La Danse de la Valkyrie
(c) 2004. Shot in Thermal Infrared. Dur: 4:44
Produced and Directed by
Alexis Fosse Mackintosh
Improvisational Dancers: Aretha Aoki, Vanessa Mayrand, Brenna McLaud & Mary Anne Wong
“La danse de la Valkyrie” is my personal response to viewing the video of an Apache attack helicopter sortie in Iraq on December 1, 2003. Improvisational dance and city life scenes are mixed with the infrared images of the attack. Shot with a thermal imaging camera, the images are of the heat of the subject, thus being an abstraction of what we feel rather than what we see.
We all believe we are in control of our lives and destiny. But are we? Those on the ground feel they have control of their lives but their very lives are in the hands of the pilots who themselves are controlled by the team in the AWAC aircraft. Do any of us have control of our destiny or is it all a dance of the Valkyries? Valkyries, in Nordic mythology are the goddess daughters of Odin who decide the outcome of the battle and carry the slain warriors to Valhalla. As the piece is a personal response, my myth, and thus Valhalla, rather than an Arabic or American myth, colors the response to the killings. 
When combat is reduced to an abstraction, we all lose some of our humanity. It is so much easier to take out a blur on a video screen than to plunge a knife into a man’s heart when you are looking him in the eyes. It is easier to plant a car bomb than to crush a child’s head in your hands. Easier yes, but the effect is the same, you become a murderer not a martyr or a war hero.
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