Yellow Roses

Document Type

Video

Publication Date

8-5-2026

Abstract

An Oral History, Dance, Video Production Collaboration of the UNLV College of Liberal Arts, College of Fine Arts, and Dance Department.

Yellow Roses, the Veterans Dance Documentary, is about the lives of six Las Vegas veterans from the first days of their service, through combat, and then transition back to civilian life. The documentary runs about 12 minutes long, a mix of veteran storytelling interwoven with dancer-performance. The mixture allows the imagination to digest their dramatic emotions, personal journeys, and individual grit.

These veterans want to communicate the life-giving and sometimes life-saving importance of reaching out to those who can understand their experiences, not only to help themselves but to help others transition with wisdom, strength, and courage from their past lives in the military to their present lives as civilians.

The six veterans—Aidan Lee, Philip Fuss, Ingrid Ruffin, Tanya Crabb, Yonel Dorelis, and Bruno Mateo represent the Marine Corps, Army, National Guard, Reserves, and Air Force. In the film, all six share their transfigurations. They share profound stories. Their stories are not romanticized but realized.

Two important Las Vegas valley veteran services are represented in this documentary. University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Military and Veterans Services Center is led by Executive Director Ross Bryant. Bryant writes that “UNLV Military and Veteran Services Center supports the university's vision and academic mission while serving our growing student veteran and military family community. It does this by developing a welcoming, veteran-friendly campus environment that fosters academic success and supports veterans in their transition from military service to achieve their life goals. We have served more than 9,000 veterans and military affiliated students since 2012. In 2026, MVSC supported the 2,355 veterans, dependents, active-duty service members, National Guard members, reservists, Army/Air Force Cadets, military family members, and survivors attending UNLV.”

Also serving veterans is the national non-profit organization, Merging Vets & Players. As Yonel Dorelis writes: “I'm a member of Merging Vets & Players because it gives veterans a place to reconnect with the sense of teamwork and camaraderie many of us miss after leaving the military. It brings veterans and former professional athletes together through workouts and open conversations, creating a strong support network. It's a great organization that reminds you you're not alone in the transition to civilian life.”

Creating the Veteran Dance Documentary was a collaborative effort by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas faculty, staff, and students: Roberta Sabbath, Ph.D., Assistant Professor-in-Residence, English Department, College of Liberal Arts, interviewed the veterans; Cathy Allen, Professor, Dance Department, College of Fine Arts, choreographed and staged dance performances;  Shahab Zargari, Videographer, College of Fine Arts, filmed veteran interviews and performances; and UNLV Dance Department dancers—Mateo Anderson, Margaret Baker-Hodge. (Greta), Emily France Barker, John Gooseberry (JR), Mayra Munoz, and Tiera Salas performed Allen’s choreography.

Under the creative vision of artists Allen and Zargari, the genre of Dance Documentary itself has matured. From merely filming live performance, the genre has realized its storytelling potential. From hours of rehearsals, performances, and filmed interviews now comes the documentation of six exquisite voices telling their powerful stories of personal growth.

The  narrative arc of Veteran Dance Documentary follows that of Aristotle’s Poetics, enabling the audience to experience pity and fear for the stories’ heroes. Exposition situates the individual veteran initiation into military service. Conflict explores specific combat stories.  Narrative rising action and ultimately climax of each brutal story personalizes individual combat trauma. Denouement provides not mind-numbing return to a familiar status quo but a portrait of compassionate veterans wiser and stronger. Documentarian Zargari notes a different kind of status quo, one befitting the present informed by the past.

The creation of this Veteran Dance Documentary has an origin story of its own. Sabbath began a several months-long series of interviews with each of the six veterans about their lives before, during, and after service. Then, after Sabbath, Allen, and Zargari had consulted with Ross Bryant, Allen and Zargari undertook the creation of a dance documentary to honor the six.  The project was also a recipient of the Nevada Arts Council FY24 Project Grant for Artists (Partial Funding).

The filming began when Zargari filmed each of the six veterans telling their stories based on the initial Sabbath interviews. Afterwards, Allen spent endless hours watching those interviews and expressing their stories through her choreography. Then came rehearsals with her UNLV dancers. Filming of the performed choreography took place both in UNLV performance spaces and desert surrounding Las Vegas. The December 5, 2023, dress rehearsal was the first time Allen and Zargari recorded the integration of the already-filmed veteran storytelling, projection of veteran photographs, and dance performance.

The very next day, on December 6, 2023, a shooter took the lives of three beloved UNLV faculty members and left another critically wounded. Then another tragedy hit. One of the soloist dancers, Emilee France Barker, was tragically killed in an automobile accident. Ms. Barker left us a gift—expressive moments of pain and hope, a legacy for which we are all grateful.

Through additional collaborative work, Allen and Zargari interwove dance and film clips together to tell the six powerful, veteran stories. We are grateful for their artistic energies and proud of this collaborative opportunity to showcase these service men and women who gave so much in their service to our country.

We are grateful to Aidan Lee, Philip Fuss, Ingrid Ruffin, Tanya Crabb, Yonel Dorelis, and Bruno Mateo who trusted us to complete this project and who have shared their stories with such honesty so as not to lose the immediacy of their experience and their message about the importance of reaching out to those who can understand.

Authors

  • Shahab Zargari, Videographer, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Cathy Allen, Choreographer, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Roberta Sabbath, Interviewer and Producer, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Veterans

  • Ingrid Ruffin
  • Yonel Dorelis
  • Dr. Tanya Crabb
  • Philip Fussell
  • Aidan Lee
  • Bruno Moya

Dancers

  • Mateo Anderson, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Margaret Baker-Hodge (Greta), University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Emily France Barker, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • John Gooseberry Jr., University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Mayra Munoz, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Tiera Salas, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Maile Cochrin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

More Resources

Please visit the project website for more information!

Keywords

dance; veterans; oral history; choreography

Disciplines

Fine Arts

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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