Tushaanal choreographs stories of the systemic violence associated with the mining control, and distribution of gold. Here, gold signifies itself specifically, and also invokes the “conflict minerals,” tungsten, tatalum, tin, and gold, mining for which has caused a trail of destruction in many communities, including mass rapes in Congo, the forced eviction by police of families in Papua, New Guinea, and the continued violence of apartheid in South Africa. Gold is also currency, a status symbol that leads to unnecessary dowry deaths in South Asia. Tushaanal, “fires of dry grass” that are difficult to put out and, metaphorically, fires of an inconsolable affliction, brings these different stories together and asks audiences and performers to rethink the value they place on such elements and critique the practices that surround their production.