Dan Miethke
Dan Miethke is an Australian circus performer and autodidact specialising in fire dance. His international performance career jump-started in 2006 when he was invited to perform at the Burj Al Arab in front of the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. He currently performs a solo fire act in the Cirque du Soleil show “Zaia” as well as portraying one of the leading characters in the show - the Shaman. He has succeeded in establishing his career as a fire performer in the international market with a unique combination of movement and technical fire skills.
Specialty
His special skills include the fire dancing apparatus of swords, double staffs, poi, ropes and long staff. His style is contemporary focusing on body presentation, high energy movements and close body technical fire manipulation.
Career
Dan started martial arts, dancing and fire performance at a young age. However, his interests lay more in arts than in competition. Festivals were his first exposure to performing for large crowds and creatively combining prop and body movement to music.
After high school he formed his own performing arts company and successfully bid for national and international performance contracts. After establishing his business with solo, duo and group performances in the Middle East, Europe and Asia, both under his own company Pyroptix and with the renowned FlameOz, he moved away from an organisational role and back to focusing on his own performance development.
In 2008 he was accepted into Phoenix Productions based in Vienna where he trained and performed with their performing arts coaches. Dan's double fire swords routine developed into a world class technically original skill based on power jumps and close tracing of fire across his chest and back while executing acrobatic moves such as aerial cartwheels. His work with Phoenix Productions lead to performances in 38 cities across 5 continents.
In 2010 He created a fire duet with Stephanie Höggerl for Resorts World Sentosa2 and Universal Studios in Singapore presenting 180 fire shows and 60 aerial shows in 10 weeks. His company Pyroptix was rebranded as Spark Fire Dance in 2011.
Cirque du Soleil
In 2010 Cirque du Soleil signed Dan as their first Australian fire artist, to perform in the production of Zaia in the Venetian Macau.3 He is currently the only contemporary firedance artist on any Cirque du Soleil show.
Notable Performances
Dan has performed with and for celebrities and royalty across the world.
- Paris Hilton, Sharon Stone, Richard Gere, Seal, Mariah Carey, Tom Jones, & Monica Bellucci at the Mardan Palace opening in Antalya, Turkey.
- Jennifer Lopez, George Michael, Ricky Martin & Kate Moss at Sir Phillip Greens 55th on Soneva Fushi, Maldives.
- With Nelly and Phoenix Productions at a private villa in Monacco for an unnamed Russian mafia head.
- For Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at the Burj Al Arab for the Zenith (watchmaker) Launch.
- For the Qatari royal family at the Women's World Tennis Championship 2009 in Doha Qatar.
- For the Princes of the House of Saud, Sheiks of Dubai, Sharja and Abu Dhabi, Heads of State of Jordan
- For the Bahrain royal family at Zaia in 2011
- Dan performed on TV shows in China, Australia, Slovakia and Austria.
- Dan’s skills have been featured on the ‘Circles of Light 2006’ 'Circles of Light 2010'and ‘Doublestaff Manipulation’ DVD’s.
External links
- sparkfiredance.com Dan Miethke’s Official website
- about.me/sparkfire Dan Miethke’s About.me page
- facebook.com/pages Dan Miethke’s Facebook fan page
- cirquetribune.com Dan Miethke listing on the Cirque Tribune Database
- lifestyleasia.com Lifestyle Asia Interview with Dan "Playing with Fire Interview with ZAIA's Fire Dancer"
- cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/zaia Cirque Du Soleil Zaia official website