We recently connected with Carly Cravotta and have shared our conversation below.

Carly, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The meaningful project I am currently working on is growing a fire troupe of 5 women.

Flow arts started as my COVID-19 lockdown hobby back in 2020, but it has slowly grown into so much more. I found the flow arts community in Jacksonville and they introduced me to fire props. I started practicing more and more and decided I wanted to get into fire performing in March 2023. I started as a solo performer and performed at backyard birthday parties and made my way up to getting hired by entertainment companies.
I realized it’s not as fulfilling to be performing solo, and wanted to grow my performing community. So I started the Hellcatz Fireshow. I specifically wanted it to be all women because female empowerment is extremely important to me.

As well as fire performing, my other passions deal with building a female community and female empowerment. As a hobby, I paint abstract vulvas/roses. I also in the process of creating a women’s empowerment sensual yoga flow workshop. Eventually, I want to hold women’s circles/meet ups and host women’s empowerment yoga retreats that center around connecting with your body and emotions.

Starting my flow arts journey ended up being me starting my self-healing journey. It has been so symbolic for me to find my voice, my power, and my confidence through dancing with fire. It has allowed me to myself for the powerful woman I am. People don’t understand how healing this entire journey as a performer has been.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I pretty much answered this for the last question.

I went to my first music festival in 2019 and saw all of the flow artists dancing around with their props and became interested. I got to try a few out and bough LED poi during the COVID-19 lockdown. I searched Youtube high and low for tutorial videos and learned as much as I could. When I moved to Jacksonville and found the fire community, they taught me how to transition from LED flow to fire flow. I learned about new props and different techniques, which allowed me skill set to improve to much. By March 2023, I was ready to break into the performance world. I started as a solo performer, but quickly realized I wanted to work with a team of women, so I created the Hellcatz fireshow along with four other amazing flow artists.
What sets me a part from most flow artists is my ability to network with other flow artists, city members, and clients. Also, my ability to lead and manage a group of performers sets me a part and helps me problem solve. Being a high school teacher and AVID program coordinator helped prepare me for this leadership role. I am most proud of my leadership and networking skills, which is why I want to continue networking and build a whole brand around Fire Sacral Flow. I am destined for more than just performing. I am meant to bring the community together and hold space for other women and other performs to heal and grow just like me.
Community is so important to me, which is why I love events and festivals put on by the city. That is why I started networking with the city and performing at city events. Since these events are larger, they need more than juts a solo performer, which is why I wanted to put a fire troupe together. Also, it made me realize that we are always stronger when we work together. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and when we work as a collective, we can use our strengths to make up for our weaknesses. Each one of the performers in the Hellcatz Fireshow is very unique and different from one another. Together, we make such a badass team of women. It has been so beautiful to watch us grow, it often brings me to tears. And to think…it was because of the hard work I put in. I never thought I could do something to powerful.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The mission driving my creative journey is women empowerment, self-love, self-healing, and sexual assault healing. I have been working so hard to heal myself and my fire journey has helped me build up my self confidence. I have had low self-esteem and low self worth my whole life. I never thought opportunities were meant for me and I was meant to be out of the lime light, in the back of the crowd. Dancing with fire gave me the confidence to get up in front of crowd and share my passion. Dance and movement have been healing to me. It helps me get out of my head. To lower my anxiety and depression, and heal. I want to share my healing journey with others and pave the way for others to heal as well. Again, community is EVERYTHING. Humans have become so isolated, and I want to bring community back. Women especially need to build their community. Women’s circles are so important. For women to come together to heal, laugh, share stories, eat, dance around, and learn how to embody their true feminine power!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Just by being authentic. Sharing my real stories and writing captions that come from the heart and right off the top of my head. I thought about using Chat GPT to help me write my captions to save on time, but I gave up the first time I tried it. It didn’t feel right nor did it work anyway! The whole point is I want to inspire others to heal and reach for their dreams. And I’m glad I didn’t use Chat GPT because I had a women comment on my post, “I love your words.” I’m a real person living my real life. Flow arts is my real hobby. I just happen to be good enough to the point that people want to pay me for my services. So I want my IG presence to reflect who I truly am. Angelica Pompy, my sorority sister, and business coach, taught me to just be authentic. She is another example how I learned how important having a strong community of women is. I have a network of women who have helped me get to where I am today, and I will forever be grateful for the women in my life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram/fire.sacral.flow
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Fire-Sacral-Flow

Image Credits
Pompy Portraits took the photos were I’m wearing black. @Trav_atwood took the long exposure shot @moreiliasinstinct took the upclose photo in the green