After Greenfield’s Fire and Ice event—which was attended by an estimated 300 people — I kept hearing people talk about the amazing “fire dancers” who performed at Oak Park after the parade. I was able to track these amazing fire dancers down thanks to social media, and was delighted to learn that one of them, Heather McCormack, lives in Greenfield, and the other, performance artist Hannah Banana (her professional name) is a former Greenfield resident.
I learned from Heather and Hannah that their performance at Fire and Ice was actually a demonstration of “firespinning,” which is just one type of “flow art.” According to the Flow Arts Institute, practicing flow art induces a state of “flow,” or pure, present state awareness and creativity. Other forms of flow art include juggling, sphere manipulation, hoop-spinning and dance.
“My flow journey started with a hula hoop, six or seven years ago. Someone just put one in my hand at an event, and it’s just kind of gone from there,” Hannah said. “You and the object become one.”
Hannah and Heather were first exposed to firespinning at the 2022 Happening at Harry Brown’s Farm in Starks, Maine, and were amazed by what they saw.
“Someone came by my booth with a firestick – this thing called the Dragon Staff – and they let me try it, and I didn’t put it down for 24 hours, except to sleep,” Hannah said. “I asked the human who owned it if I could buy it and he said not a chance, and that everyone asked him that.”
Over the next year, Heather and Hannah practiced fire-spinning with LED staffs, and they returned to Maine the next summer to train and practice with experienced “firebenders.” Eventually, they felt comfortable enough to start practicing and performing on their own. They still use LED staffs when they perform inside or in places where fire would not be safe.
Both Heather and Hannah are artists who practice multiple forms of the healing arts, with fire-spinning being just one of their skills. Heather has always been a musician, performer and theater person, while Hannah, who used to run her own custom T-shirt company, was always focused on visual arts.
“After becoming a mom, my art has been more about movement and performance,” said Hannah, who is mom to 3-year-old twins. “It’s like I had some of skills and interests in lockdown, and now I’m letting them out. I’ve even developed something I call ‘baby flow.’”
After attending a sacred healing arts workshop in Massachusetts last year, Heather and Hannah began offering women’s sound bath weekend retreats and other events. Sound baths are a complete immersion in sound, specifically in the the vibrations that come from sound, including Tibetan sound bowls, drums, rattles and gongs. Both Heather and Hannah have learned to perform music and create vibrational sounds for the experience, and Hannah is now certified in sound baths from two certification programs.
“There is a certification process, but it’s also intuitive,” Hannah said. “It’s following my heart and spirit.”
“We try to help people find the therapeutic value in experiencing things society doesn’t have the time for. There is never time to just be. The world keeps us that way, so how do we break free of these patterns? How do we exist in the moment?” Heather said. “It is so good to work on that practice in your life. It’s a challenge.”
McCormack explained that sound baths are proven to trigger the parasympathetic nervous system, bringing a human into a state of “rest and digest,” instead of “fight/flight/freeze” of the sympathetic nervous system.
“The practice centers around letting people relax and receive vibrations. It’s really a sound massage. The vibrations from the sound actually have an effect on the body,” Heather said. “It provides healing for us, the provider, as much as it does for the client.”
In 2023, Hannah founded Together We Heal: A Sacred Arts Collective, which brings together a small group of healing arts practitioners, including Heather, with the goal of “offering deeply transformational experiences by exhibiting and blending the world of sacred arts and everyday self-healing.” Other members include Jim Butler, who hosts the Deep Energy Podcast about the science and practice of “vibrational sound healing sound baths.”
Hannah and Heather offer sound baths at different venues around the Monadnock region. Their next event is Friday, Dec. 22, at Everglow Wellness in Keene. Information is available at facebook.com/events/1065892061103548, and registration is still open at vagaro.com/everglowwellness/classes. You can find Together We Heal and learn about more upcoming events on Facebook.