Adrian Kawaley-Lathan is proudly playing with fire.

Along with a dozen other "fire spinners", Mr. Lathan has formed the group RockFire in the hope of building a community for those interested in learning the art, as well as organising performances.

"There's something about having flames in your hands," the 26-year-old said. "It's alive. It's a living thing."

Somewhere between dancing and martial arts, fire spinning involves performing with a number of different tools, each of which is set on fire once the spinner is confident enough.

"It's fire. There is a bit of danger involved," said Mr. Lathan. "When you pick up fire, you only do what you find comfortable. Most people drop it if anything goes wrong.

"The stuff we burn isn't sticky. It will burn you if you hold it to your skin, but you can bounce it off you without burning yourself."

Mr. Lathan said that he has been spinning for almost two years. He was introduced to the art by his girlfriend, who had been doing it for eight years. Having spent most of his life performing and studying martial arts such as capoeira and ju-jitsu, he found that it came naturally.

"While I've only been doing this for a little while, I've been performing since I was four," said Mr. Lathan. Most of the other performers in the group have similar backgrounds in dance or martial arts, he said.

"They come in here with a certain degree of coordination. There are people who have been fooling around with this stuff since they were kids. It's when you get that community growing, that's when you build your set of skills."

Most members of the group start with traditional spinning tools, like the staff or poi, which is a small ball on a chain.

"Poi is so cool because you have to stay completely relaxed," he said.

More experienced members of the group have been experimenting with more unusual devices, such as flaming nunchucks, fire fans and even a fire frisbee.

"You hear people talk about [the game] Ultimate Frisbee, they have no idea what they're talking about," Mr. Lathan joked.

Despite the danger the fire poses, Mr. Lathan said that he's never been burned. But just in case, he takes a number of precautions, including carrying a fire extinguisher, a fire blanket and a first aid kit when they practice on the beach at Warwick Long Bay.

"Safety is a big issue for us," he said. "The Police know we're here, the Fire Department know we're here. It is a bit dangerous. That's why we come to the beach. We have to tell people that this is real fire, real flames.

"Don't try this at home. Don't try this anywhere. Learn how to do it safely. It's lighthearted fun, but there's a lot of prep work."

Now that his group is growing, Mr. Lathan wants to start doing more performances, and hopefully get more people into the activity. While more than a dozen people are coming to practice sessions, which are held on Sunday nights, many of them are still beginners

"People say that there's nothing for the young people to do, and that's why we're getting all of this violence. We've got a lot of great resources here," he said.

The social nature of fire spinning is one of the things that drew him to the art after seeing the fire spinning community in Europe.

"It's such a community there. That's what I'm looking for. To create that community. We all learn from each other. It's very collaborative."

While RockFire has already performed during the Tall Ships 2009 celebrations and at the Lemon Tree happy hour, Mr. Lathan is looking forward to making the next step and having more performances. It's a step which poses new challenges.

"We have to be a lot more organised when we're putting on a show. It's a lot more detailed than when we're just playing around. We have to get down there a couple of hours before a show to do a site visit," he said.

"You've also got to make sure all your equipment is certified. We use wicks made out of Kevlar, but in some countries, they still use asbestos. Which is not so good."

Despite the difficulties, Mr. Lathan has big plans, including incorporating elaborate choreography into the show, utilising his background in dance as well as his experience in theatre.

"It's something I'm really excited about," he said.

l For more information on RockFire, e-mail rockfirebermuda@gmail.com.