Documentary Film

Dance of the Auroras – Fire in the Sky (28:30)

Maida Withers, award-winning Artistic Director of The Dance Construction Company and professor of dance at The George Washington University, presents this fascinating documentary on the creation of Dance of the Auroras - Fire in the Sky - a poetic odyssey through space from the Sun to Earth. Showcasing an evening-length performance of dance, music and virtual art, this international project reclaims the connections between science and art, technology and the natural world, drawing the audience into a ritual both ancient and new. Dance of the Auroras traces the research and development of the project through interviews, rehearsals, and performances in Finland, Norway, Russia, and the USA. Movies and images of the Sun and the Earth’s auroras from orbiting spacecraft and special ground-based cameras are featured along with original music performed live. Dancers using the wireless mouse alter and manipulate, in real time, large-scale projected cyber worlds. Dance of the Auroras - Fire in the Sky premiered on Research Channel January 30, 2009.

Producer, Writer, Director - USA
Maida Withers

Narrator - USA
Maida Withers

Editor - USA and Ethiopia
Nikodimos Fikru

Camera - Studio Interviews
Nikodimos Fikru

Camera - Documentary footage - USA
Linda Lewett
Maida Withers

Choreographer / Artistic Director - USA
Maida Withers

Virtual Reality Artist - Brazil
Tania Fraga

Composer - Norway
Øystein Sevåg
The Global House Band

Dancers - USA, Russia, Poland
Maida Withers Dance Construction Company and International Guest Artists:
Sasha Kukin (Russia), Iwona Olszowsky (Poland), Adrienne Clancy, Lyndsey Karr, Joseph Mills, Lauren Sharp, Maida Withers (USA)

GW and Community Dancers - USA
Crystal Faison, Candice Gessin, Jane Jerardi, Kerry Joyce, Lyndsey Karr, Deidre Macdiarmid, Alexis Major, Alexis Mastromichalis, Lauren Sharp, Andrea Stitler, Kristy Shimabukaro

Musicians - Norway
Global House Band
Rene Arnesen – Drums and Percussion
Ole Marius Melhaus – Bass Guitar
Zotora Nygård– Didgeridoo
Elin Ødegård– Keyboard and Vocals
Maria Sevåg– Violin and Viola
Øystein Sevåg– Grand Piano and Keybaord

Interviews
Nicola Fox, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins Laboratory - USA
Tania Fraga, Virtual Reality Artist - Brazil
Joseph Mills, Dance Artist -USA

Documentary Footage
Nordly's Festivalen - Tromso, Norway, January 2001
Lisner Auditorium - Washington, DC, USA, February 2001
Dukabristov Theatre - St. Petersburg, Russia, May 2000
Dance Place - Washington, DC, USA, September 2000
On Location in Finland, Norway, Russia, and Alaska, USA, 2000

Recorded Sound and Music
Ikon Ghost, Guy Yarden; Minne Sanner Kurki-Suonio, Northern Nights, Northside Records; Auroral Audio: NASA, Donald Burnett, University of Iowa, and Stephen McGreevy

Funding
Documentary film funded by Research Channel, The Dance Construction Company, and Produced in the media facilities of The George Washington University

Copyright: © 2009 Maida Withers and The Dance Construction Company
All Rights Reserved

Stagework

Aurora 2001: Dance of the Auroras - Fire in the Sky 
POETIC SPACE ODYSSEY - DANCE, MUSIC, VISUAL PRESENTATION
REAL TIME INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE

Dance of the Auroras, an evening-length work of dance, music, and visual presentation, is a groundbreaking poetic voyage in space from the Sun through Earth’s auroras, the mystic luminaries of the arctic and Antarctic skies also known as the northern and southern lights. In it’s vision, Dance of the Auroras reclaims the connections between science and art, between technology and the natural world. This eloquent and innovative performance draws its audience into a ritual both ancient and new.  Dancers using the wireless mouse alter and manipulate, real time, large-scale projected cyber worlds. Movies and images of the Sun and the Earth’s auroras from orbiting spacecraft and special ground-based cameras are featured along with music performed live. Dance of the Auroras premiered at The Northern Lights Festival inTromsö, Norway, January 27, 2001 and in Washington, DC at Lisner,a 1500 seat theatre, on February 15 and 16, 2001.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
“For thousands of years, the northern lights have piqued man’s imagination, leading to stories, myths and pictorial art to explain their mysteries.  Beyond superstition, culture, mysticism and religious beliefs lie the explanations provided by research and science.”

