• About UANews
• Sign up for News
• Resources for Media
• Calendar
• Contact Us

As the landing date of the Phoenix Mars Lander approaches, the UA hosts a tribute to Mars through the arts.

By University Communications
April 18, 2008

As the landing date of the Phoenix Mars Lander approaches, The University of Arizona College of Fine Arts, in collaboration with the UA School of Architecture, UApresents and other organizations, is planning a tribute to Mars through the arts.

”MARS and Other Stories!” will feature performances by UA Dance Ensemble, the UA Symphony Orchestra and the Arizona Choir, along with an introduction to the Phoenix Mission by Principal Investigator Peter Smith and Co-investigator Bill Boynton. The free public event will be held at the Stevie Eller Dance Theater on April 26 at 7:30 p.m.

"This is a tribute to the accomplishments of the Phoenix Mission through an artistic voice,” said Jory Hancock, who hold the Stevie Eller chair for the director of dance and is the organizer of the event. “The creative thought process for artists and scientists is much more similar than it is different, and this event will offer both performance and science.”

Inspired by the UA’s Phoenix Mission and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment projects, the schools of dance and architecture have joined forces to develop a unique dance production titled “Countdown.”

This project marks the second collaboration between faculty members Beth Weinstein, from architecture, and Douglas Nielsen, from dance.

Dance students have been working on choreography that encompasses a rush of search, rescue and physical endurance.

Working from images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, architecture students are developing a new map of the Mars landscape that will create the setting for Nielsen’s choreographic work.

The performance and set loosely probe themes related to the Mars voyage – the countdown and launch of a mission into the unknown, the anticipation of the journey and the arrival.

Another original dance, "The 12th Root of 2," will be presented by James Clouser, visiting associate professor of dance at the UA. It is a choreographic exploration created after fantasizing about what finding water under the polar ice caps of Mars might mean.

Other highlights of the event include a performance by the Arizona Choir and the UA Symphony Orchestra. “They will tell the whole story of the mission in eight and a half minutes,” Hancock said.

Local children will have the opportunity to share their interpretations of space travel through a performance by Stories that Soar, a nonprofit organization established at the UA that features adult performers bringing young authors’ original stories to life.

Essays by students from the Tucson GEAR UP Project will be on display at the theater and two pre-recorded songs by GEAR UP students will play during the program.

Attendance to “MARS and Other Stories!” is free and open to the public. Seating at the Stevie Eller Dance Theater is limited to approximately 300.

The UA is the first public university to lead a mission to Mars. It centers on the search for habitable zones in the water ice of the northern polar region.

The Phoenix Mission is led by Peter Smith of the UA, with project management at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, in Denver. International contributions are provided by the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.