Dancing on Red Rocks

7 am on a beautiful, cold Saturday morning in March - a film shoot for a music video. We arrive at the Snow Canyon overlook, with actual snow on the ground. A rare moment when the canyon's name fits. The dance troupe from Dixie State arrives, led by Li Lei, a Chinese physicist-turned-dance-instructor who runs them through their routines faithfully, over and over, so we can get all the shots we want. In between takes, as we set up new dolly tracks and camera angles, the dancers do their best to keep warm, even sneaking a quick nap on the sun-warmed rocks. The shadows lengthen and we continue shooting - from soft sand dunes to petrified sand dunes to Cougar Cliffs, not stopping until the last ray of sun slips behind the red horizon.