Meet Anthony Fyrefli” Gasaway

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anthony “Fyrefli” Gasaway, Jr. and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anthony “Fyrefli”, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Honestly, one of the most important factors behind how successful myself, our crew, and our self-sufficient network is, is loyalty. True, honest, and open loyalty, combined with a mutual respect and genuine desire to see and help everyone connected to our network and the general community grow, are the reasons that apart from co-founding FyreNation Crew, I am able to effectively reach out and create collaborations, events, provide resources, and continue to establish the independent movement without jeopardizing the integrity of those involved. What became our most recognized trait with FyreNation Crew, WeOnFyre Cypher, Spiritual Palate, Cypher Rules Radio, and all of the brands we are associated, affiliated, and otherwise invested in, is that we operate honestly, keep our words, dedicate ourselves to providing the best quality of services and products up front to those who need them, and we also teach and educate others in both the arts and entrepreneur paths on how to do the same; we conduct our business in a way that puts things on paper, solid guarantees, and we deliver consistently on those terms. Consistency, honesty, and respect in the community all leads to the same basic principle. Loyalty.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Ultimately my full-time profession is as a HipHop Dance Teacher; I teach a circuit of classes at various studios every week, along with workshops, intensives and guest instructor classes scheduled throughout the month. The biggest thing that separates what I do from others is that I take the education of HipHop back to its foundational origins–something that a lot of dance studios don’t touch on or even explain, or have the staff that knows enough to explain to the students. By doing so, it helps reestablish the original essence and representation of the culture, by delving into the reason behind the movement, the elements that make it up, and more relevantly to the students, the street dance styles that became the recognized trademark of HipHop–Breaking is the first official dance style and 4th Element of HipHop, originating in Bronx, NY on the East Coast, followed by the West Coast funk movement’s Locking, and Popping styles, which were adopted in as the HipHop movement grew from the 70’s into the 80’s.

By teaching students the importance of having the proper terminology, vocabulary, fundamental drills and technique, they are able to add definition to their movement that is often lost or hard to comprehend when just doing routines or choreography–and this also eliminates the deficit of students who find themselves unable to freestyle/improv, since the hub of HipHop’s Dance Element comes from doing just that.

I’ve been living in Georgia for about 7 years now, and when I first started off, I was told there wasn’t much of a career established for dancers to work full time AND pay the bills, and that it was unheard of–so I decided to be the first one to prove that anyone can do it as long as they put work and time into it. It wasn’t easy, and there was a lot of researching, studying and innovative thinking that went into it. As soon as I figured out how to get myself booked to teach classes, and what the studios and organizations were looking for, I brought that information to the dance community to help educate as many people as I could so that everyone could have a chance to at least start off on a level playing field, and move forward from there. I advocated the concept of hiring foundationally-based HipHop instructors to teach the HipHop classes in studios, and then shared knowledge with the dance community on how to properly represent and present themselves so that they would be eligible for consistent guaranteed-pay work, instead of just playing the lottery with dance battles and hoping to win the cash prizes. I created Battle 2 Business Mentality as a class that teaches the basic factors any dancer, artist or entrepreneur needs in order to establish, present, protect, and create their path to a career, and it’s something that my crew and our network all use. It works, and we are examples of that.

It wasn’t easy–again, our crew started in October of 2020 and not even a year later, we were booking consistently, recognized internationally, teaching, appearing in various professional events including the World Games Kickoff Reception in September 2021, but more importantly, Kuma’s WeOnFyre Cypher free, family-friendly community event was going strong and generating a lot of noise. We began gaining sponsors to do bigger events, receiving grants and organizing and collecting data and testimonies from people we didn’t even know were positively effected by our efforts. Challenges are simply stepping stones to a higher level–each one we faced, we reconvened, studied and manufactured new ways to handle and overcome them in the future.

Lessons we learned include that not everyone can be included in what you do, and that it’s not rude or wrong to steer clear of people and organizations that do not have your best interest in mind. Not everyone wants to see you succeed, so not everything needs to be said on social media or otherwise; our work speaks for us, along with those in the community who are genuinely helped and benefit from our efforts, and they choose to tell the world who we are because they feel it naturally–we don’t demand people recognize us or treat us like royalty because our focus is not on being the top of the heap; our focus is on leveling the heap and making a platform that all of us rise on together, eliminating the hierarchies, and stopping the consistent manipulation of those who don’t know what traps and manipulations to avoid, since some people can and often do use what we don’t know against us for their own benefit. We’ve seen it happen, and it’s become increasingly hard for people to approach us this way because we establish a formal, up-front and clear manner and method of handling business that is designed to weed out good from bad, and we teach the community that’s watching how we handle situations and eventualities so that they’re not taken advantage of either. This is also why our network is self-sufficient–we have our own cinematographers, event coordinators, graphic designers, promotional team, sponsors, photographers, radio station, TV show, instructors, artists, performers, and vendors for what we do, but we never stop reaching out to the general community to show them the proper way events and business should be conducted, so that we can heal the damage in the community and begin growing as one again.

