Is hip-hop dancing for everyone? Atlanta's FyreNation Crew is on a mission to prove it

Caption

Joy "Kuma" Gasaway (left) dances at Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward Park on April 27, 2025.

Credit: Kristi York Wooten / GPB

On a hot spring Saturday in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward, dancer Joy “Kuma” Gasaway is popping to "Don't Stop the Rock," a classic breakdancing hit from 1985. Kuma and her husband Anthony “Fyrefli” Gasaway Jr. have formed a community crew called FyreNation to spread their love of hip-hop dancing to people of all ages.

“You know, a lot of people, when we started this, told us that you can't have a family-friendly community event and it'd still be hip-hop," Kuma, who cofounded the group with Fyrefli, told GPB. "People still think that hip-hop is very grimy, very street, hood, all that stuff. So when they see this, they see people that look like us. And it's a positive area, not just for adults, but for kids, too. And also that we're adults and we still dance, and it's OK!”

The organization, which plans to become a 501(c)3, hosts free events called We On Fyre Cyphers in public spaces or private venues. And at one such cypher — defined in hip-hop culture as a gathering of artists improvising on the spot — held on the edge of Atlanta's Beltline, the beats attracted young members of the Woodstock, Ga., Ignite Dance Company on break from a nearby competition.

“I love to dance," one of the middle school and high school dancers said after performing a dance at the cypher with three of her troupe members. "I feel like you just can tell things that you can't say with words, you know? And like, I don't know, I'm just trying to explain. It’s just, like, dance is therapeutic.”

"It is therapeutic," another dancer chimed in. "And you can be someone else while you're on the stage.”

While crowds gather around a checkboard dance floor laid onto the concrete in the shadow of the modern Olson Kundig Fourth Ward Office Proejct, Fyre Nation crew members with nicknames like Drumz, Panthaa and Scar pull out all the stops for onlookers with liquid dance, robot moves and body rolls.

Fyrefli says the group's connections go deeper than just a shared love of dance.

"Kuma had the idea, and she had the pure mindset of 'Let's create a safe space,' and because of that, people started showing up to We On Fire Cypher events," he said. "There were people that were coming in that were like, 'Well, I'll just dance for fun I never thought I could be [ fill in the blank]' or 'I just love music, I never thought I could do [fill in the blank]' and We On Fire Cypher stopped being just this, you know, escape for just dance. And it became a safe haven and a networking ground in a mini community that has so many veins and communities that there's people we've connected with that never would have thought they would have anything to do with hip-hop dance."

Crew members — including Sawa, Kryptonic, Bboy Prototype and others — emailed GPB to explain why they're involved in the group, citing "strength of character and good energy," and "an open door and open space for dancers."

Caption

Anthony "Fyrefli" Gasaway Jr. dances at Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward Park on April 27, 2025.

Credit: Kristi York Wooten / GPB News

Two participants in Uganda and Japan said they plan to spread the community concept wherever they go.

"A cypher is a place where hip-hop finds its truest purpose: healing, educating, and uplifting," wrote Mark Maccolo Dagrus Kimuli Katiko, also known as "Hip-hop Professor." "What started as a creative initiative has grown into a grassroots movement with real world impact."

Ja'Kari "Consept" Bonardy is currently living in in Southeast Asia but began attending cyphers in Georgia, which "helped me rediscover that love for my culture I'd lost in the haze of maturity," he said. "And it's not lost on them how much I miss them here." 

For more information on We On Fyre Cypher events, visit the FyreNation site here.

The Fyre Nation crew will be featured in a short film as part of the 2025 All Arts Artist and Resident Program through WNET in New York and ultimately stream on GPB through the All Arts Channel.

“And I looked and read up on it and it's like all these people all over the entire country are filling out forms and sharing information for this. And I had a moment of feeling like... 'Can we do this? Like... 'Are we really that big? Can we do that?' And it was like, 'Well, look at what we've done already.'"

For Kuma and Fyrefli, continuing to build the Fyre Nation means never losing sight of their original hopes for what they wanted this hip-hop community to be.

"My hopes are that this brings a bit more awareness to people for community events," Kuma said. "I also hope that this can change the narrative for hip-hop."

"There's a lot of misappropriations and misconceptions about what is hip-hop and what is just street," Fyrefli added. "And we hope that with this whole project, the people that have been alongside us this entire journey will see a blessing from it, including, like, the people working with the film, the music, people have the credits with their name being in the credits and everything. That's something to put on a resume and that they can look up for once in the scene and say, 'Hey, we did that!'"