The future of our planet has undoubtedly become the most urgent topic of all time. The DANCING TREES project looks for answers about what performing artists and citizens can do in response to one of the biggest crises that humanity has ever faced: the crisis of disappearance of a healthy living environment whose direct symptoms are climate change and one of the main causes of it- deforestation.

Ever since the initial idea about this project, the research we did, meetings we had with our colleagues, sharing the project idea with them, all we have experienced was confirmation of the ubiquity of this topic amongst people who are genuinely concerned, worried, irritated, and most importantly ready to do something about it!

Our project is our way to do it. Using artistic language that reaches directly the hearts and minds of the spectators we want to raise awareness of the importance of trees and ecosystem conservation in our city. We also want to share very specific information related to our city and its ecological data, and lastly but most importantly, we want to empower our co-citizens to respond and actively participate in the changes, empower them to take the first step, to understand that they are not alone, that it concerns all of us, not only in this country, but also globally on the planet.

In addition to the out door dance-theatre performance, which will be premiered at the Student Park in Belgrade, on October 28 and 29, 2021, the project includes talks, a webinar, films and other activities that connect art and ecology.

The DANCING TREES project combines creative techniques and activism in the desire to find the most effective means to launch civic initiatives and a way to inspire citizens to mobilize and join in defense against excessive tree felling and other causes of worrying climate change.

Knowing that “we are not alone” could encourage new initiatives that are so necessary and important at this moment of time in Serbia.

“We find ourselves living in a special time. On the one hand, the climate crisis poses the most significant threat to our future that humanity has ever faced. On the other, we are better equipped than ever before to take on that challenge. To do so, though, we need to understand and respect the natural world as people once did. We need to see all that the sacred cathedral of the forest offers us, and understand that among those many offerings is a way to save the world.

We are all woodland people. Like trees we hold a genetic memory of the past because trees are parents to the child deep within us. We feel that shared history come alive every time we step into the forest, where the majesty of nature calls to us in a voice beyond our imaginations. But even in those of us who haven’t encounter trees in months or even years, the connection to the natural world is there, waiting to be remembered.

…(…)Trees offers us the solution to nearly every problem facing humanity today, from defending against drug resistance to halting global temperature rise, and they are eager to share those answers. They do so even when we can’t or won’t hear them We once knew how to listen. It is a skill we must remember.”Diana Beresford-Kroeger [To Speak for the Trees, Random House Canada, 2019 ] [To Speak for the Trees]

Project supported by: ITAC – Climate Impact,Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs – Culture and Development Grant, International Relief Fund of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, and other partners: http://www.goethe.de/relieffund and City of Belgrade – Secretariat for Culture. In collaboration with Belgrade Dance Institute. With annual support by Ministry of Culture and Information of Republic of Serbia for 2021.

In collaboration with Belgrade Dance Institute.

DAH Theatre is supported by Ministry of Culture of Republic of Serbia in 2021.