(gentle music) - So we're really delighted to be lighting WaterFire for the Brown Parents Weekend.

So thank you all very, very much.

Be safe.

It's another gorgeous night.

We have 50 stars out under the confluence, on the confluence for the 50th year of the Brown Medical School, so that'll be beautiful.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - We have some great performers.

We always find a way to incorporate people.

- As you go along the river, it's in the way you would walk through great museums, there's different galleries, there's impressionists, there's realism, there's all of these different displays of art.

And I think that what those artists bring to it is this sense that there's so much that it's just, there's a lot of eye candy appeal to it.

But then as you stand and stare and watch and you begin to get engaged by these other artists, it's amazing.

The river disappears, the flames sort of fade behind you and you're totally locked on what they're doing.

And then you turn back around and the river reengages you.

- The fire spinners that we bring to WaterFire that perform during the evening, they bring a fun ambience, something different.

Within 30 seconds of them lighting their poi balls or poi spins or their wands, you'll have a thousand to 2,000 people just, spinner, fire spinners happening.

(gentle music) (applause) It's just a beautiful dance.

So everything going, the music, the braziers, and now you have actual fire being spun by a human also.

- Every fire spinner is different, right?

They all present themselves in very different ways.

And most recently we've had Liz Knight, and she is very creative.

We had her have fireball spinning lights, which is an incredible, it's mind boggling what she can do with that indoors.

- There is definitely danger involved for us at this point.

You can definitely get burned.

It is real fire.

People will always ask us, is that real fire?

And like, it absolutely is real fire.

I like to think that we're very entertaining.

I think we also contributed a lot to the atmosphere.

We call it ambient entertainment because we're creating the part of... We're part of the ambience, part of the atmosphere.

(gentle music) - People see us and they're like, wow, that person is doing things with fire that I didn't know were possible on a moving boat.

I think it just blows people's minds and I love that.

- I think it brings an element of fire that's very different than what is kind of set up here with the braziers and everything.

The fire is moving and it kind of gives you kind of a more interactive like back and forth bit with the people in the audience.

- Another group that's very significant is TEN31 Productions and they are the living statues.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - All right.

- Feel good?

- I think so.

How do I look?

Good?

- Looks good.

- All right, cool.

- They're at the World War Memorial in Memorial Park nearly every WaterFire, every full WaterFire.

(upbeat music continues) - The trick is getting in this without smudging the makeup.

I think we're good.

- It's the best time to bring these characters to life.

I feel like everyone loves witches, right?

- I have my crown right here.

This is actually pretty heavy, not super heavy, but it's a good solid weight.

I'll put it on for you.

How's it look?

Is it straight?

- [Crew] Looking good.

There you go.

- Perfect.

- The crowd loves them.

They put on an incredible performance each evening.

- How about mask?

- [Crew] You look good.

- Yeah, I'm just gonna do the mascara and should be good.

Tonight at WaterFire, I'm going to be the evil queen.

We'll all be standing by the World War I monument.

I picture an evil queen being a bit coy, almost like the evil stepmother that knows you did something wrong.

They know like your secret.

It's off to WaterFire.

(bright music) Eye contact is gonna be great.

So little gesture of the wand, the book, giving that nice little compliment and swoosh of the wand, making those around me feel as if there's some magic being brought to their lives at that moment.

So yeah, I'm a good witch, so it's going to be a very lovely occasion tonight.

(bright music continues) (bright music continues) - [Mike] As the gargoyle, the wings, they add a very big element to it.

So it's a matter of kind of moving as effortlessly and with as much flow as possible.

(bright music continues) - I don't know what it is about WaterFire.

It just opens that magical space for people to be open to share themselves with us.

And that doesn't always happen at the corporate events certainly.

It's what makes WaterFire and performing at WaterFire super special - At WaterFire, I think TEN31 brings that awe factor.

It's, again, different people interpret it differently.

It's a conversation without having a conversation.

- We've had people say that they've sensed us from just walking through it.

I get emotional every time I think about it.

You know, people sharing really intimate details with us and I don't know if it's the magic of WaterFire that allows people to feel free and connected with us.

- [Mike] It's almost like a, it's much a religious, a spiritual experience, if you will, being at WaterFire.

There's the music, there's the fire, there's the gondolas going up and down the river.

There's just this fantastical, fun, wonderful, and like I said, almost spiritual element.

- It's a bombarding of your senses because we are obviously closer to the fires than the people on shore are.

I like to hope that the gondola is enough of a piece of art itself that people do consider it part of WaterFire.

I really do feel like what we do fits very neatly, not just into the kind of Italian-American nature of Providence, but also the art that WaterFire is.

- [Bob] I think that all of those other artists add so much to it.

They are like the other masterpieces hanging on the wall of a museum.

You're seeing other brilliance.

You're seeing other great works of art and you're experiencing that.

That's why you don't wanna just go see the Mona Lisa, you want to go to the Louvre.

You want to walk through those corridors and get a sense of all of the rest of it.

(bright music) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues)