’ve been really selective about picking the best Australian fire dancers for a project. All our dancers are at such a high level it’s amazing. Imagine four or five dancers with live drummers all performing in one show. In Melbourne, big budget shows like that happen. I’m hoping to get more international shows, I’ve had a couple. They’re nice. You get paid really well; you get to see a country.

What types of shows are they – festivals, conferences?
I’ve done two international shows one was a cabaret for the opening of a shopping centre in Singapore. 11 shows over 5 days – we were there for 2 weeks so that was really nice – All different skills – dancers, musicians, singers.

Do you teach your skills to others?
I teach fire dancing; a lot of people are getting into it now – I’ve been teaching for 5 years and I’ve got a pretty good technique. But the down side of this huge surge in interest may also mean that the novelty might go out of it, making it harder to get shows. Some people may think ‘Why should I pay this much when my next door neighbour can do it for free’, y’know. It doesn’t matter how many fire dancers you’ve seen you haven’t seen my show.

Anything in mind internationally?
Corporate events are good
Las Vegas?
There was a time when I thought Las Vegas would be good – but I realize that I’ve got to like the environment where I’m working in. I got offered a show in South Australia for 5 nights a week, I think at the casino – but I thought – I don’t want to live in Adelaide. I don’t’ mind if it’s just for a short time, I could go anywhere – but if it’s for months… I wouldn’t want to go to Las Vegas.

Is the theatre something that pays you enough that it’s all you do or do you do other things…?
Ohh, I’ve got another job… If you’re really pushing for shows up in Cairns, you only get maybe 2 shows a week during peak season, which isn’t much. In Melbourne you could get 3 shows a week easily.

Future for Pyrotechnique…?
Who knows maybe I’ll be able to get people all over the country. I get performers getting in touch saying, ‘Hey I’ve heard about you – I’d like to join’ – but I need to see something. I’d like it to grow a bit, maybe branch out to different cities, but I’d like to keep the quality up there – that’s really important to me and what I believe sets us apart. I’m really pushing for international shows now – that’s where I want to go.
But with public liability having gone up a lot it’s hard for dancers to get out there.
Is it fair?
Oh geez – I just got my notice this month and my public liability had gone up 10 times. It’s making me question whether it’s affordable – it’s gone up 50% this year from last year.

Men or women mainly?
Oh there are a lot of men who fire dance – it may be an ego thing – it does start off as an ego thing, there’s definitely an ego element at the start – but you get over that – if you do it for a long time – I’m not saying I’m over it – but I think it’s definitely less of an element now; much more art and passion in my dances now.

Do you call cairns home?
Well I’ve been here for three years – I didn’t expect it to be that long – I don’t know. I’m definitely not living here for the money.

What would you say makes a good performer – especially in something like fire dancing?
The techniques of fire dancing the tricks and everything, I think that’s a really small part of the show, it’s all stage presence - captivating the audience – putting your climaxes and lows in at the right time – drawing the audience in at the right time – to interact with them using you body – using your eyes, your hands, your chest – and really fluid graceful movements – fire twirling, that’s only a small part of it and I wouldn’t work anyone that didn’t have the other elements - they’ re very important and are something which every dancer that works for Pyrotechnique has.

The more shows you do, the better you get. I was really fortunate to work for a few years in the cabaret industry and with some really polished artists like magicians, and those shows and entertainers taught me a lot.

Highlight so far?
Amazing festivals and parties – and getting paid for it – Lebanese weddings, 50th birthday parties, 8 year old birthday parties, Turkish Weddings, massive corporate Christmas parties – and seeing how different people celebrate.
I went to this really amazing festival in Papua New Guinea – it was part of a one week long festival for the miners - in the middle of nowhere in the mountains – 2 hours from Port Moresby to this sight with its own landing strip – no roads beyond the town. They invited performers from all over Australasia, I was only there 2 nights but I got to see 6 different tribes from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea – I met this one tribe that had walked 3 days through the jungle to perform. It was just amazing sharing a stage with them.

How ‘bout Envirofiesta?
I’ve performed at every Envirofiesta since I’ve been in Cairns - I believe in what it believes in – making people aware of environmental issues. It’s amazing how much it’s progressed and the quality of the production they’re doing now - things like the fashion show – it’s so much sharper – it’s growing and that’s really good to see.

How can people find you?
www.pyrotechnique.com.au – I’m available for bookings… weddings, birthdays, you name it.