About
WildFire Retreat is a flow and spinning arts training retreat where attendees can learn various spinning, flow, and sideshow arts (poi, staff, hoop, and others).
WildFire Retreat (“WildFire”, or “WF”) was founded in Fall 2005, and is currently held in Ashford, CT. The event is held two times per year (May and September), hosts up to 250 attendees, and offers close to 100 classes over the four-day event.
WildFire was one of the first such events in America, taking a formerly fringe and rare set of physical skills (spinning and flow arts) and creating a community that shares and develops new skills and new teaching techniques.
Classes
The majority of classes at WildFire are about how to manipulate various spinning props. Other classes offered include elements of performance (costume, audience interaction, choreography, and more), body awareness (belly dance, yoga, stretching), and safety (safety practices, fuel, burn care, etc.)
Skill-based classes are offered at four levels, “beginner”, “intermediate”, “advanced”, and “mixed” in each prop. The intermediate and advanced classes are typically focused on specific prop movements (hybrids, flowers, atomics, etc.) or conceptual structure about collections of movements (plane bending, 9-square theory, etc.)
Classes are offered on Saturday and Sunday. Friday night classes, when previously offered, are typically “for the absolute beginner” level to give newer spinners a jump-start on other classes.
Classes are submitted by teachers weeks to months prior to each event. Formal classes are led by volunteer teachers. “Affinity Groups” are informal gatherings of attendees interested in taking time to exchange ideas and skills without having a formal teacher lead the group.
The class schedule of WildFire typically leaves several class locations/times unallocated. These unallocated slots are used by the community to form impromptu classes and Affinity Groups, organized and announced at the event, independent of the event organizers.
Culture
WildFire started as an all-volunteer organization. All classes are taught by attendees. All cooking, cleaning, grounds maintenance, event coordination, planning and management is done by attendees on a volunteer basis. WildFire strongly values volunteerism because it creates a strong sense of ownership of the event by the participants.
The all-volunteer ethic created an event largely free of hierarchy. Highly advanced spinners, beginning spinners, teachers, and event organizers all mingle freely. A constant stream of casual interactions lead to a free exchange of ideas about spinning skills and the struggle and fun of learning.
Many attendees report feeling a strong sense of family at WildFire, and frequently refer to one another as “fire family”.
Attendees of WildFire frequently form unofficial sub-groups on a wide variety of topics. A ‘Coffee Posse’ formed in 2013 to bring better coffee to the WildFire community. A drum circle formed in 2009 to offer drummers a place to play together, and also offer spinners an opportunity to spin to non-amplified music. Some traditions that started as an unofficial sub-group later became an officially organized function, for example a Silkscreen station and a bonfire group.
In May 2014, WildFire instituted 4 paid positions (Executive Director, Pre-Event Manager, Grounds Manager, and Kitchen Manager) to compensate these individuals for the high number of hours needed to fulfill these roles. This has since been expanded to include the Communications Director, Operations Director, Web & IT Manager, and Project Manager.
Location
WildFire has been held in two locations.
Between its founding in September 2005 through September 2007, WildFire was held in Deep River, CT (Pioneer Village, 207 Winthrop Road, Deep River, CT 06417). This site is called “The Old Site” by WildFire organizers.
Citing disagreements with Pioneer Village management, the WildFire Event Team at the time began looking for a new location to host the WildFire event. In mid-January 2008, several WildFire organizers toured J.N. Webster Scout Reservation and other sites, eventually agreeing that J.N. Webster best-suited WildFire’s needs.
From Spring 2008 to the present, WildFire is held at:
J.N. Webster Scout Reservation
231 Ashford Center Rd, Ashford, CT
860-429-9918
Ok, that’s cool, but what’s with all the beavers?
At WildFire Retreat, we love busy beavers – those folks who go above and beyond their volunteer commitment. We recognize those individuals at the end of each event based on community feedback!
During the weekend we encourage all WildFire attendees to write down names of people they see going the extra mile and making the magic happen.
On Sunday evening we hold the Beaver Awards, where we acknowledge everyone’s hard work to make the event what it is, and give a small token of our appreciation to those that have been nominated by their fellow community members.
And.. frankly – every event needs a mascot!
