Natalie Brown, director of Delirium Tribal and Columbia Alternacirque “I set my hair on fire once during a performance,” Natalie Brown said. “It was interesting.”

Not the typical story you hear from a dancer during a rehearsal. Normally, it’s talk of shin splints, sprained ankles, and back pain. Brown and her group of dancers and performers from Columbia Alternacirque have the same aches and pains mixed with a few slightly more exotic ailments.

Everyone in the Alternacirque crew – four belly dancers, three fire performers, and one hula hooper – has worked with some form of fire, whether it’s flaming fans for the dancers, lit torches for the fire performers, or even a blazing hoop for the hooper. This, of course, leads to singed arm hairs, blisters, and the occasional branding. Brown has even been known to balance a fire sword on her head.

Nate Addy, fire performer with Columbia Alternacirque Photos by Joshua Beard at www.jbeardfoto.com “But we do have a fire safety official and insurance for each performance,” Brown assured.

The circus group has been fascinating a growing fan base in Columbia since 2007, but Brown’s journey with belly dancing began years before while she was attending college in New Orleans.

“I had a back injury in college. I had herniated two discs and done a lot of damage to my back. When I was rehabilitating I was trying to figure out what I could do that was low impact and good for my spine,” she said. “I got it in my head that I was going to try belly dance. I have no idea where that came from.”

From the moment she set foot in her first tribal bellydance style class, she was captivated. It was a challenge physically but one worth the effort. Natalie was forced to leave New Orleans in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. She returned to Columbia, where her family currently lives, and shortly thereafter began giving dance lessons in the Tribal Style with help from CMFA and Center for Dance Education. In April 2006, she formed Delirium Tribal Bellydance Company, and they began giving monthly shows at Art Bar in the Vista.

A year later, the group was transitioning, and Brown found herself with a short roster of performers. That’s when she met Fire and Motion director Steve Oswanski. They joined her bellydancers with his fire performers and started Columbia Alternacirque.

“It was a big culture shock from New Orleans to Columbia,” she said. “I decided to give it a chance and decided that if the community wasn’t what I wished it was, I could roll up my sleeves and do some work and try to contribute to the community. So I created the circus.”

Columbia Alternacirque is a full theatrical experience, carefully crafted to make sure no audience member has a dull moment. Master of ceremonies and local slam poet Kendal Turner introduces the various numbers and keeps onlookers entertained with witty commentary.

For many of the Alternacirque performers, this is an avocation into which they pour their spare time and energy.

“I like that we’re pretty much ordinary people,” Brown said. “My dance company ranges from ages 27 to 53. We have dancers and performers of all body types and all backgrounds all walks of life. One of my dancers is a chicken farmer, another is software engineer. It’s really cool when you just stop and look at the circus. Most of us are self taught or we have to travel to get mentoring in what we do because there was nothing like it here before we started.”

Fire performer Nick Dunn began performing with the circus as an actor and gradually learned how to work with fire. During the day he works for Time Warner Cable. “It’s a great stress relief,” he said. “You do a desk job during the day and put fire in your mouth at night!”

Company hula hooper Gina Wolfe has only been performing for a little over a year and has ways of working the hoop that appear to defy the laws of gravity. “I was just at a festival last year and saw a hoop and thought ‘that looks like fun,’” she said. Even though it appears that her hoop tricks are extremely difficult to master, Wolfe insists it’s something anyone can learn to do. “You just need to use the larger hoops,” she said. “Honestly, I’m seriously as graceful as a rock!”

As Alternacirque’s crowds continue to grow, finding suitable performance venues becomes an obstacle, but a welcome one because it means the group has great community support. Brown recalls traveling to Asheville or other regional cities and drawing crowds of 30 to 50, while each Art Bar performance brings in 300 to 400.

“People are proud to have something off–beat in Columbia,” Brown says. “So we like that we’re pushing the envelope here and expanding what can be done in Columbia.”

Columbia Alternacirque’s next performance will be at Art Bar on March 26.