Based on Henry Darger's works, Vivian Girls takes flight

Seattle's highly respected Pat Graney Company brings Darger's androgynous Vivian Girls to life via a new modern dance on Friday. Darger's 12-volume, 15,000-page opus and hundreds of large watercolors tell an epic tale of winged boy-girl creatures who fight militiamen to save society from death and destruction.

"The guy obviously didn't have a life," Graney said via phone last week before heading to New York's Dance Theater Workshop, where The Vivian Girls finished a four-night run last night. "But the world in which he lived is absolutely fascinating."