When the Marshall Fire tore through Boulder County in 2021, dancer Fallon Voorheis-Mathews lost nearly everything, including her Louisville-area home, car, aerial equipment and even her creative spark. In the weeks that followed, the media painted a quick-moving narrative of destruction and recovery. But to Voorheis-Matthews, that story was incomplete.
"I think so many things are missing in journalism about what the real story is of what happened to the victims of the fire," Voorheis-Matthews says. "Everybody wants it to be okay because everybody else moved on. It was just on to the next thing, and everyone assumed that once you got home, everything would be fine, right? But it's not. There's still a lot of grief and trauma there and things are still working through."
“It took a while to get the creative juices flowing again,” she says. “That first piece with the fire silks kind of snowballed into telling the rest of the story.”
She also incorporated reflections from other survivors, aiming to create not just personal catharsis but a shared space for validation and connection. Performed on silks and slings and infused with contemporary dance, Embers captures both the chaos of the fire and the long shadow it casts.
That lingering grief and the slow, nonlinear process of rebuilding became the foundation for Embers, Petals, & Stars, a three-act aerial dance production by In the Wings, the company Voorheis-Matthews founded in 2018.
The show, which will premiere on August 22-23 at Denver's Elaine Wolfe Theatre, has been in the works for years but was pushed back several times due to factors like Voorheis-Matthews' breast cancer diagnosis, a last-minute venue closure due to fire code issues and the logistical demands of staging such a complex piece. Now, after surviving multiple literal and metaphorical fires, she’s ready to bring the piece to life.
"As we're getting closer, it's feeling a little bittersweet," Voorheis-Matthews says. "I'm really excited to share it, and then I'm also sad that it's going to be over. You know, you do all this work for three shows and then it's done. So I'm just focusing on staying present in the moment and just soaking it in and enjoying every moment of it."
The first act, Embers, draws directly from Voorheis-Mathews’ Marshall Fire experience. Working with red aerial silks donated by a stranger she had never met, she began piecing together a physical vocabulary for loss and survival.
The show, which will premiere on August 22-23 at Denver's Elaine Wolfe Theatre, has been in the works for years but was pushed back several times due to factors like Voorheis-Matthews' breast cancer diagnosis, a last-minute venue closure due to fire code issues and the logistical demands of staging such a complex piece. Now, after surviving multiple literal and metaphorical fires, she’s ready to bring the piece to life.
In the Wings performers rehearse for its upcoming show, Embers, Petals, & Stars.
Courtesy of Nic Sonnier
The first act, Embers, draws directly from Voorheis-Mathews’ Marshall Fire experience. Working with red aerial silks donated by a stranger she had never met, she began piecing together a physical vocabulary for loss and survival.
“It took a while to get the creative juices flowing again,” she says. “That first piece with the fire silks kind of snowballed into telling the rest of the story.”
She also incorporated reflections from other survivors, aiming to create not just personal catharsis but a shared space for validation and connection. Performed on silks and slings and infused with contemporary dance, Embers captures both the chaos of the fire and the long shadow it casts.
Voorheis-Mathews says the hardest section to choreograph was the return home. “I hadn’t lived it yet,” she says. “So even though we'd had all this time to create the show, I was still like, ‘I think we need to tweak it. We're not there yet,' because it actually feels different than what I had originally created."
The second act, Petals, shifts to a gentler, more reflective tone. Choreographer Naomi Graff centers the piece on a cherry blossom tree, a symbol of fleeting beauty in Japanese poetry.
“I generally pull a lot of inspiration from nature," Graff says. "So the cherry blossom tree is commonly referred to in Japanese poetry as symbolizing a variety of things, but what spoke to me was fleeting beauty. The cherry blossom tree has a very beautiful bloom season, but it does not last long. And that paralleled something in my life that I was going through, so I drew a lot of inspiration from that."
The act unfolds through duos, solos and an invented aerial apparatus that has never been used before, blending circus artistry with contemporary movement. There is lightness in Petals, from the joy of couples falling in love under the cherry blossom to the bittersweet moment when the petals fall.
“It’s very relational,” Graff says. “It’s about individual people creating relationships with this tree, enjoying it and then experiencing the shift when it loses its flowers.”
