She Dances With 10,000 Bees on Her Body | National Geographic

For me, wearing the Beast, it's about communing with another species. I have talked to so many people about fear and bees, and they tell me how they were chased when they were kids because they'd see me wearing the bees. I think that they realize that you can be another rate of nature.

This is the fourth bee dance I've done. It's me and twelve thousand insects. It's sensual at the same time; you know that there's this fierceness. We spend a lot of time getting prepared. Today, we're looking for the Queen. You have to look really keenly to make sure that you're not missing her because then you have to start a little over.

We put the Queen in a little spaceship; I like to call it that. The Queen is amazing because she's laying all the eggs. I'll be wearing her, so they're following her pheromone. It will take them a little while to land and lighter, but once they come, they will fly down upon me like I'm inside a tornado. I'm really trying to stay calm when they're on me; it's a little uncomfortable. They pinch and sort of hold on, and they're very loud. They have a beautiful hum that's happening.

The more I dance, with music, it becomes more natural for me. It's really a duet, and now we're dancing together. This time, I'm going to integrate the work that I do, helping people heal based on helping people break an emotional or a physical pattern. Once people are interested in just connecting to nature, that's one of their focuses. I really want people to have a little transcendence.

I had no idea what to expect; the power of the bees, along with the serenity, was an incredible mix. I was concerned about everybody because there were some big bees in the air. Because of the winds, they kept getting sort of uplifted, and normally they're more collected on the body. The first time the bees crawled on my face, I yelped, and I was like, "Oh!" and then they just kept happening. Finally, towards the end of it, I just—I was deafened by it, and it was a great experience.

Now I don't have barriers here keeping me from getting too close. Where we are in the world, we're not moving to most things in nature. So how do we educate people, or how do we change the minds of people? How do we give them experience? I think it's just taking notice, and once you take notice, then you start maybe changing the way their actions are.