Emiliana Sandoval tries out for the role of Fire Sprite during auditions at the Fort Marcy ballpark on Saturday, July 27, 2024 for the next Zozobra fire dancer.
Current Fire Spirit Helene Luna (pictured at left with the author) has danced in the Fire Spirit role for almost 30 years and will pass the torch to a new performer in 2027.
Emiliana Sandoval tries out for the role of Fire Sprite during auditions at the Fort Marcy ballpark on Saturday, July 27, 2024 for the next Zozobra fire dancer.
Jim Weber/The New Mexican
The Fire Spirit lights up Old Man Gloom at the 2021 burning of Zozobra.
Aviva Baumann gets into the role of Fire Spirit at Fort Marcy Park during auditions on July 27 for the next Zozobra fire dancer.
Jim Weber/The New Mexican
Dancers listen to some final instructions before the start of auditions for the next Zozobra fire dancer at Fort Marcy Park on July 27.
I am a few decades past my dancing prime, with two crunchy knees and a rebuilt shoulder. I have a recurring nightmare about falling down a flight of stairs. I have no business auditioning for a dance role that would require me to wave two lit torches while hustling up and down steep steps in a cloud of smoke, yet here I am.
I’ve come home to Santa Fe from Detroit to audition for the Fire Spirit, Zozobra’s nemesis. Do I have a chance at nabbing the role? Heck no, but I’m at an age where bucket list items need to be bucketed, and this has been at the top of my list since I saw my first burn in 1977.
Since then, Zozobra has been my favorite night of the year — for me, it’s even better than Christmas Eve. I grew up just down the street from Fort Marcy Park and went to Carlos Gilbert Elementary School, which would reschedule our morning recess so we could watch Zozo go by, horizontal on a flatbed truck. There was always a Fiesta assembly with songs and the Fiesta court to get us in the mood. We even heard a rumor that our principal was Zozobra’s voice. (He wasn’t.)
In the 1970s and ’80s, my sister and I and our best friends would watch the burn from the back of my dad’s ’56 Chevy pickup, parked in a vacant lot off Otero Street. During high school, Santa Fe High always had a home football game on Zozobra night — back then it was a Friday — so I missed all four years because of marching band. But we did get to stuff his head with newspaper in Key Club.
In 2006, I planned my wedding around Fiesta, and our Midwestern guests got the full Zozobra experience, including a torrential rain delay. When I die, I want my ashes placed inside him so my spirit can waft into the Santa Fe sky as the fireworks burst.
So, yeah, I’m a fan. And as a lifelong dancer, I’ve always been captivated by the Fire Dancer/Fire Spirit. When I saw the audition announcement, I knew I had to jet home and do it.
Current Fire Spirit Helene Luna (pictured at left with the author) has danced in the Fire Spirit role for almost 30 years and will pass the torch to a new performer in 2027.
Emiliana Sandoval
After we check in at Fort Marcy Park, the 13 of us get acquainted as we stretch and warm up. Some of us didn’t read the email telling us to prepare a dance, and we share nervous laughter about having to improvise. The other candidates include a tango and burlesque instructor, a former professional ballerina, a University of New Mexico flamenco student, and a legit movie star. Some have brought family and friends for support. Everyone is at least 20 years younger than me.
A KOB cameraman interviews each of us — part of being Fire Spirit is doing a lot of media — and I get choked up talking about how tickled my dad, who died in 2012, would be. I’m wearing a red tank top with red crystals glued on, because I’m a competitive artistic swimmer and I know it’s important to sparkle.
Current Fire Spirit Helene Luna and Zozobra event chair and director Ray Sandoval are on hand to give us directions and encouragement. Like original Fire Dancer Jacques Cartier and successor Chip Lilienthal (his daughter Doenika taught me how to drive stick), Luna will have been performing at the feet of Zozobra for 30 years when she steps down in 2027 — after training the new Fire Spirit and an alternate.
She explains that the role requires passion, high energy, and big emotions. I’m classically trained in ballet, so my comfort zone is pretty, placid, and precise. She also says that going up and down those steps “are no joke,” and dancing with and within fire can be dangerous.
Ray (who happens to be my third cousin, although we hadn’t met before) recounts the legend of how the Fire Spirit vanquishes Zozobra and saves Santa Fe’s children. He points out that being the Fire Spirit requires more than just one night of dancing — this person has to work throughout the year with the press, children, and the Kiwanis members. The Fire Spirit is a local celebrity. He also says about a million people watched the burn online last year, in addition to the 64,089 at the park. So, no pressure!
They call us up one by one, asking us to start in a crouch at the top of the stairs, dance on the platform, then go down and back up the steps. Helene gives each performer a pep talk before the music from Cartier’s “Voodoo Dance” starts. I know from my research that Cartier broke both ankles doing the role (not at the same time), and I hope I don’t embarrass or injure myself by wiping out.
We cheer each other on. I’m midpack, and while I usually get nervous before a dance performance, I have zero butterflies this time around. It’s fun to look way up and imagine Zozobra towering above me, then turn my gaze to the field and “see” the crowd. Helene is yelling encouragement: “Give it everything you’ve got!”
It all goes by in a flash. I go up and down the steps without falling.
I don’t pass out from the altitude. Dad would be proud.
Did I get the role? Absolutely not. Was it worth the trip? Absolutely. ◀
Emiliana Sandoval grew up in Santa Fe and started her journalism career as a writer and copy editor at Pasatiempo, where she covered dance, movies, classical music, and visual arts. She was an editor at the Detroit Free Press and Motor Trend Magazine and is currently the managing editor for workflow and standards at Chalkbeat.