The final act, Stars, shifts the tone again, this time to a Star Wars-inspired aerial adventure choreographed by assistant artistic director Ashley Eaves Sonnier. A lifelong fan whose birthday is May 4, Eaves Sonnier layered in Easter eggs for die-hards, complete with sound bites, iconic references to the films and the cinematic sweep of a space opera.
“I just wanted it to feel like amazing movement,” she says. “We have great ground choreography, incredible aerial work and a visual aspect happening so it feels like you're at the movies, watching Star Wars for the first time in the 70s."
The dancers landed at the Elaine Wolfe Theatre, a larger space that demanded a bigger budget but offered the capacity to fully realize the production’s technical scope. Each act lasts approximately twenty to thirty minutes and includes its own apparatus, costuming, hair, makeup and rigging, with two intermissions to transform the stage. According to its choreographers, the diversity of content in the lineup of Embers, Petals & Stars is its greatest strength.
"Even if you don't know or like what Star Wars is, I hope you come out because there's truly something in the show for everybody," Eaves Sonnier says. "Whether it's connecting with that humanness through the Marshall Fire to having more altruistic moments with 'What is life?' and the ending of the cherry blossom and then there's just Star Wars, which is a lot of fun. I hope it just leaves people feeling full of life. I feel like we need more of that right now."
Embers, Petals, & Stars runs Friday, August 22, and Saturday, August 23, at the Elaine Wolfe Theatre, 350 South Dahlia Street. Tickets are $45-$75. Learn more at inthewingsaerial.com/performances.
The second act, Petals, shifts to a gentler, more reflective tone. Choreographer Naomi Graff centers the piece on a cherry blossom tree, a symbol of fleeting beauty in Japanese poetry.
“I generally pull a lot of inspiration from nature," Graff says. "So the cherry blossom tree is commonly referred to in Japanese poetry as symbolizing a variety of things, but what spoke to me was fleeting beauty. The cherry blossom tree has a very beautiful bloom season, but it does not last long. And that paralleled something in my life that I was going through, so I drew a lot of inspiration from that."
The act unfolds through duos, solos and an invented aerial apparatus that has never been used before, blending circus artistry with contemporary movement. There is lightness in Petals, from the joy of couples falling in love under the cherry blossom to the bittersweet moment when the petals fall.
“It’s very relational,” Graff says. “It’s about individual people creating relationships with this tree, enjoying it and then experiencing the shift when it loses its flowers.”
The final act, Stars, shifts the tone again, this time to a Star Wars-inspired aerial adventure choreographed by assistant artistic director Ashley Eaves Sonnier. A lifelong fan whose birthday is May 4, Eaves Sonnier layered in Easter eggs for die-hards, complete with sound bites, iconic references to the films and the cinematic sweep of a space opera.
Dancers pose with lightsabers during a rehearsal for Embers, Petals, & Stars.
Courtesy of Nic Sonnier
Originally slated for 2024, Embers, Petals, & Stars was postponed when Voorheis-Mathews’ breast cancer diagnosis required immediate surgery and treatment. This year, just as the company was ready to perform, its booked venue shut down for fire code issues. “The irony of it being fire-related — you can’t make that up,” she says with a laugh.
The dancers landed at the Elaine Wolfe Theatre, a larger space that demanded a bigger budget but offered the capacity to fully realize the production’s technical scope. Each act lasts approximately twenty to thirty minutes and includes its own apparatus, costuming, hair, makeup and rigging, with two intermissions to transform the stage. According to its choreographers, the diversity of content in the lineup of Embers, Petals & Stars is its greatest strength.
"Even if you don't know or like what Star Wars is, I hope you come out because there's truly something in the show for everybody," Eaves Sonnier says. "Whether it's connecting with that humanness through the Marshall Fire to having more altruistic moments with 'What is life?' and the ending of the cherry blossom and then there's just Star Wars, which is a lot of fun. I hope it just leaves people feeling full of life. I feel like we need more of that right now."
Embers, Petals, & Stars runs Friday, August 22, and Saturday, August 23, at the Elaine Wolfe Theatre, 350 South Dahlia Street. Tickets are $45-$75. Learn more at inthewingsaerial.com/performances.
