Fire Dancers in Thailand’s Tourism Industry

This chapter provides a background to the ethnography of the affective worlds of fire dancers within Thailand’s tourism industry. The chapter constructs a culturally contextualized theory of affect based on the dancers’ own understandings and considers affect as a bodily experience that encompasses both emotions and fleeting, subconscious vibes and intensities. It also examines the “force” of affect to understand its impact on the dancers’ lives and identities. The chapter analyzes how fire dancers channel energies through their performances and daily activities and gives insights into their identity management, community building, and the negotiation of precarity and opportunities in tourist economies. It presents affect as a mechanism through which fire dancers reimagine their lives and engage with political dimensions.