All posts by Nicole

video editor by day, fire dancer by night

Pex Summer Fest 2017

August 1, 2017 Nicole Leave a comment

We had a great time performing once again with the Russian Roulette Variety show at PEX Summer Fest 2017. Check out our performance below!

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The places we go to practice…

June 19, 2017 Nicole Leave a comment

Not only does the amazing Tim Merz keep us safe, he also manages to snag a few shots of us getting dirty and sweaty while doing it. Thanks Tim!

After Krampus last year we brought on a few new members, and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve all been working on. Our new ladies are GREAT. You may have caught Erin with us at Krampuslauf- we invited her to guest perform with us, and now we’re not letting her go. Fire breather, dragon staff, fan aficionado- yeah, we think we’ll keep her. Brandilyn was also with us at Krampuslauf, helping stage manage. Never hurts to have another lady who can help us stay on track, and she’s our gal. She’s super enthusiastic and once she picked up her fans she set off running. Patrice rounds out our new squad. Another Archedream alum (Instead of blacklights and masks we throw in fire, ’cause why make performance easy?) she’s got a super impressive dance pedigree and is going to wow everyone with her great staff work. (Our new ladies will be added to our performance page very soon, where you can learn more about what special skills they’re bringing to the Lux Arati army.)

We’re hard at work on our piece for this year’s Russian Roulette Variety show at Pex Summer Fest, and hope to bring it to audiences outside of PEX this year too! We’re working on that part- if anyone is looking for a great fire finale to an outside show, let us know!

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Parade of Spirits: Krampuslauf 2016

January 16, 2017 Nicole Leave a comment

(in which I ramble for a while because Krampus is my favorite event ever. If you want to skip to the pretty pictures, scroll to the bottom.)

Wow. I feel like every year we get more and more involved in the festival, and it has been amazing. Thinking back to the first time 5 years ago when Jex asked us if we’d spin some fire at an event held by parents of some of the kids she taught, I never could have seen how it would draw us in and encourage us and challenge us in the best ways. “They’re great people, I think we’d fit really well” is the general memory I have of the conversation… Now I feel like we’ve all adopted each other. For me personally (Nicole… if in doubt, I’m usually the one writing these things 🙂 haha) this kind of event is WHY I got involved in all this craziness in the first place. Sure there are cool photos and its always a challenge and when you put on a good show it feels great. Really, though, bringing such joy to the community that has embraced us is the ultimate. Everything about the event- Steve’s photos (he’s the one who took one of my absolute favorites of Michelle last year), the kids’ excitement, the fact that Amber and her family TRUST US WITH THEIR CHILDREN!!! Not only trust, but encourage, champion, and scheme how to help the kids thrive even more. An 8 year-old with palm torches? SURE! She trusts us to guide him and help make it safe and fun. I love seeing them grow.

This year we pushed ourselves to put together not only a great show, but change up from our typical fur-and-horns look. Amber mentioned once, years ago, that one of her dreams was to see Plague Mask wearing dancers. Challenge Accepted. Michelle made AMAZING masks that were beyond my imagination. (We’re going to try to do a photo shoot with them soon, they ended up a little hard to photograph once the sun set for the show.) Michelle also spear-headed some great dresses for all of us, and cool masks… A little aside here. Michelle is amazing. She doesn’t physically sew all of our costumes, but she’s the creative force behind all of them. She’s the one who helps us look unified but unique. If you need any kind of costume, get yourself over to her site now. Hire her. Give her a chance to show you how amazing her talent is. Go, now!

Ok, enough rambling. On to the pictures! These are from the wonderful Steve Schultz. Check Out Those Kids. (Also huge thanks to Erin for joining us for the night! We hope you’ll be seeing more of her on the Lux Arati stage!)

© 2016 Steve Schultz - Steve@EarthToSteve.com

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Happy Halloween

October 30, 2016 Nicole Leave a comment

We had a ton of fun entertaining the crowd at the Twisted Tail’s annual Halloween party for the 5th year! The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and it meant that costumed patrons were out in droves. Tons of cell phones aimed at us, though I’ve had more trouble this year tracking down the images people grabbed. (I kept yelling “Hashtag LuxArati!” but I don’t know that anyone heard me, haha.) Luckily this time I had my own camera with me and was able to get some not-so-bad ones. Lux Arati friend Laura swung by to say ‘Hi’, and was a champ about taking the camera I shoved at her so I could get some photos of myself, too. Thanks Laura! Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeen!!!!

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PEX 2016

July 30, 2016 Nicole Leave a comment

This post is WAY late in coming. Pick your poison as to why, but lets just say life got away from me. On to the fun stuff! For the first year since we’ve been performing with the show, Lux Arati got to open the Russian Roulette Variety Show. It was fantastic not to have to wait the whole time to perform and be able to enjoy the rest of the acts. We had a great time, and can’t wait to put together our next RRVS piece! Fantastic photos thanks to William Tanksley and Redlite. (Raw video of the piece is here.)