Lung Tree
Carrara Park, Newtown, Wellington
24/11/2013 - 24/11/2013
Production Details
Choreographer Lyne Pringle has lived beside Carrara Park for 22 years, she has seen it change from an industrial zone into the vibrant place it is today.
The Lung Tree Project will transform the park into a place of magic and contemplation as the surrounding community come together to wish the trees Happy Birthday.
This wonderful occasion will feature Lyne’s company Bipeds with Java Dance Company, local children, Wellington Circus Trust Junior Company, Wellington Parkour, The Troubles with live music and the Wellington City Council mural project, plus community members. It has the support of Creative NZ, Wellington City Council and the Newtown Festival.
This occasion will invite the community surrounding the park to contemplate the role that the trees have in their lives and to celebrate how green spaces in the urban environment enhance our sense of well-being. It will follow on from her highly successful Ocean Wave project in the Eastern suburbs in 2012.
As with the Ocean Wave project, local children and community groups with have the opportunity to dance with professional dancers and a live band.
This event will provide an opportunity for community members to learn about and become involved in the ‘take action’ phase of the project which is reclaiming a section of the town belt above Carrara Park and working to restore the original bio-diversity of this environment in conjunction with the Wellington City Council’s ‘Living City Scheme’.
It will be an enriching and heartfelt experience that will help to build an effervescent, resilient and sustainable community in Newtown.
“At this juncture I feel that an inquiry into our (bipeds) relationship with the natural world is imperative. I am interested, as someone who puts down deep roots, in quiet conversations, building communities and taking action locally, I look forward to delving even deeper into the possibilities of this community. My art integrates my social and environmental focus and a commitment to create a bridge with the art practice between community and environment; to create fantastic thoughtful art; projects that are sustainable with a small carbon footprint.”
http://bipeds1.blogspot.co.nz/ https://www.facebook.com/BipedsProductions
Java Dance, Bipeds Productions, Muted Crane Productions, The Troubles, Wellington Parkour, Pipi Ayesha Evans and Wellington Youth Circus
Site-specific/site-sympathetic , Outdoor , Dance ,
2 hours within 8 hour ritual
In celebration of the trees
Review by Jillian Davey 25th Nov 2013
It’s not every day you attend a 21st birthday party for trees, but Lung Tree, in Carrara Park was just that; a celebration of the twenty-first year of the park’s existence, and also a celebration of the community around it.
Rather than a gala or a street fair, as most communities honour their special days, Lyne Pringle of Bipeds Productions has opted for a performance of dance, music, parkour, and circus.
Lyne, with the help of seasoned dance company Java Dance, newly formed Muted Crane Productions, jazz band and local favourite The Troubles, Wellington Parkour, and Wellington Youth Circus, has put on a programme of contemplation and celebration.
Wellington put on its finest weather for this. It began with a ritual dance by 9 women of various (older) ages; a sun-salute-type phrase around the park’s perimeter of trees, after which 4 local, professional dancers took centre “stage”. There was a story to be made from their elaborate costumes, processional movement, and the quintet with a woman in white who emerged from a hospital bed, but it was ambiguous enough that I felt the audience was free to make of it what they wanted. With audience members ranging from the very young to the very old I’m sure there was a wide variety of story in the collective imagination.
There was no mistaking though, the call to “party!” after this meditative yet energy-driven dance. Members of Wellington Parkour leaped and rolled into the space, local children swarmed around waving large gauze flags, Wellington Youth Circus and professional aerialist Pipi Ayesha Evans played on rope and tissu, and The Troubles picked up a jazzy beat. The audience was invited to join the conga line.
As with any good party, there was cake (!) offered to all the guests and participants. You can’t get much better than that on a sunny Wellington day.
Lyne Pringle has lived beside Carrara Park for 22 years. It was historically an industrial area (home to a factory where Carrara ornamental handcrafted plaster ceilings and cornices were produced), and over the past 21 years it has transformed into the wide green space it is today. It’s obviously of importance to the community, as green space is to all urban and suburban areas, and was great to see creativity put into the celebration.
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