Fantasy Comes Alive at UVA’s Festival of the Moving Creature

Creatures from the sky and the sea met Friday evening on the University of Virginia’s Grounds.

Delia, a flying creature, and her aquatic companion Peri marched from Culbreth Theatre to the Rotunda and back as part of the annual Stan Winston and Steven Warner Festival of the Moving Creature.

Technical Director of Drama Steve Warner, along with architecture instructor and fabrication lab director Melissa Goldman and studio art technician Eric Schmidt, started the Art of the Moving Creature course in 2012, a two-semester sequence that culminated in the first festival. 

Each subsequent year, Warner taught a smaller, one-semester version of the course. Now in its third year, the festival is held in partnership with the Stan Winston School of Character Arts, named after UVA alumnus and Hollywood special effects legend Stan Winston, who helped create some of modern cinema’s most memorable characters and creatures, including dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park,” the robots in “The Terminator,” avatars in “Avatar,” Edward Scissorhands and Iron Man.

On Friday, members of the UVA community paraded alongside the creatures and watched as they danced and briefly fought outside of the Rotunda.

Take a look at photos from the festival and the creatures’ construction below.

A portrait of a person actively building a moving creature with a bamboo stick for the art performance.
A portrait of people actively building a moving creature with rods for the art performance.
Portrait of a girl looking through the eye of one of the handmade flying creature art dummies.
Portrait of young kids enjoying the moving creature art show at the Rotunda.
A portrait of a glittering creature from the art performance at the Rotunda.
A portrait of a glittering creature featured in the art performance at the Rotunda.
A portrait of people enjoying the flying creature art performance at the Rotunda.
Portrait of a man holding up the head of a flying creature in the parade from the Arts Grounds to the Rotunda.
Portrait of Flying creature parade from Arts Grounds to the Rotund.a

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Alice Berry

University News Associate Office of University Communications