After Crazy Horse strip club blaze, Harley van Dangerfield vows to help other survivors of domestic violence and drug addiction
She set fire to the Crazy Horse stage in a traumatic accident that went viral, but Harley van Dangerfield has defeated adversity many times before. Now she’s determined to become a “phoenix” who helps others.
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Harley van Dangerfield says she is a “phoenix” rising from the ashes following an incident where she accidentally set fire to the Crazy Horse Revue stage.
Dangerfield, which is her stage name, overcame a severe methamphetamine addiction and escaped a violent relationship before fire dancing helped her turn her life around.
She used fire as a sign of resilience during her Miss Nude Australia performance last week.
However, she unfortunately set a curtain alight and activated a sprinkler system, forcing patrons to evacuate onto Hindley St.
She was later disqualified from the competition, ending months of strenuous preparation.
“I was so gutted when it happened and I did not know what to do and literally with tears in my eyes, I kept performing,” Dangerfield says.
“I just can’t touch (fire) anymore … I feel bad that I put people’s lives potentially in danger and I feel responsible for the chaos afterwards.
“I don’t like watching people suffer and, when I watched people just scramble and panic, it broke my heart — I vowed, then and there, to never touch fire again.”
The 30-year-old has used the accident to speak out about domestic violence, mental health and substance abuse.
Dangerfield, one of the Crazy Horse’s longest serving dancers, started smoking ice in 2014 and found herself in an abusive relationship which ended in 2018.
By 2016, she was consuming “commercial quantities” of methamphetamines every day.
After her former partner was sent to prison on abuse charges early last year, something “sparked” in her and she decided it was time to turn her life around.
She used her own experiences to help shape her Miss Nude Australia performance as a way to raise awareness of what she, and other women, have experienced.
“In March last year I was depressed, could not get off the drugs and was sick of the black eyes, the blood lips, sick of the lying … and decided to go to rehab,” Dangerfield says.
“I went to the Adelaide Clinic and detoxified from methamphetamines for three weeks — I have a bump on my head permanently now for hitting the towel rail during a seizure.
“I got clean on June 18, (2018), and after that, no relapses. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke cigarettes anymore and I am now studying my Masters in social work (at Flinders University).”
She left rehabilitation 20kg heavier and decided to start training six days a week and took hip hop, R & B, aerial, pole and fire dancing classes.
Dangerfield’s eyes were set on the Miss Nude Australia title, and so she developed a fire dancing routine where flames literally circled around her.
Her family did not know she was a competitor until seeing her in media reports.
While it did not quite go to plan this year, she has her eyes on the prize for Miss Nude Australia in 2020.
She says a lot of people have reached out to her since the accident and have shared their own experiences with domestic violence and substance abuse.
Dangerfield hopes to eventually complete a PhD in social justice and her aim is to get more resources for mental health and harsher punishments for domestic violence offenders.
“This whole experience has ignited a whole new determination in myself,” she says.
“My symbol of resilience will continue, I just have to work out what that is, but it is going to be pretty profound, something pretty out there and something that will either shock or encourage people to think about mental health in a different way.
“I want people to realise that being a survivor is something that can be marvelled at and can be captivating on stage.
“Being a survivor doesn't have to be a sign of weakness, it can be a sign of strength.
“So don’t sit in silence.”