If there’s anything we want the world to know about myself, our brands and our story, it’s that you don’t have to be the best, most popular, or biggest name to make a difference. Your relevance isn’t determined by your social media following, and your mission is just as important to others as it is to you, so move forward and don’t let anything or anyone stop you. You’ll know who your allies and supporters are, far before you reach new heights because they’ll be there from the beginning and consistently move with you honestly and with loyalty. Lastly, take yourself serious and learn as much as you can–nothing is ever just handed out, and when it is, it comes with strings. You can remove these strings by knowing how to create your own success and operate outside of the handlings of others who may try to leverage your growth through their operation. Do your research, stay vigilant and stay honest to who you are and why you started doing this.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We end up moving around a lot, especially for gigs, but I would definitely say that one of my favorite spots in the city is Best End Brewery. Food is great and there’s always a local event going on each week. Next up, Little 5 Points for its artistic, open-vendor appeal that features interesting crowds of random talent, great shops and eateries, and a ton of awesome graffiti murals and urban artistry. Ponce City Market is next, similar reasons and layout but different in its own perspectives.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Honestly, we do this all the time, out loud, in interviews, in our events, we text, call, email, etc. the people that have helped us move forward and remind them that their influence has helped us–whether people wish to categorize it as a “big” or “small” one, influence is influence nonetheless. I thank the Most High for the talents He’s given me to do what I do, the knowledge and the creativity to manage and continue to grow.

My Mom and Dad who made sure all of us were educated and knowledgeable enough to get the things we needed, and professional enough to create the avenues to get there in legal, sustainable and responsible ways. It begins with them.

I would definitely like to shout out my former mentors Honey Rockwell and Orko Romero, who while being pioneers of the dance community during its early days in the 80’s and 90’s traveled the world and taught, represented and introduced thousands of people to what HipHop culture and Street Dance are as a positive movement. They passed the torch onto me while under their tutelage for over 4 years, and I’ve been pushing ever since.

I also would like to shout out Adam Parman, the CEO and Founder of Epic Martial Arts, since I worked as a front-desk admin and After School Director at his studio, and his business consultation and counsel became part of the various notes and tips I adapted and use for the layouts of my business dealings, and help me organize my internal operations.

Cypher Rules Radio CEO and Founder Isaiah “Tribal” Everson, for believing in and supporting FyreNation Crew endlessly and honestly from the first day we met in late 2020 all the way up to this point. He’s been at 99% of our events, promoted us and helped get our name out there in different aspects of the community, he physically helps us run our functions, and most recently with our connections and sponsorships, he’s helped us with applying for and receiving funding for our events.

Maegan Moguel, the RedBull Cultural Representative for the East Coast, because after meeting her earlier this year, she’s kept up with myself and my fiancé Joy “Kuma” Rowe, and she’s been willing to help support us, invited us to compete in Raleigh, NC’s first RedBull BC One Breakin’ Competition, and even recognized us as being community pillars for what we do, and put our names and backstory in her international presentation.

Leslie Doctora, whose daughter Mael Doctora is the first international member of FyreNation Crew in the Philippines chapter, that even while bed-ridden and struggling with severe health issues, has been a supporter, encouragement, and light to many of the youth there who struggle to keep their dance dreams alive. Leslie doesn’t have much, but she gives everything she has to save the youth, giving them food, paying school and other fares for them, working extra hard and trying to be the glue that keeps them all together as they reach for their dreams. Our crew recently sent her the first donations from the GoFundMe page we started, to pay for her medical needs, and there’s still a lot she needs, but she hasn’t ever been a negative person in the 4 years I’ve known her, and she’s seen as a Mom for the dance scene there. We hope to continue being able to help her, and eventually pay for her surgery.

Lastly, for those who helped me in various ways, here’s to you all!

Aaron and Kara Tomason whose help, support, advice and hospitality have been there tirelessly and unendingly for myself and Kuma before, during, and after our struggles and successes, Branden “Sideshow” Feimster, Brandon “Bam” Morales, Cordaro Gross, Andre “Droiid” Rucker, Bryan “Bbop” Donaldson, Moy “Firmeza” Hernandez, Carl “Kiid Beastie” Wright, Jr., Lamont “Kunstruct” Chapman, Donnie “Crumbs” Counts, all of FyreNation Crew, Hit The Beat Africa in Uganda, all of the studios we teach classes at, and even if your name isn’t on this list, we make efforts to tell everyone who, how, and what they did to help us grow. Thank you all!

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