Dancing at Sunrise – A Sharp-tailed Grouse Film

In the frozen, wind-carved prairies of the Northern Great Plains, the ancient mating dance of the sharp-tailed grouse reveals both the endurance of wildlife and the fragile future of a disappearing ecosystem.

This unique film marks the launch of the Project Upland Foundation, a pinnacle moment in how we think about giving and the future of our game birds. This is not a membership organization; it is built on the idea of directing money straight into game bird research in the United States to bolster the future of these incredible creatures. Science-based management means investing in science—an institution that is underfunded and often forgotten. This is about leaving the uplands better than we found them.

Through the seasons, the film follows sharp-tailed grouse as they survive brutal winters, evade predators, and gather each spring on ancestral leks where males battle, display, and court the watching females. Around them, other prairie inhabitants—from owls to unseen nest raiders—share a landscape shaped by ice, fire, bison, and time itself. Yet the real conflict is quieter: habitat loss, warming temperatures, and altered weather patterns steadily erode the mixed-grass prairie that sustains them. Healthy grasslands can still shelter chicks and sustain life, but fragmentation and underfunded conservation threaten that balance. What appears timeless is actually precarious, and the birds’ sunrise dance becomes not just a ritual of survival, but a measure of whether the prairie will endure alongside them.

• Video and Photography: Seth Owens
• Executive Producers: Jennifer Wapenski & A.J. DeRosa
• Producers: Gabby Zaldumbide, Jennifer Wapenski, & A.J. DeRosa
• Script: Dr. Lance McNew, Seth Owens, A.J. DeRosa, Gabby Zaldumbide, & Jennifer Wapenski
• Editing: A.J. DeRosa
• Narration: A.J. DeRosa