'Embers, Petals, and Stars’ transforms Marshall Fire grief into inspired aerial performance
Fallon Voorheis-Mathews and Ashley Eaves Sonnier rehearse for “Embers, Petals, and Stars.”
Story by Giles Clasen
Photos by Rudy Ortega
Fallon Voorheis-Mathews lost her Louisville home in the Marshall Fire, which destroyed more than 1,000 houses across Boulder County in December 2021.
For Voorheis-Mathews, movement has always been a form of expression, which led her to establish her aerial dance company, In the Wings. On August 22-23, In the Wings will debut Voorheis-Mathews’ production, Embers, Petals, and Stars, at the Elaine Wolf Theater in Denver. Using circus arts, video projections, and original choreography, the performance tells the story of the 2021 Marshall Fire and its aftermath.
Voorheis-Mathews said she created the first movement of the show, “Fire. Ashes. Rebirth,” both to process her own experience and to help others understand the long road of recovery.
“The first act, I directed and choreographed, and it is the story – my story of the fire,” she said. “It’s important for me to process and hopefully close that chapter of my life. But I think it’s also important for other people to see.”
Act I opens with sound bites from news reports and cell phone recordings from December 30, 2021, when hurricane-force winds drove the Marshall Fire into neighborhoods.
“The first piece is about the day of the fire, the chaos that happened,” she said. “Then it moves into a duet about what happens after the calls from friends and family stop, and you’re just left with that one person you’re going through it with. From there, it becomes about community coming together, then the fight with insurance companies and contractors, and finally, the moment of coming home.” That homecoming, she added, was bittersweet. “It doesn’t necessarily end happily. It’s real.”
The second act, “Under This Tree,” choreographed by Naomi Graff, is a softer reflection on nature.
The third act, titled “This is the Way,” was choreographed by Ashley Eaves Sonnier, a longtime friend of Voorheis-Mathews and a collaborator on In the Wings. Eaves Sonnier said she drew upon her own experiences with natural disasters, hurricanes, and a wildfire in Louisiana, while also weaving in one of her earliest inspirations: Star Wars.
While the third act is playful, Eaves Sonnier said she believes it carries a deeper thread that ties back to the show’s larger themes.
According to Eaves Sonnier the act reflects moments of hope. “[I] think that we could all use that right now with everything that’s happened with the Marshall Fire. ... There’s so much community and everything that there’s parallels within it,” Eaves Sonnier said.
The Show will begin with a moment of silence. Each audience member will hold a candle to honor the two people who died in the fire, the many pets that were lost, and the first responders who risked their lives.
“My hope is that when everyone blows out the candles, it will smell like smoke in the theater,” Voorheis-Mathews said.
One of her key performance tools is a silk donated by another aerialist she has never met. The fabric is dyed in fiery red, orange, and yellow.
“I call it my fire silk,” she said. “I’m using that silk during the act about the fire.”
You can get tickets for “Embers, Petals, and Stars” here: https://tickets.jccdenver.org/itwaerial
Editor’s note: The September issue of the Denver VOICE features a story about Fallon Voorheis-Mathews and her husband, Fleetwood Mathews’ experience during and after the Marshall Fire, with more details on how Voorheis-Mathews came to create her production of “Embers, Petals, and Stars.”