for sport or for beauty, 2025

For Sport or For Beauty illustrates the relationship between people with marginalized identities and the anxiety-informed “prey mentality.” This performance follows a youthful deer as it learns that there are people in this world who are out to get it. Adopting a lifestyle of fleeing in response to that truth, the deer realises that their self defense mechanism actually enforces the threats of fear and acts on behalf of an unseen oppressor. The deer is struck by a car, killing the fearful body but not the newly-liberated spirit. This introspection sparks a revelation and metamorphosis into a creature much for fantastical and free.

ft. puppeteer Emily Batsford