Shaina Johnson

A lifelong performer, Shaina Dyani Johnson began Ballet studies at Age 4, later exploring Modern, Khatak, Odissi, and Argentine Tango dance forms as well as Yoga and Circus Arts. In 2001, she discovered fire performance and now regularly appears at private, corporate, and festival venues across the United States and overseas. Some of her performance credits include Huis Ten Bosch in Kyushu, Japan; the Harbor Nights Festival in Hamilton, Bermuda; the Sonoma International Film Festival in Napa Valley, CA, as well as the Great American Music Hall and the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, CA. In 2004, she founded the Copper Lantern Fire Theater, an ensemble of performers, musicians, and fabricators who create a stylized fusion of dance theater, fire performance, custom flame effects, and live and electronic music, which has been awarded multiple grants for innovation.

Shaina has performed at the Crucible since its Oakland Grand Opening celebration in 2003. Since then, she has performed for open houses, fashion shows, fire festivals, and full-length theatrical productions such as Romeo & Juliet: A Fire Ballet, Heat: A Fire Cabaret, and Crucible Revival. She formally joined the fire performance faculty in 2012 and instructs fire eating classes for regular adult programming and corporate team builds.

As an instructor, Shaina strives to create a supportive environment for participants to explore new skills by imbuing her classes with warmth, humor, and engaging, hands-on activities. Her classes emphasize safety, learning at one’s own pace, interactivity, and community creation.