Meet Anthony Fyrefli” Gasaway

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

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve talked many times before about how interesting and chaotic it can be along the path to turning what you love into a career, and I’m always careful to remind people that just because something might take time and be a little hard at first, it doesn’t mean it’s not possible or edifying to do so. I’ve always loved dancing, and over the years from a young age I’d think about what it would be like to dance full-time as a career. People will say all kinds of things about the life choices they think other people should make for their lives, but ultimately if it’s your life, the decision to stop yourself or embark on your own journey is yours alone to make. I’ve been serious about dancing since I was 11 years old, and over the years I’ve danced, soaked up advice from whomever I could, and honed my creative outlet well into my adulthood, where I was able to get more stable advice from mentors, pioneers and others who were further along in their journey than I was.

I also took the knowledge I gathered in business, marketing, teaching martial arts, and general discussions with other business owners, and I found a system that allowed me to successfully answer the question of how to take what I knew and loved and format it into a way that would make money.

I moved from Houston, TX to Atlanta, GA in November of 2016, and by 2018 I was traveling, teaching classes, and performing professionally, building my resume and watching the doors I’d been working towards begin to open up for me. I wrote down and kept notes on everything–what worked, what didn’t work, etc.–and started sharing that information with others to help them along the path as well. I’ve never felt that a win for myself was only for me, and I’ve always been inclined to continue holding open a door that opens for me, so that others can also find and walk through it too. Before I knew it, I’m being booked on TV shows, doing interviews and being recognized internationally for what I do; my wife and I co-founded FyreNation Crew, and she founded WeOnFyre Cypher and I work as her event coordinator and organizer under her brand, and people will find us at jams, in classes or other social settings and tell us that they know who we are and appreciate what we’re doing, but the biggest thing for us is that we accomplished the goals we set out to accomplish, helping communities locally and internationally with resources, support, education and endorsement.

None of this is easy, but nothing this important is easy when it starts because you have to work at it. The harder the work, the easier it gets.

Though we are recognized internationally now, we still want the world to know that our aim is to recognize and help communities genuinely with education, resources, attention and tools so that there’s a safety net in place for the next generation. We are very much in the HipHop and Street Dance Communities, and we advocate positive extracurricular outlets and activities that are safe for all ages, so we create events and functions that are family-friendly and family-oriented, safe, supportive and open to everyone so that we can break down the walls and barriers based in lack of knowledge, which breeds misconceptions, stereotypes and other offensive, negative generalizations about the culture and community.

We do this through education, awareness and leading by example.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My favorite spot to visit in Atlanta is still Best End Brewery near the Beltline; there have been a lot more art projects that the city is putting up and allowing actual street artists–Graffiti, one of the 4 Elements of HipHop Culture–to put up murals and be recognized for their creativity. In addition, Best End Brewery has an amazing menu, bar, and space available for all kinds of community-supportive events. We hosted one of our WeOnFyre Cypher events here, and recently competed at the RedBull BC One Atlanta Cypher, which was the first time this world-known Breaking event was hosted in the city.

Go check it out!

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?
I definitely would like to give a shoutout to everyone that has played a part in my growth–I don’t discriminate based on size so it’s not about whether that part was “big” or “small”, if it contributed to my overall growth, I thank you all equally for it.

To my wife Joy “Kuma” Gasaway, you’ve seen, understood, and been right there with me through the scaffolding of our accomplishments as well as had the ability to see your accomplishments go from ideas to international game-changers and movements, and I don’t think a lot of this would’ve been possible without her support. A true day-one co-pilot on this journey, and I’m blessed to have her in my life.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fyrefli.il3git/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hiddenfoxescondido

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@fyrefli.il3git