Elon’s Fire Girl
Katniss Everdeen is the main character in the upcoming movie, Catching Fire. But Elon has its own Katniss who catches fire herself. Her name is Kasia Luzynski and she a junior on the dance team who twirls baton for the Fire of the Carolinas.
“I guarantee you I train just as hard as any athlete,” Luzynski said. “It takes a lot more work than just grabbing a baton and twirling it. When people try they realize that but a lot of don’t quite grasp how difficult it is.”
Luzysnki started twirling when she was three years old. Since then, her skills have grown. She can now twirl batons, flags, knives and even fire.
“I think I started twirling fire back when I was 12 and looking back on it that was so young and I have no idea why my parents let me do that,” Luzynski said. “I can do two fire, hoping next year to get up to three, that’s the goal.”
Luzynski doesn’t get nervous when she twirls fire but there are some things to keep in mind.
“You have to be careful, I wouldn’t go out on a windy day with my hair down in the full stadium,” Luzynski said. “If you hold a fire baton straight up and down, it will burn all of your arm hair off, so that has happened. You have to keep it moving and keep it going.”
And as for the knives, they aren’t sharp but that doesn’t mean you can’t get hurt.
“So if you hit yourself it will make a mark and hurt but it is not supposed to draw blood or anything like that,” she said. “But someone had asked me that two weeks ago at practice, and I was like ‘no that doesn’t happen’. The next practice I hit myself and sliced my thumb open. But you know, you just wrap it, and I twirled the rest of practice.”
Other than coaching, Luzynski doesn’t plan to twirl after college but she would like her kids too.
“Fire and knives they have to wait a while,” she said. “They can start twirling since day one, at least middle school. They’ll need some coordination.”
