Dancing Sticks

“Dancing Sticks” is a site-specific performance created during the Spacehouse Residency in Uttarakhand, India, in collaboration with Indian artist Asavari Gurav and a living Annam walking stick insect. Set against the forested slopes of the Himalayas, the work unfolds as a slow, deliberate duet where human bodies yield to the gentle command of an insect’s path.

The choreography emerged not from rehearsed movement, but from attentiveness and surrender. The insect, walking from one performer’s hand to the other, shaped our rhythm and spatial dialogue. Our gestures—folding, reaching, pausing—were reactions to the insect’s silent navigation.

This performance invites reflection on non-verbal communication, ecological intimacy, and the radical act of letting a non-human lifeform lead. It stands as a quiet protest to anthropocentric choreography, asking instead: what can we learn by being guided by another species?

In Dancing Sticks, we practiced presence through shared stillness and let the smallest participant carry the narrative.