We Remember

Eureka Mine Dance Film

Elizabeth Kurylo
Project Leader

1804 Pike Hill road
Corinth, VT, 05039
802-439 9117

Overview
The purpose of the film was to capture the strange beauty of the Eureka Mine, and to set it as a background for a movement performance.
My goal was to create a visual poem, using choreographic tools, to evoke the history of the mine and the miners who worked there. This was a collaborative effort between Quinn Tomashow, filmmaker and editor, and myself. The film was entirely shot on the site of the Eureka Mine. Dancers, performers, musicians and a poet were recruited for this project.
In 2012, I bought a house in Corinth, not very far from the mine and I would often hike on Coppermine road all the way up to the mine site. This strange desolate landscape, with its bright orange color and rarified vegetation fascinated me. I wondered what it was like when a few men bore into the hard rock to extract the copper ore with pickaxes, under the vacillating light of an oil lamp.
Who were these miners? Most brought their family with them. What was their life, confined to the mine housing, wives and children breathing the noxious sulfur smell of the tailings day in day out?
Most of the first wave of miners were migrants from Cornwall, UK, but they later were replaced by Italians, Scotts, Irishs and Germans. Housing, stores and schools were built at the site to accommodate the needs of the miners and their families. Today none of the buildings are standing. All that is left is gigantic orange color tailings and old stone foundations hidden among a first generation of birch trees.
At the Eureka mine the foundations of a boarding house and cottages, and those of the larger mill remained. A few heavy metal objects are rusting on the site. The impressive mine entrance and the huge pile of waste are the last artifacts of the once industrious Pike Hill.
The EPA has designated the mine a superfund site. Clean-up is scheduled to begin in 2024. Already, site preparation with logging, road repair and fenced off areas has significantly changed the landscape since the film was shot in the spring of 2022. We Remember is the final look at what was there before the EPA cleanup as well as a testament to the copper miners and their families who once lived and worked there.
Project Participants
Videographer/cinematographer
Editor
Dancers/performers
Choreographer
Musicians
Poet
Volunteer extras
Preliminary Research
Town of Corinth Historical Museum
History of Corinth, Vermont 1764-1964, p.163
Katherine Blaisdell’s Book Four, pp. 70-76
In Time Past: Mining Mania Part Two: Larry Coffin, Journal Opinion, August 31, 2011: p 3

Project Description
Projected length of the movie: 15 minutes
Four areas are desirable for filming:

The large landing at the bottom of the old building foundations. This area was ideal as a setting for a folklike dance accompanied by live musicians (accordeon, fiddle).

The tailings. This was the place where the tailings spirits blended with the landscape and gradually emerge from the tailings.

The entrance of the mine. This was the setting to portrait the miners

Old building foundations and birch trees . This area among trees and old stone walls was used to evoke the lives of miners' wives and daughters.

Timeline

Phase I: summer 2021
Site visit of the Eureka mine to identify specific landscape spots that are suitable for shoots.
Historical research at the Blake Memorial library, the Corinth Historical Museum and other available publications from the period spanning the years 1800 to 1919 as well as current superfund cleaning projections.
Guided tour of the neighboring Ely’s mine in Vershire to collect sights and stories about copper mining in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Phase II: winter and spring 2022
Submit project to landowner and obtain permission to shoot for 2-3 days
Artist recruitment: audition for 5-6 dancers.
Invite musicians and choreographers to collaborate on specific sections of the project
Rehearsals in studio for dance and music
Fundraising through donations and grants
Hiring videographer

Phase III: spring and summer 2022
Search for volunteers
Costumes making/fitting
Shooting on site

Phase IV: fall 2022-Winter 2023
Editing
Marketing
Screening
Budget:
Total budget: $ 4000
Dancer’s stipend : $550
Musician (accordion and fiddle) stipend: $ 200 x 2 = $ 400
Choreographer: $ 400
Filming and editing: $2000
Costumes: $ 200
Poetry: $ 200
Producer assistant: $150
Miscellaneous: $100
Project Leader Bio:

Elizabeth danced professionally in Europe before moving to the United States. As a choreographer in the US, she created works for the group What’s Written Within in Edgartown and she collaborated with dancers of the Yard in Chilmark, MA. More recently, Elizabeth created work for the Vermont Dance Alliance winter productions and for The Junction Dance Festival.
She is the founder and director of the Junction Dance Festival, a non-profit organization registered in Vermont whose purpose is to promote the understanding and appreciation of the art of dance through public performance https://thejunctiondancefestival.org. She created the ChoreoLab, a satellite program of the Junction Dance Festival, giving financial incentives for regional dance artists to work on their own dance projects. She was twice recipient of a development grant from the Vermont Arts Council for her films “Covid, A Poem and A Rope” and for this project.
“I never really considered making movies until COVID forced me to explore new options. I was at the time working on a dance solo, and I needed to film it to enter the National Choreography Month event. This was the start of a passionate journey learning about filmmaking.”