Beyond the Battle: How One Couple Is Redefining Street Dance Culture

Passion. Expression. Inclusion. Those are just a few words that describe Anthony “Fyrefli” Gasaway, Jr. and Joy “Kuma” Gasaway, professional street dancers, instructors and co-founders of the Atlanta-based international dance crew FyreNation. As friends of GPB, we’ve enjoyed watching this incredible organization grow, including their participation in various GPB-led events focused on culture and outreach. 

Now, they’re telling their story, including how they launched the community dance and networking event WeOnFyre Cypher, to public media fans across the country. The couple was chosen as one of three recipients of the 2026 “ALL ARTS Artist in Residence” series from PBS ALL ARTS. Their film, WeOnFyre Cypher, premiered on GPB Passport on April 14 and is now available to stream. Ahead of the premiere, I asked them about their journey to FyreNation, how dancers of all ages and skill levels can get involved and what they hope viewers will take away from the documentary. 

Credit: Courtesy of FyreNation

For Joy, dancing became a passion early on. After trying out ballet, she shared that she met some actual street dancers in her junior year of high school. “They were always dancing at assemblies or just online, and that was pretty cool,” she shared. Dancing soon became something she leaned upon for support, when in the mid-2010s, her mother fell sick with endometriosis. “I needed another space to express what I was feeling at that time, because it was a lot. I needed other people around and at the time, dance was my solace.” 

That was when she considered the idea of hosting dance cyphers. Popularized in hip-hop culture as a gathering of artists improvising on the spot, dance cyphers weren’t nearly as popular as their vocal counterparts. This was something Anthony understood as well. Passionate about dance as a young man and supported by parents who also loved dancing, he entered a dance battle by chance as a teenager and earned his dancing nickname, Fyrefli, from a friend. 

Moving to Atlanta from Houston made it difficult at first for him to be accepted by local dance crews. “I wanted to form a crew because so many crews out here were very cliqueish,” Anthony explained. “If you’re a certain skill level and you’re not from Atlanta, they don’t want you at the forefront.” 

But when he met Joy, everything changed. When the world entered lockdown in 2020, Anthony began to teach online dance classes and found Joy’s dance videos on social media. “I saw what she was doing, and I loved the style,” he said with pride.

Caption

Joy "Kuma" and Anthony "Fyrefli" Gasaway at a FyreNation cypher hosted at GPB's headquarters

Credit: Courtesy of FyreNation

What began as sharing tutorials and refining techniques led to sharing dreams and refining goals, and friendship turned into love and marriage. “We want to show the full potential of what dance can do…[it] could be more than just us being in clubs wearing uniforms…we can do more than just battle all the time,” Anthony continued. “The cypher can be a touchpoint as a family-friendly safe space in the community.” 

Which is why the new documentary which began as solely Anthony and Joy’s story of finding each other and a community through dance spotlights the community they’ve built in Georgia and around the world: the film takes viewers to Africa and Asia where fellow dancers lead cyphers in WeOnFyre’s style. “In Uganda, 200 something people showed up because of the idea behind it,” Anthony shared. The message of sharing resources, inclusivity and creativity for dancers of all ages, sizes and skill levels resonated beyond Georgia’s, and the United States’, borders.

Caption

Anthony "Fyrefli" Gasaway encourages a young dancer at a FyreNation cypher

Credit: Courtesy of FyreNation

The local story, however, wasn’t without its struggles. Anthony explained that jealousy is still prevalent in the dancing community, but he and Joy leaned upon those who support them, like members of Dance Atlanta, both when they hosted their first cypher at GPB and when they returned to GPB Studios to film a cypher for the documentary, even when certain individuals hid in the crowd and encouraged others not to attend and participate. But Anthony and Joy chose inclusivity instead of exclusion, allowing everyone who attended to be in the film if they wished. “We chose to build the story so that we could show the full community in a positive light,” he said. “Cause so many negative things get said about Atlanta and there’s a lot of beautiful people here. We wanted to show that.”

And for Joy, the film puts a spotlight on how dancing can inspire others. “We’re filming what our story is,” “A lot of people think that dancers are amongst the starving artists. But dancers are everywhere…and there needs to be more representation. I’m happy that we’re able to provide some of it.” 

WeOnFyre Cypher, part of the 2026 “ALL ARTS Artist in Residence” series from PBS ALL ARTS, is available to stream on GPB Passport.