KD: The Near Miss

When Jump!Star founder George Ferrandi first began researching the future alignment of Earth’s polar axis, she believed that Kappa Draconis (KD) would one day serve as a North Star. Early software mapped its orbit directly above the pole. Later, with more advanced tools, she discovered that two larger, more distant stars would ultimately outshine it.

But KD’s story remained too relatable to abandon. It speaks to that familiar burn of being perfectly suited for something but outshined by those with greater resources. Within the Jump!Star cosmology, KD remains a vital presence: a fiery outsider with a restless spirit, driven by purpose even when left outside the circle of the chosen stars.

In Richmond, KD was represented not as a sculpture but as a dance—an embodiment of incandescent energy. Choreographers Cassie Works and Egbert Vongmalaithong translated KD’s myth into movement that was urgent, magnetic, and gloriously extra.  They guided a company of performers to channel KD’s fire as they pulsed through the crowd, reminding us that sometimes being The Near Miss makes you even hotter.

Cassie and Egbert also drew from Alan Calpe’s original choreography to distill the essence of the movements for the Dark Matter volunteers. They trained the Capos — the team leaders who guided each sculpture —teaching sequences that the Capos would then teach to the hundred and fifty volunteers in the league of Dark Matter as the Future North Star sculptures were carried through the park.

(George has also made work about the fiery resilience of KD in collaboration with New York artist, sTo Len. Check out The Twelfth Star Fire and Water Ceremony.)