It was 1996 when work first began on the idea of creating a multidimensional performance work connected to Earth’s auroras. The mystic luminaries of the arctic and antarctic skies seemed perfect for the exploration of issues related to science, art, and technology, a place where nature,science, and art seemed like natural partners.  For the previous seven years, focus had been directed at the spirit of the earth and at the transformation of human consciousness into a global awareness and our collective responsibility for the state of the planet.  It was time to expand outward, not to leave the Earth, but to head skyward to explore our emergence as space creatures.  What better place than the large-scale sky paintings, Earth’s auroras.

Exhaustive, perhaps exotic, research has taken me to various arctic locations to meet and explore issues with some of the finest scientists, technologists, and artists engaged in research related to the aurora borealis and aurora australis, the northern and southern lights.  The project has developed as access through the Internet has escalated.  Two or three references on the Internet five years ago have burgeoned to include instant downloading of images of the activities of the Sun and daily warnings about coronal mass ejections that will eventually bombard the earth. Beyond communications and dissemination lie the challenges that these resources present for the expansion of human consciousness, for the creative potential of new relationships between humans and their natural environment. As computers transform our minds, travel into the unknown begins, a journey for our digital minds, the creation of a new mythology.  Another voyage taken without asking why, but how! Maida Withers

INTERNATIONAL CAST
Maida Withers (USA) - Concept/Director/Choreographer
Tania Fraga (Brazil) - Interactive Cyber World Artist
Øystein Sevåg (Norway) - Composer 
Dance Construction Company - Adrienne Clancy, Lyndsey Karr, Joseph Mills, Lauren Sharp, Maida Withers (USA); Sasha Kukin (Russia), Iwona Olszowska (Poland)
The Global House Band (Norway) - Maria Sevåg -Violin/ Viola, Zotora Nygård – Didgeridoo, Elin Ødegård - Keyboard/Vocals, Ole Marius Melhuus - Bass Guitar, Rune Arnesen - Drums/Percussion, Øystein Sevåg - Piano/Keyboard

GW and Community Dancers, Part II - Crystal Faison, Candice Gessin, Jane Jerardi, Kerry Joyce, Lyndsey Karr, Deidre Macdiarmid, Alexis Major, Alexis Mastromichalis, Lauren Sharp, Andrea Stitler, Kristy Shimabukaro

Claudette Lopez (USA) - Costume Design
Michael Stepowany (USA) - Lighting Design

Animation, Photographs and Images
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Scientific Visualization Studio, Images Courtesy of the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center; ESA, LMSAL, ISAS, and NOAA; Jan Curtis, Dick Hutchinson, Scott Anderson, Esa Turinen, Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory, Auroral House, Trond Trondson, University of Calgary, Canada - Portable Auroral Imager; Poul Jensen and Dirk Lummerzheim, University of Alaska; R. H. Eather

Research
Majestic Lights by Robert H. Eather; The Northern Lights by Asgeir Brekke and Alv Eglund; Northern Lights by Marti Rikkonen, Esa Turunen, and Jyrki Manninen

Science Advisors
Paal Brekke, Tom Moore, Nicola Fox, and David Palmer from NASA; Dirk Lummerzheim, University of Alaska; Vladimir Bulatov and Holger Graham, Computer Scientists, and others.

Funding
Stage Production Funded by American Scandinavian Foundation, Andrew E. and G. Norman Wigeland Foundation; Dallas Morse Coors Foundation, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Goethe Institut, Jovid Foundation, Kosciuszko Foundation, Market Development Group, Mellon Arts Foundation, Norwegian Government, Pola N. Nirenska Award, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Gregory A. Prince, Adam Peiperl, Maida and Arlen Withers, Natalie Ann and Robert Sidney Smith, Nancy W. Tartt, Vadim Kasparov, Kannon Dance, and others.

Aurora 2001: Dance of the Auroras - Fire in the Sky was produced by Maida Withers Dance Construction Company

Copyright: © 2001 Maida Withers and The Dance Construction Company
All Rights Reserved