Zheng Bo: Dance Grass Dance Tree

Dance Grass Dance Tree is a performance by Zheng Bo that cultivates intimate human-plant relationships and kinship.

Zheng seeks to provide a positive counter to global crises of the economy, security, health and migration that have triggered cascading systemic shocks and generated a state of profound instability. As these challenges persist, the climate emergency continues to escalate unabated, compounding the vulnerabilities of societies already grappling with concurrent crises and rising political tensions.

Dance Grass Dance Tree draws on the notion of ‘making kin’ to consider how all of the Earth’s life forms are bound to fragile ecologies. To be kin with the surrounding plants is to have an enduring relatedness that is mutual, obligatory, pleasurable and accountable. The performance thereby poses a critical question: to whom is one truly responsible?