Fire dancing, one of the oldest pagan rituals in the Balkans, has defied the persecutions of both Christianity and communism to survive through the millennia.

In a trance-like state, locals in Bulgaria's tiny mountain village of Bulgari still dance barefoot on burning embers, just as their ancestors did thousands of years ago.

But purists say the ancient ritual is turning into a tourist attraction and may finally fall victim to capitalism.

A motley group of tourists, hippies, ethnologists, students and locals flock each June to Bulgari in the southeastern mountain region of Strandzha to watch fire dancing.

Some of the excited spectators, mainly those who have bolstered their courage with alcohol or marijuana, take their shoes off for a dash of fire walking after the traditional dancers end their performance. And many amateurs end up in hospital.

"One cannot be taught to dance over embers unless they were born to be nestinari (fire dancers)," said Vesselina Ilieva, who performs in the folk festival in Bulgari every June 3, the day of Saints Constantine and Helen.

"You should believe that God will keep you safe, you should be very good and wish evil to no one. Then you will not feel the heat," added the 57-year-old retired librarian.

DESTINED TO FIREDANCE

Some 13 years ago, Ilieva had a vision of an elderly woman who told her she would become a fire dancer. Ilieva was sceptical about the prophecy but decided to give it a try.

"I crossed the fire several times and got no scorches at all but thought it was by chance. Only later I realised I was predestined to become a nestinar," she said.

Fire dancers say mental preparation and cold feet, along with the thundering, monotonous music of bagpipes and drum are key.

The performance begins at sunset, when the chief nestinar, a man wearing a white shirt and a red sash around his waist, spreads the embers in a circle in Bulgari's square.

The street lamps go off and the crowd approaches in silence. Only the drum echoes primitively across the mountains.

The nestinars dance around the circle, carrying icons and then suddenly walk through the fire. Their feet sometimes touch lightly and sometimes press down in hard circular motions, crossing the coals until they put down the blaze.

Their faces are pale and their eyes half-closed. Fire dancers say they fall into a spiritual trance during the performance and are believed to foretell the future.

Historian Valeria Fol at Bulgaria's Academy of Science, who has studied fire dancing since 1972, writes in her book "Fire and Music" about a prophecy she heard from a Greek nestinar in 1993, predicting last decade's wars in former Yugoslavia.

Anathematised by the Orthodox Church and banned by Bulgaria's communist government, fire dancing is traced back to the Tracians, Bulgaria's most ancient inhabitants who worshiped the sun and believed in immortality.

The fire dancers in Bulgari say they inherited the custom from their grandparents, for whom the ritual was a purely Christian duty. If they observed it they stayed healthy and harvested rich crops, if not, disease and poverty befell the community.

The mysterious rite, also carried out in northern Greece by refugees from Bulgaria, was often performed secretly over the last century for fear of the church and the communist party, which ruled Bulgaria for 45 years until 1989.

BANNED BY THE COMMUNISTS

"The communists banned fire dancing in the 1960s out of concern for Bulgaria's prestige, which they said should not be brought into discredit by savagery," said ethnologist Ruzha Neikova, who studies the custom.

Journalists and researchers had branded fire dancers as "sick, crazy and fakers", while the official church was convinced that the devil was involved.

It was not until 1980s when the communist rulers realised the rite could attract foreign tourists to Bulgaria's Black Sea resorts and allowed its performance in restaurants.

"There's a danger now of going into the opposite direction, turning the ritual into a show," said Fol.

Some of Bulgari's elder residents said they had no respect for contemporary fire dancers because they perform for money.

"The rite is now ridiculous, it's not real fire dancing. The nestinari would just run quickly across the fire and get paid for that by the municipality," said Kostadin Zhelyazkov, 75.

Events at Bulgari this year appeared to back his opinion.

By sunset, the village square was fully packed with scores of visitors, queuing up for beer and grilled meatballs.

"We came here by accident. But this place is so mysterious, it's going to change me forever," said Anna, a young hippie, who generously offered dope to reporters.

The fiesta ended with policemen chasing away a hippie and a foreign tourist, who walked through the fire in delirium.

"We are the ones who will have to take them to hospital, and we don't want to spoil our evening with stoned teenagers and drunkards," said one angry officer. 

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