Fire Dancing, New Friends, and Big Booms... My PGI Debut
It was early Saturday afternoon when I boarded my connection
flight to Gillette, Wyoming for my first trip to PGI. I had recently decided to further pursue my
passion with pyrotechnics so I was still very unsure what to expect. Fire dancing and flame effects have been a
passion in my life for almost 10 years so moving on to large pyro was a natural
progression. Every resource I could find
on growing into a professional capacity included references to PGI. This is what made me decide I must
attend. I have lurked the Pyro Universe
forums and studied the PGI bulletin like I was preparing for an exam but
nothing could have prepared me for what my experience was actually going to be.
I showed up at registration on Sunday and explored the
grounds but there wasn’t much going on as there was still a lot of setup to be
completed. I asked at the registration
table if I could volunteer or otherwise contribute to the event and was
directed to the Veverka Brothers as they needed assistance setting up the
Passfire show for that evening. I
immediately headed out to the field with Jeremy and Jesse to help setup the
show. Now keep in mind that I am fairly
new to the large pyro world and had no idea that I was basically being sent to
work with some of the top names in our community. Call me lucky if you will…
Once arriving on the field I was greeted by RJ Novack who
was sorting the vast amount of proximate product to be rigged to the stage
where The New York Rock would be performing live that evening. After all of the sorting was complete, I
headed further back on the field where there was a remarkable amount of mortar
racks being loaded by several people including Jim McCulla, RJ Novack, Bryan
Szajko, and my new Australian friend, Frank.
I was told the show consisted of 1360 cues for that night. After we were done loading shells and
repairing my bloody fingers (those wires stabbed me repeatedly, (I need to remember
gloves next time) we proceeded to drop wires for the ground effects which
included my favorite effect, gas mines.
I love flame effects and anything pertaining to fire so I was really
excited about the opportunity to help with rigging these. I quickly learned that gas mines, while
relatively uncomplicated, have a huge impact in any show. After the considerable amount of work and
sunburn involved in helping to set up a display of this magnitude, I was
anxious for the end result later that evening.
The show that evening was mind-blowing!
Having worked with live music before, I was concerned with how the
pyro-musical was going to correspond to the pre-choreographed programming. Short answer?
The choreographer, Peter Rogoz, and The New York Rock are professionals. The cues corresponded perfectly to the flow
of the music and the fireballs at the end produced an effect that fit the
finale perfectly. You could feel the
heat in the audience. I consider myself
incredibly lucky that my first real show assist was this particular one. There was an overwhelming sense of pride
seeing all of the work and planning come to a successful display that
night. It really does make all the hard
work worth it. Big thanks to everyone on
this team for letting me join in!
The next few nights I continued to work with this crew on
the National Anthem and discovered I have a new found passion for
pyro-musicals. I love watching the
colors, booms, and effects dance to the music.
I thoroughly enjoyed all of the nightly shows and competitions for the
rest of the event. Something quite
unique about enjoying the displays at PGI is that no matter where you sit, the
pyro you are sitting near will very happily narrate each effect for you. So not only was I able to enjoy some
outstanding fireworks but I was also able to learn the names of the different
effects as they happened. And despite
sleep deprivation, the skills I learned that week were unparalleled by any of
my previous experiences.
My last night at PGI was Wednesday. I unfortunately had to fly back early but I
wasn’t leaving without a bang. I was
fortunate enough that I got to hand fire a beautiful An Ping 6” Red Crackling
Willow right before they closed the shooting line. It was LOUD! Louder and brighter than I could
have ever imagined and it really took me by surprise, to the point that it made
the pros giggle. I was used to remote
firing all week so getting the opportunity to hand fire a larger shell was an
absolute thrill!
Bottom line is, if you wish to gain the invaluable behind
the scenes knowledge from the pros themselves, all you need to know are these
seven magic words, “Do you need help cleaning up later?” After all, most everyone wants to contribute
when it comes to loading shells, rigging effects and pressing buttons but the
after-show cleanup is a task that always welcomes a helping hand.
Whoa, there are a lot of people in this room. I was quite astounded at how many people came
to my mid-week Fire Dancing seminar and demonstration. Something that sincerely surprised me about
PGI and pyrotechnics in general is the minimal amount of knowledge that fire
dancers and the pyro community know about each other. Seeking to add bigger effects to my own show,
(and while international collaborations in Russia, Czech Republic, and New
Zealand excel in combining the two) I haven’t seen much diversity in this
aspect domestically. I can only hope
that the information I provided in my presentation has helped to bridge the gap
of the two arts that I am passionate about.
If you happened to miss my seminar or have any follow up questions,
please contact me as I am happy to continue to share. By the way, the name of that fabric that
everyone was interested in is spelled “duvetyne”.
Special thanks to Steve Johannessen and the safety crew for
helping me setup for the Fire Dancing Demonstration. It was a great experience to be able to
contribute back to the convention with my own art. And thank you to Chris Spurrell and Peter
Rogoz for participating with the big titanium waterfall sparklers, a great way
to start off my show!
One thing that no one tells you about PGI is that going back
to regular life after a magical week-long pyro-fueled adrenaline rush is the
worst buzzkill ever. PGI thoroughly exceeded my expectations of what to expect
at this convention. I am grateful that this organization allows us pyros to
network and exchange knowledge in order to further promote the safety and
celebration of fireworks. I look forward to attending and participating in
future events. I would like to extend a huge amount of gratitude to everyone
that I've had the pleasure of meeting and thank you all so much for welcoming a
fire dancer into the PGI family. In the
meantime, I will be here impatiently waiting in Louisiana while I try to work
up my budget for La Porte next year.
Feel free to contact me as I love to talk pyro!
Contact info
Email: pyrokatie@gmail.com
pyroU/instagram:
pyrokatie
facebook: Katie Gromlovits
facebook: Katie Gromlovits
