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Bryan Sekine
Bryan Sekine performing at night with a lit dragon staff, flames arcing from both ends

Oklahoma City, OK

Bryan Sekine

Sushi chef. Instructor. Fire performer. Choreographer.

Four careers that look unrelated on paper and turn out to be the same job: learn a craft properly, then teach it to somebody else.

Work with me See the work

Hello

Thanks for taking the time to get to know me

This website is my online portfolio — the place where all of my seemingly random professional experience finally comes together.

I started rolling sushi professionally in 2008, took up combat choreography back in 2003, began teaching in 2015, and picked up fire the same year. Four crafts, four audiences, and one thing in common: I learn something properly, and then I figure out how to hand it to somebody else.

Here's a quick breakdown of the four, and you can go deeper on any of them from there.

Portrait of Bryan Sekine

The work

Four crafts, one thread

Every one of these started as something I wanted to learn and turned into something I teach.

Sushi Chef

I got started in sushi back in 2008. I walked into a local sushi bar — one that wasn't even advertising that they were hiring sushi chefs — and asked if they needed a chef. I didn't have any prior professional experience, but I was familiar with the rolling process and the Japanese terms from my childhood; my family and I used to make sushi at home.

As chance would have it, they hired me. I worked for three months in the back kitchen, washing dishes and making rice, before I was allowed to handle the fish. I worked long hours and made a ton of mistakes early on, but after about six months I was finally rolling sushi for customers on a Friday night — usually the busiest night of a restaurant.

In 2011, after working at two different restaurants and deciding to expand my knowledge even further, I started doing some online research and stumbled onto the term "sustainable sushi." I was starting to realize how much of a negative impact our populations were having on the environment, but for some reason I hadn't considered the state of our oceans.

I decided that writing articles wasn't enough — I needed to teach people in a different way. So I started offering live training events, because I was too afraid to get in front of a camera and record myself. During those events I'd throw in the sustainable sushi facts, and people seemed interested.

What drew them in was the training. What kept their attention was the sustainable sushi facts.

That's what pushed me to work on my fear of being on camera, and in 2015 I recorded and published my first YouTube video. Overcoming being camera shy turns out to be fairly difficult, but recording and editing more video has been the focus ever since.

More about the sushi work

Instructor

In college I studied video game design and animation. After I graduated I was hired as an instructor for an after-school academy that teaches STEM education. My job was to create a curriculum that would teach middle school and high school kids algebra and geometry using video games. It was a really neat job, and it taught me a lot about how to teach every age group.

After a year and a half there I was recruited by an app development company as a technical artist. I spent the next year working more as a liaison between departments than as a technical artist, and I learned the ins and outs of the corporate world, the software development industry, and how to translate highly technical terms and processes into verbiage any layman could understand.

Since then I wrote and recorded two intuitive, easy-to-follow video game design courses for Pluralsight, both since retired from their catalog.

The after-school academy is where I discovered that teaching is my actual passion. I've incorporated it into everything I do since: live sushi classes, sushi tutorials on YouTube, fire spinning workshops at flow festivals, and live seminars on fire spinning and combat choreography.

More about teaching

Fire Performer

In 2015 I went to my first fire festival — a three-day experience where you attend workshops on how to spin various props during the day, then get to spin those props with fire at night. It was a life-changing experience and it set me down the path of becoming a fire performer. Since then I've performed at local events, taught at other fire festivals, and entertained large crowds at music festivals.

For me, spinning fire is a form of moving meditation. It draws me in, forces me to focus on the fire, and lets me express myself physically in a way I can share with hundreds of people at a time. It's a form of pure bliss that I rarely find in other activities.

Rates, props, and past bookings

Choreographer

Combat choreography is something I got into in 2003. I was devoted to learning as much as I could, with aspirations of working in the film industry at some point. I learned how to fight with multiple weapons, how to perform acrobatic stunts, and I even helped choreograph a five-person fight. I learned under industry professionals and traveling performers alike.

After five years of performing I moved on to directing. For the next few years I was responsible for the safety of my crew and the quality of the performance. I helped teach new performers how to choreograph their own fights, write their own move sets, and train with various weapons.

But in 2013 I suffered a back injury during a show stunt that changed my perspective on that particular path. It wasn't my first injury and it certainly wasn't my last, but after ten years of doing it I realized I wasn't as excited to perform or write shows as I used to be. I decided it was time to move on to a different chapter. Now I apply what those years taught me to my flow performances instead.

More about the choreography years

Also available

Design and SEO

Two things I do for clients that aren't performance work.

Graphic Design

Logos, print, branding, and event collateral. The one consistent thread through every job and hobby I've had.

See the portfolio

SEO

Customized monthly SEO for a small, capped roster of clients — taken on based on availability.

See the service

Let's talk about your event

Fire, LED, a sushi class, or a workshop — tell me what you're planning and I'll tell you what I can do. Or just email me at bryan.sekine.design@gmail.com.

See rates & book Email me directly