INTERVIEW • NOVEMBER 2025
in conversation with ash rucker, movement director
INTERVIEW BY SHIRA WHEELER
SHIRA: OKAY, WE'RE HERE WITH ASH RUCKER, MOVEMENT DIRECTOR EXTRAORDINAIRE, WHO WE'VE HAD THE PLEASURE OF WORKING WITH SINCE-- WHAT, LIKE 2022?
ASH:
2022? 2021? 1920? Crazy.
SHIRA: SIX, ALMOST SIX YEARS AGO, NUTS. OKAY, SOOOOO, HOW AND WHEN DID YOU FIRST FIND OUT ABOUT ODDOBODY? DO YOU REMEMBER?
ASH:
I remember. It was through this girl that used to model for you guys, Ruby. She had reached out to me and said, “Hey, would you be open to like, modeling or something?” I was like, “Yeah, of course.”
SHIRA: OH YEAH! I THINK SHE'S A HORSE AFICIONADO NOW, SO DREAMY-- WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING WITH RUBY SOON! IT'S SO COOL, THE WAY YOU MEET THESE EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE THROUGH A NETWORK. WE MET RUBY THROUGH OUR FRIEND JULIA, ANOTHER DANCER WHO WE LOVE AND WORK WITH FROM TIME TO TIME.
WHY DO YOU THINK OUR PARTNERSHIP HAS HAD SUCH A NATURAL AND BEAUTIFUL EVOLUTION?
ASH:
Because I think we’ve grown it. It’s been nurtured and cared for. We’ve built a friendship. And I think that is really beautiful, especially when you’re creating and collaborating. You guys nurtured me. You’ve also seen me grow exponentially—knowing all my dreams, where I am now. It just feels like home.
SHIRA: IT'S REALLY TRUE-- WHEN WE FIRST MET, THERE WAS THAT INSTANT SPARK, LIKE, "WHO IS THIS WOMAN?" AND I REMEMBER YOU SAYING WE SHOULD DO MORE TOGETHER.
ASH:
And it needed to go this slow, to evolve, to become the thing—because I didn’t even know what it was back then
SHIRA: HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR WORK RELATES TO WHAT WE DO?
ASH:
Because I think it’s organic. It’s real. It’s raw, and I think it’s honest. It’s true.
SHIRA: WHEN WE FIRST MET, YOU WERE GOING THROUGH A TRANSITION, AND I FEEL LIKE IN THOSE MOMENTS-- AND MAYBE MORE BROADLY IN TODAY'S WORLD-- IT'S HARD NOT TO FEEL A LITTLE JADED AND JUST GIVE UP. SOMETHING THAT STRUCK ME WHEN I MET YOU WAS THIS OPTIMISM AND POSITIVITY DESPITE A VERY DIFFICULT THING YOU WERE GOING THROUGH. HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO HAVE THAT PRESENCE OF MIND BEFORE YOU, OR EVEN YOU YOURSELF, UNDERSTOOD WHAT YOU WERE DOING AND ITS VALUE?
ASH:
I just realized that you have a choice every day. The only person that’s in control of your reality is you. When you realize that — and I don’t think I even fully realized it back then, but something in me must have — you say to yourself, I can choose to let situations bring me down, or I can just say no.
If you choose the joy, your life will be joy. If you choose the sorrow, that’s what you’ll get. Things are always going to come at you, because that’s just life. We’re here to go to school. You have to have the suffering — but on the other side, you can say, this is what it’s about. And I can get through it again and again, because it’s going to keep coming. It’s like the gas tank. When it starts to overflow, you cap it. Whatever you give your energy to is what will become bigger, whether positive or negative.
SHIRA: SO GOOD. LET'S TRANSITION INTO YOUR MOVEMENT PRACTICE. YOUR STYLE HAS ALWAYS FELT WILD. WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? HOW DO YOU DEFINE IT?
ASH:
It’s taken so long, and I finally, right now, accept it. What I’ve discovered is that the movement practice comes out of a place of pain, which is why it feels sometimes so wild. But it’s so true to who we are, because we are wild and we are animals. Everything I’m doing is completely normal — but because we’ve been told “you shouldn’t move like this,” it creates a system in our mind, and we live by that system for the rest of our lives.
I’m like, fuck the system. We’re free people, yet we don’t act free. We don’t move in this world like we’re free.
As my movement practice developed, I realized it’s another otherworldly entity entering my body and I’m gone. In those moments I’m getting downloads, things are transmuting through me. I’ve defined it as a spirit-based practice — Spirit enters my body and I lose control. And I think that’s the point of life: to just lose control. Now being able to access that, access your freedom — that’s true liberation.
