2026 Performance Calendar

Sticks & Stone

An aerial dance, puppetry, and physical theatre performance that asks: What do we do when our bodies become strangers to our souls?

September 5 @ 9:30pm

Hupstate Circus Festival Premiere in Ithaca, NY


Co-created and performed by Nicki Miller & Benny Oyzon
Production managed by David Glista

Sticks & Stone began in 2019 as an experiment that put both aerial rigger and aerial dancer onstage as characters in the same story.

What began as a query into the dramaturgy of aerial counterweight has become a love letter from our bodies to all bodies. The name Sticks & Stone emerged in reference to the well known proverb about withstanding physical injury, the building mediums humans use for constructing shelter, and some of our foundational elemental ancestors. Sticks & Stone unravels constructs and concepts that shape our values, our embodiment, and our relationships. It is an unmasking that calls us back to our elemental nature and the connections inherent to being alive together. 

Content Advisory: Themes of body dysphoria, patriarchal gender roles, brief topless nudity. Recommended for audiences 13+

Tickets to Hupstate

Past Performances

“Feedback Loop” in the NYC Aerial Dance Festival; photo by Mikhail Lipyanskiy

  • Sticks & Stone Workshop performances (Gardiner, NY)

  • “Feedback Loop” NYC Aerial Dance Festival (NYC);
    WildHeart Shared Stage (Wallkill, NY)

  • “The Great Turning” O+ Festival (Kingston, NY)

  • Sticks & Stone Performing Garage (NYC)

  • “We Are Nature” NooSphere Arts (NYC)

  • “Flesh & Blood” Dixon Place (NYC);
    The Deep End (NYC)