Dancing Antelope 1

A few miles east of Page, Arizona, on the lands of the Navajo Nation one finds Hasdestwazi (meaning ”spiral rock arches”), the spectacular slot canyon known in English as Lower Antelope Canyon or The Corkscrew. On the flat surface of the desert is a rather unimposing crack in the dry sandstone, but on entering the crack and descending fifty or sixty feet down into the earth, one finds a world of sweeping swirls and flowing sandstone walls carved by millions of years of erosion. Flash floods bring rushing torrents of water and sand which, on entering the slot canyon, concentrate their power to scour the walls into incredible shapes. With light entering the canyon depths only from the narrow slit on the surface, color is distorted: purple, mauve, and orange predominate. The canyon walls, so reminiscent of flowing fabric, remind me of dancers leaping, twirling, gliding, costumes swirling with their every movement — Loïe Fuller and Isadora Duncan come immediately to mind.

More images in this series can be found in the Suites section of this web site.

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