SHIRA: WHEN YOU'RE GIVING MOVEMENT DIRECTION OR TEACHING A CLASS, HOW DO YOU HELP PEOPLE GO TO THAT PLACE? HOW DO YOU COAX PEOPLE'S SPIRIT OUT OF THEIR SKIN?
ASH:
Depending on who it’s with — if it’s Bad Bunny or a Jake Gyllenhaal — I have about ten seconds. It’s a science. I have to be a mind reader. I have to make someone fall in love with me within ten seconds so they trust me with their whole body.
Before any shoot, I try to energetically pick up on who I’m working with — it’s almost a psychic, intuitive thing. I read them, kind of like diagnosing them. Then I create a playlist, which is a big part of my practice, because music transcends story and emotion and brings you to a place.
I’ll come up to them: My name is Ash, I’m here if you need me. I keep it really chill so they don’t start with pressure. Then we get going, the music starts, and it’s a slow climax. I’m moving with them the whole time — they’re never alone. I check in: you good? If this doesn’t feel good, tell me. I try to bring out what’s naturally there. I like to call myself an energetic architect, because it’s all energy — with the whole team. I’m taking care of the photographer, the talent, everyone, making sure the vibe is good.
By the end, they’re at peak climax. That’s when I know I’ve done it. They’ve gotten out of their skin.
SHIRA: THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT TALKING TO YOU TODAY VERSUS FIVE OR SIX YEARS AGO. I FEEL LIKE YOU'RE MORE--
ASH:
Myself?
SHIRA: YOURSELF.
ASH:
Yeah, I agree. While I’m so blessed to be doing what I’m doing, it’s made me more humble. I want to continue to help and give back. I was playing so small for years. And now, to get paid for my energy — that’s what’s happening. It’s a really crazy feeling. I’m just in the gratitude now. I’m like, “Okay, what other surprises are gonna come?”
SHIRA: TELL US ABOUT INDIA. WE KNOW YOU'RE LEAVING IN A FEW DAYS FOR THREE MONTHS.
ASH:
This has been a two-year manifestation. Someone at a party said, “You said that two years ago.” True. I’m now understanding why I’ve always wanted to go. In life, fire always happens to us — breakups, all of this shit — and we’re constantly moving through suffering. But it’s rare when you actively seek deep transformation and put yourself in the fire. That’s what I’m doing now.
These 37 years — the lights are out. I’m saying goodbye, and that’s terrifying, because your old self is like, “what about all these stories you’ve carried in your backpack?” We’re emptying it. Done.
I’m closing a big chapter. I finally feel home in myself and in my body — but there’s way more to be discovered. I’ve been going really hard for a long time, and now it’s time to rest and put myself through another transformation. Another quantum leap. The rocket ship is heating up.
I’m doing Panchakarma — a full Ayurvedic cleanse, body, mind, and spirit. No books. Just rest. And rest is terrifying for me. I’m literally like a Golden Retriever puppy, my mind going through the night into the morning. To stop — I’m shook.
SHIRA: I THINK IT'S GONNA BE FANTASTIC.
ASH:
But it's gonna be hard, you know? I was researching, and they were like, “imagine you're going into surgery with no medicine.” There are doctors watching you all night
SHIRA: WE'LL HAVE TO DO A PART TWO.
ASH:
We have to. And I’m bringing all my ODDO — the flowy T-shirts, soft cotton. No makeup, no gold. I’m stripping back.
SHIRA: BECAUSE IT'S PART OF YOUR IDENTITY.
ASH:
Yes. But listen — you can create whatever reality you want. I don’t think people understand that. If you repeat it like a mantra, something will click, because you can do whatever. You woke up one day with this little ding — start this brand — and something pushed you to follow that up until this point. That’s the silver cord: following that thread, that thing you were supposed to do when you came here. If you follow that, then — the dream. That’s the dream.
SHIRA: WE'RE IN IT. IT'S WEIRD TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I'M IN THE DREAM.
ASH:
Sometimes I’m like, is this shit real?
SHIRA: MY NINE YEAR OLD JUST TOLD ME HER THEORY-- THAT DREAMS ARE DIFFERENT WORLDS, AND THEY'RE ALL REAL.
ASH:
Kids are so tapped, so connected. I was in the corporate world for ten years, at a desk, feeling sixty. Now I’m 38 and I feel like I’m two — none of it feels like work. We make life difficult. Make the container bigger and the thing smaller.
ash rucker is a brooklyn-based performance artist whose work merges ritual, ceremony, dance, and song into immersive, participatory acts of healing. find out more about her work here.
