Her life is fire and fire is her life.
Meet Lilia Yotova, or just Lily. She is young, beautiful and very energetic. She is the manager of the Divinitas club for fire art, which she inherited from its founder – Yordan Lilov.
Although she graduated from Sofia University with a degree in economics, and before that she was at NFSG Sofia, majoring in entrepreneurship and management, Lily’s hobby and profession for many years has been working with “burning objects”.
“When you do something you love, time flies,” she told Lifebites.bg about the fact that she has no idea how many years have passed since she started.
Lily loves peace, harmony and good relationships with people. Her other passions besides fire are her pets and taking care of her garden.
Lily told us that it is difficult to spin fire and it could be dangerous to play with it.
– How did you become interested in the art of fire?
Everyone has a different story about it. I personally started after watching a video on the internet. I was very impressed from the first moment. After that I watched it, maybe,… thousands of times. In the video itself, a man was spinning a fire poi. I felt something deep and inspiring. I wanted to feel it in my own experience.
– Where does the name of your club come from?
The name Divinitas comes from Latin and means “divinity”, “perfection”. It was given to the club by its founder Mr. Yordan Lilov, from whom I inherited it. The name itself can be interpreted in several ways. On the one hand, the very perfection of fire, of its power, of its myth. On the other hand, the pursuit of perfection, of complete merging with the element.
– How long does it take to learn and become good at working with fire?
First, you don’t need to practice with training tools. For about a month and a half or two, everyone can learn the basic movements with the training equipment, and then try them with fire. After the first year, you can feel confident with the prop. How far can one go? Its limitless, you only must keep safety precautions at a high level.
– Is this art difficult?
Well, I can’t say it’s easy, because it requires coordination and you can burn yourself . But I can’t say it’s difficult becaus
e anything can be learned, just need time and determination.
My personal recipe was to relax while spinning and try a wide variety of movements.
– Do “Fire” artists have a lot of burns?
About the people I know – no. We practice every trick with training tools, so many times, that when with lit the fire tool, there is no difference between the two. Usually accidents hepaned when you rather don’t pay enough attention or you overlook the trick.
– Do accidents happen often during a fire show?
My personal accident was a long time ago. I use to drop my pois a lot, because my hands was very weak. That’s why I tiered my pois to my hands, because I didn’t wanted to drop them on the stage. At that time we was working with not so pleasant people, so they soak my handle in to the fuel. My handle started to burn on the stage, while it was tiered to my hand. I had fast reaction. Of course, it was nothing serious. But this was a huge reminder for many things. Fire spinning in a group relays on trust between the people. Its very important who you spin with. And if course, I never tiered my poi to my hands ever since then.
– What qualities should a person to have in order to try fire arts?
There are no specific requirements, neither for height, nor for sex, nor for age. The only advantage can give a person the ability to coordinate hands well. With desire, however, everything is achievable!
Source: Ekaterina Angelova, Lifebites