Safire

Safire grew up in Fort McMurray, Northern Alberta — an oil town tucked away in the Boreal forest, five hours north of any major city. As a girl in an oil town, she was encouraged to dream of the rigs, the trades, the dependable work. None of it called to her. She was always, she says, a bit of a weird kid — excited, creative, drawn to the arts, interested in everything.

After years in art school studying visual art, she added a teaching degree — intending to become a high school art teacher. Then, in April 2006, a university friend spun fire poi like it was nothing. Safire ordered her own set the very next day.

"When she acted very casually about it — like fire dancing was normal and anyone could do it — I was inspired to try it for myself. Literally the next day I was online, ordering poi, spinning random things in my house."

Four months later, at Shambhala Festival in British Columbia, she saw a girl fire hooping. That was it. The hoop took over her flow practice full force — and after six years of university, she returned home and told her parents she wanted to be a professional hula hooper. Then she moved five hours to Edmonton because she had booked one paid gig.

Safire is one of the most formally educated artists in the flow arts world — holding multiple post-secondary degrees and certifications that underpin both her technical artistry and her exceptional ability as a teacher. Her education background is not incidental to her career; it is the structural foundation of everything she has built.

She graduated with her BEd and BFA in December 2007 and made the decision not to enter the school system — but never to leave education. Teaching has remained at the absolute center of her practice ever since.

Safire's career is one of the most decorated in the history of the flow arts — recognized by the community's most respected publications and organizations over more than a decade of consistent excellence.

Safire has not just performed — she has built the infrastructure of the Canadian hoop community from the ground up. Every platform, festival, and network she created has expanded the reach of flow arts for thousands of people.

Safire is a genuinely multi-skilled circus entertainer — not a specialist who dabbles, but a practitioner who has trained seriously across a wide range of movement and fire arts, attending workshops and conventions around the world for nearly two decades.

Safire's hoop practice is not separable from her life philosophy — both were built at the same time, under the same pressure, using the same tools. She was learning to hoop while learning to teach while learning to build a career that didn't exist yet in Canada.

"The hoop taught me how to teach myself anything. The great thing is I was learning to hoop at the same time as I was learning to teach through my education degree — and I was able to apply those lessons to myself, the hoop, and to my early students."

Her contribution to the hoop community: to inspire people in their journey, to teach, and to invite others to share the hoop. Her future vision — tropical retreats for hoop teachers and performers, creating space for others to find and discover their own path to happiness, the same way the hoop helped her find hers.

• Fort McMurray, Northern Alberta, Canada
• Started April 2006 — fire poi → fire hoop
• Moved to Edmonton for one paid gig
• BFA with Distinction — Univ. of Lethbridge
• BEd — University of Lethbridge
• 200hr Certified Yoga Instructor
• 16 countries performed in
• 4 million+ combined video views
• Canspin — Most Influential Canadian Flow Artist (2015)
• Hooping.org — Fire Hooper of the Year (2013)
• Hooping.org — Video of the Year (2010)
• Hooping.org — Instructor of the Year (2009)
• Clipstar Worldwide Talent Search — $10,000 winner
• Founder — Spin Out Fire Festival (Canada's 1st)
• Founder — Hoop City (20,000+ members)
• Co-Founder — Light and Motion Festival, Calgary
• HoopingClasses.com — 400+ tutorials · 1,200+ students
• Inspire Through Fire — K-12 anti-bullying program
• Appeared in dozens of TV spots, magazines & press
• MoodHoops & SynergyFlowArts Ambassador (2017)