Fill-in host Oliver Coleman speaks to choreographer Tina Tarpgaard ahead of Recoil Performance Group's three-day live installation event MASS—bloom explorations, on at Dancehouse from November 16th-18th.

In MASS—bloom explorations, performer Hilde Sandvold will live in a transparent domewill alongside 200,000 mealworms as they slowly digest a styrofoam plastic box.

Tina tells Oliver that rather than seing mealworms as cleaners for human rubbish, they are in fact protagonists and collaborators in the work. The sound of their "little mouths" crunching as they eat plastic will be heard throughout the performance, and Hilde Sandvold will move with a sense of gentleness when she moves around the dome so that she doesn't squish the worms.

Together, Oliver and Tina consider how a sensitivity to non-human beings can encourage recognition that humans are part of their surrounding ecosystems.

Head to the Dancehouse website to find out more about MASS—bloom explorations, including the public program of events like reading groups and family workshops.

Photo credit: Sõren Meisner