Born in Ukraine; grew up in San Francisco; now living in Marin with my sweetie Pi, who inspires me every day.
PYRO
I twirled a baton and hooped as a munchkin. When those broke, I took to twirling umbrellas and keychains. After a period of hardcore moshing, I turned to less aggressive repetitive beats, picked up glowsticking around '97, and a year or two later learned basic poi moves at a Feel Good party out at Angel's Camp. Solenne taught me how to juggle one psychedelic night in '02, and I took that up to basic four-ball tricks. Got back into poi and first burned in '03 (Solenne's doing again), in the panhandle, with cars streaming by on either side. Second poi burn concurred with my first time on the playa in '04 - even though I'd been hearing about it since '93 and living vicariously through photos and stories, it was the first time I was able to go home. Been burning constantly since then (poi, staff, short double staves, fans, hoop); it encompasses exercise, meditation, community, love, learning...home. The Infinite Kaos collective has been the major influence on my development as an artist for many years, and I have been performing with the mad-skilled renegades of Los Suenos del Fuego ("Dreams of Fire"; LSDFuego.com ) and extended fire familia since late '04. It's all about the flow!
NERD
After high school and a couple of years of university, I moved to Toronto for six months, then returned and accepted a position at the SFVA as a laboratory technician, studying the replication of the Hepatitis C virus. After two fascinating years learning about and using state-of-the-art molecular research techniques, I returned to university to complete my degree in Cell and Molecular Biology.
