Schedule:

4 pm Untitled night dark sky dance performance | rec park (sledding hill), grand marais
Untitled night, created and organized by morgan thorson, is an outdoor dance event made for extreme geographies and climates. Featuring performers sam aros-mitchell, alexandra beaumont, dee hunter, eva mohn, morgan thorson and arwen wilder, this grand marais iteration is an invitation to immerse and bathe in the drama of winter night. Drawing down the cosmos, night falls, tumbling dark textures onto the land. As the stars emerge, reminding us that it’s always dark in the outer atmosphere, the dance emerges and nestles into the surroundings with little illumination. These collection of dance essays are propelled by micro – movements shared by all living things. Our group articulations collaborate with stars, plants and other forces we cannot see.

So, under the nightscape, we are changed; we co-regulate with gesture; we listen to each other. Our terrestrial dance connects the energy of stars and planets to super-sensitive constellations of choreography as well as temporary embodied configurations and containments. Under the cover of night, we stretch time, we are sonic and we can visually disappear. And, because darkness changes how you perceive things, you may consider how you move and engage with this circumstance; you may choose to get close to the action. You may slow enough to see breath, rub your hands together, tilt back to gaze through the movement to the sky or sense energy and space in between. In this moment, with or without hope, it is necessary to feel things that are bigger than us, because a little night drama dwells inside all of us. Untitled night advocates for that sensitivity, understanding and feeling. After we gather and dance outside, we drink and talk inside the folk school nearby.

6:30 pm Wandering around mars presentation by andrea jones, planetary geologist and the public engagement lead of the solar system exploration division at nasa's goddard space flight center  | grand marais
Mars is a pretty exciting place. Rovers, landers, orbiters, and even a helicopter are helping us uncover secrets written in the rocks, ice and gases, swirling around our rusty red neighbor. Come learn about current and recent mars missions, what it's like to pick a mars landing site and take new pictures of a planet with a spacecraft camera, and how we're learning about mars, through artemis.

7:30 pm Cosmic perspective: how astrophotography shifted my perspective on the cosmos & earth by kyle johnson | grand marais
Filmmaker kyle "Kj" johnson shares the powerful origin story of astrophotography. Astronomy has been around since the dawn of humanity. It has shaped our perspectives, stories, and culture. Discover how photography is inextricably linked to our studies of the stars, as well as how technology has made exploring the cosmos accessible to everyone.