He says he went to Ibiza just for a little while but he is still there, 10 years later.  Oggie Marinski is a musician but he is also a dancer with fire and frequently takes part in fire shows. And as poi dancing is not something typical of Bulgaria, we ask him how he came to take it up.

“It is a long story,” Oggie says. “I have lived 10 years in Spain but also 15 years in China. “And it all started in China. I lived there and travelled to Thailand. It was there that I saw poi dancing for the first time and it took my breath away. But then I said to myself that I could never learn that. A few years later there was a guy who showed me elements of the fire dance. So I started to practice, and I took it seriously – I am a bit of a fanatic in everything. I practiced at home for two-three years. One time I made a demonstration for my Chinese friends and I started getting invitations. That is how it started.”

“People think it is dangerous to be performing with fire,” Oggie goes on to say. “So did I and to begin with I was a little scared. But if you keep things under control there is no danger, it just looks that way.”

Oggie Marinski went to China as a graduate of the first batch of Chinese philology students in this country. He then switched to real estate. China changed before his eyes, he says.

“The old China, as we know it from books and films is gone. It is more like America than America. And after the Olympics in Beijing I left.”

Oggie Marinski ended up in Ibiza and there, as he got involved in poi dancing, his interest in music returned. Music entered his life as a child when his grandmother taught him to play the harmonica. At age 10 he turned to the guitar. He now plays rock, classical music, flamenco, though he admits: It is not something I carry in my heart. Flamenco is a way of thinking, a way of life. And as Ibiza is the Mecca of electronic music, his next project was in that musical style. He played at clubs, parties or just for the fun of it.

Anyone who has ever been to Ibiza wants to come back again, Oggie Marinski says. For tourists it is a party island, for everyone else it is something different.

“Everything is so small here, everyone living here knows everyone else. When the millions of tourists are gone that is what is left - the spirit of Ibiza,” Oggie says. But what are his priorities in life, what drives him forward?

“The first thing that comes to mind is freedom. The freedom to follow what I am, my inner instinct, so to say, not society, not friends, not someone else’s advice. That is why I have distanced myself somewhat, there is too much noise outside. I now live alone in the woods so I can take heed of what is happening to me, and I try to follow my inner self. That is what I value above all else.”

Photos: private library