Melbourne Festival to present ‘Tree of Codes’

For six performances only, Arts Centre Melbourne will present Tree of Codes this October. This collision of contemporary ballet, visual art and electronic music first launched from the springboard of novelist Jonathan Safran Foer’s enigmatic book-sculpture of the same name.

A stunning collaboration between three world-class artists, Tree of Codes is a breathtakingly rhapsodic encounter between music, dance, light and structure. Brought to life by Jamie xx’s scintillating score, Olafur Eliasson’s dazzling visual designs and Wayne McGregor’s visceral choreography, it is performed by 14 dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet and Company Wayne McGregor.

Melbourne Festival Artistic Director Jonathan Holloway said, “All festival directors have their top 50, the list of artists they dream of presenting during their festival tenure. Tree of Codes was created by three contemporary artists from the very top of my list, so bringing it to Melbourne in its original form, with soloists from the Paris Opera Ballet, is three dreams come true. Whilst the core collaborators on this project—Wayne McGregor, Olafur Eliasson and Jamie xx—are each at the very top of their game, working together has lifted them all to new heights. Tree of Codes is the perfect festival event: massively more than the sum of its parts, beautiful and uplifting, appealing to all audiences, and delivered with the energy that can only be released by the creative collision of incredible forces.”

To create his book, Foer took to the text of a book by Polish author Bruno Schulz—The Street of Crocodiles—with a blade, creating a new narrative. In Tree of Codes, these collaborators have responded to Foer’s creation to craft a fluid, immersive and visual feast of light, colour and motion.

Jamie xx used an algorithm to turn spaces and shapes from the book into melodies, while McGregor created a dance for each of its 134 pages. It was the “physical nature” and “vibrancy” of the book that inspired Eliasson’s set and lighting designs, which included reflective, transparent and refractive surfaces and coloured light to create a dynamic, ever-evolving and complexly layered space in which the dancers are multiplied and overlap.

McGregor is a British choreographer and director, internationally renowned for trailblazing innovations in performance. He founded Random Dance, which has grown into Studio Wayne McGregor, and he is regularly commissioned to make and present work for the most important ballet companies in the world, including staging Infra at The Australian Ballet in 2017. His work has earned him a multitude of awards including three Critics’ Circle Awards, two Time Out Awards, two South Bank Show Awards, two Olivier Awards, a prix Benois de la Danse and a Critics’ Prize at the Golden Mask Awards. In 2011, McGregor was awarded a CBE for Services to Dance.

His work will be performed by none other than The Paris Opera Ballet, the oldest national ballet company. Rich in historical tradition, it stages some 180 performances per season in Paris, the French regions and abroad.

Tree of Codes possesses all the energy and vitality of a performance born of a collaboration between artists at the peak of their creativity. A groundbreaking and audacious theatrical presentation, it has received standing ovations and enjoyed sold-out crowds since its premiere at the Manchester International Festival in 2015.

Reviewing the work, The New York Times called it “jaw-dropping… with breathtaking physical feats and visual dazzle.” The Stage (UK) wrote, “A truly collaborative process lies behind the extraordinary artistic triumph of this new contemporary ballet.”

Tree of Codes will be performed at Arts Centre Melbourne’s State Theatre from October 17-21. Tickets are now on sale. Visit www.festival.melbourne for more information.

Photo: Tree of Codes being performed. Photo by Joel Chester Fildes.