About the Films

Synopsis and Iowa Connection
First came the song, then came the video. On August 10, 2020, Cedar Rapids and other eastern Iowa towns experienced an inland hurricane known as a derecho. In Iowa, we are familiar with tornadoes, not derechos. Winds were as high as 140 miles per hour. The derecho lasted about 45 minutes. As a result, the City of Cedar Rapids lost 65% of it’s tree canopy. Many trees were simply uprooted from the high winds. Many homes were damaged beyond repair. Our home was without electricity for 10 days and we had no internet for 31 days. In the aftermath of this very rare and destructive storm, everyone did their best to clean up their yards, driveways, and sidewalks. Many streets were blocked by downed trees. Our neighborhood required several cranes to remove large trees from rooftops. In the midst of the clean up effort, my husband, Paul, and I took a break in our driveway to watch a crane lift branches off a neighbor’s roof. The inspiration for this song/video came from that break. We watched how slowly and carefully the crane removed a large branch as if handling a delicate piece of glass. As the crane lifted the branch, leaves floated through the air. I thought to myself, this is just like a ballet, a pas de deux (a dance for two people, typically a man and a woman) between the branch and crane. The branch representing the ballerina, the crane representing the male dancer, often referred to as a “danseur”. The question came to mind, “What is this strange ballet?” I grabbed a pencil, paper, and guitar and started to write…