👉 Ticket claim: Please get your tickets before the performance date or 90 minutes before the performance and follow our staff’s guidance to keep social distance.

👉 Each Attendee Requires a Ticket. Children under 1.2m must be accompanied by their parents, infants are not allowed, and children should be reminded not to make any noise during the performance, otherwise the concierge will ask them to leave.

👉 The audience can start to enter the auditorium 60 minutes before the performance starts.

👉 No Cancellation

This is an immersive ritual theatre piece that fuses primal life philosophy with contemporary sound, light, and visual technology.

In the Basha Miao Village of Southwestern China, each time a new life is born, the family plants a tree for them. The tree grows alongside the child, and a century later, it becomes their coffin. A new sapling is then planted on the same spot, completing the ultimate covenant of life between human and tree.

Human and tree transcend the boundaries of species, forming the oldest and most sacred alliance of life between heaven and earth. Humanity becomes the tree, the tree becomes humanity—mirroring and growing together as one.

The production interweaves the humanity of the “Tree of Life” with the divinity of the Sanxingdui “Sacred Tree”, a symbol of communication between humans and gods in ancient rituals. Rooted in the Eastern “Three Powers” cosmology (Heaven, Earth, and Humanity), the work reinterprets the different layers of a tree—crown, roots, and trunk —as corresponding to these three dimensions. The tree stands as the central axis of the stage—both a tangible vessel of life and an abstract, cosmic channel connecting heaven and earth. All props emerge from it; all stories revolve around it.

Cosmic Tree , the tree replaces humanity in the triad, embodying a divine tree that directly links heaven and earth, while also serving as a metaphor: the tree is human, the human is the tree.

STORY STRUCTURE

Chapter One: Roots · Earth

The stage floor is covered with soft, loose soil. Dancers move barefoot through this terrain, while elements of acrobatics, modern dance, and other art forms unfold. Humans, animals, and plants intertwine like roots spreading deep within the earth.

Mythical creatures from the Classic of Mountains and Seas flicker in and out of sight. Drumbeats echo the heartbeat of the land, and ancient songs resonate among the roots. This is the source of life, the repository of memory—the beginning and end of all stories. Here, new life is born.

Chapter Two: Trunk · Humanity

"Adulthood" unfolds through taut, physical language—an epic of life standing tall like the tree trunk.At times, they are humanity itself—portraying the migration and settlement of tribes, the dynamics between pairs and within the collective, the positive and the negative, protection and confrontation(where broken branches turn to blades, igniting inner wars).At times, they become the tree—emulating the posture of its growth: how life takes root in the earth, stretches upward,and reaches toward the bounds of Heaven.

Chapter Three: Canopy · Heaven

Above the canopy lies the dwelling place of deities.

Through the use of stilts, masks, Nuoxi opera, and imagery of colossal beings, the sun, and totems, the work conjures a mythic realm as imagined by the ancients—where ancestral spirits whisper, ethereal spirits drift, and solar brilliance reigns.

Immersive sound, light, and visual effects further amplify the performance, echoing the sacred rites through which the ancient Shu priests communicated Heaven and Earth.

Chapter Four: The Cosmic Tree

Roots, trunk, and canopy merge into one—reaching for the heavens while rooted in the earth.

This is the form of the tree, and the most majestic ode to human character.

CREATOR INTRODUCTION

Choreographer & Director | Da Zhu (Zhu Fengwei)
• Contestant on Dance Smash (Season 1)
• GoldAward (Modern Dance), 12th Chinese Dance "Lotus Award"
• Third Prize Winner, 36th Hannover International Choreography Competition
• Silver Award (Young Choreographers), 16th Seoul International Dance Competition
• Performer at China Central Television Spring Festival Gala & Henan Spring Festival Gala
• Supported Creator, 3rd Shenzhen Talent Program
• Representative Works: Portrait, A Play, 25m² Rhapsody

Career Highlights
• Resident Dancer at Beijing Modern Dance Company (2014–2017)
Performed in:
Twenty-Four Solar Terms: Twelve Voices Among Flowers
Rain at Night: A Wish
October: Rite of Spring
Twelve: Zodiac
Toured to Germany, Canada, Egypt, Croatia, and others.
• Independent Dancer (2017)
Performed in Gong Zhonghui's The Pavilion
• Collaborated with artists including Yang Liping, Shen Wei, Tim Yip, and He Xuntian
• Lead roles in dance dramas:
Rite of Spring
Pingtan Imagery
Under Siege
Toured internationally to Sadler's Wells (London), Brisbane Festival, Melbourne Festival, and other major venues.

Artistic Director | Yang Liping
Renowned dance artist, Vice President of the China Dancers Association, National First-Class Actress, and recipient of the State Council's Special Government Allowance. She was the first mainland Chinese dancer to perform in Taiwan.

In 1971, she joined the Xishuangbanna Song and Dance Ensemble, later transferring to the China National Ethnic Song and Dance Ensemble, where she gained fame for her "Peacock Dance." Her solo piece Spirit of the Peacock won the Gold Prize for 20th Century Chinese Dance Classics.

As the choreographer and lead performer of the large-scale original song and dance production Dynamic Yunnan, she received multiple honors at the 4th Chinese Dance Lotus Awards, including the Gold Prize for Dance Poetry, Best Leading Actress, Best Choreographer, Best Costume Design, and Outstanding Performance Award. She continued her success with The Echo of Yunnan, a sister production to Dynamic Yunnan, and became the first Chinese dancer to hold a personal dance recital.

Her additional accolades include the Highest Commendation Award at the Osaka International Arts Festival (Japan), Phoenix Satellite Television's "Chinese Influencing the World" Award, and the inaugural Chinese Arts and Literature Award.

Music | TAN Dun
Tan Dun, UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador, graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Columbia University in New York. He currently serves as the Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music in the United States and Honorary Principal Conductor of the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra.

Tan Dun has consistently pursued the mission of promoting world peace and environmental sustainability through music. His art and compositions have left an indelible impact globally, earning him some of the world's most prestigious artistic awards. These include:
• Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award, Venice Biennale
• Grammy Award
• Academy Award (Oscar)
• Bach Prize of Germany
• Shostakovich Award of Russia
• Grawemeyer Award (USA)
• Lifetime Achievement Award, 50th Istanbul International Music Festival
As a visionary and innovative Chinese composer, Tan Dun has created numerous internationally acclaimed works, such as:
• Symphonic Works: Buddha Passion
• Organic Music Series: Water Music, Paper Music, Earth Music
• Percussion Concerto: Tears of Nature
• Multimedia Concertos: Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women, The Map
• Internet Symphony: Hero
• Operas: The First Emperor, Marco Polo, Nine Songs, Water Passion: After St. Matthew
• Film Music (Martial Arts Trilogy): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, The Banquet
• Over 100additional works including violin, cello, and piano concertos, as well as folk music compositions.
Tan Dun was also commissioned to compose music for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, and the 2016 Shanghai Disneyland opening ceremony. The globally broadcast opening concert attracted 65 million views, setting a new world record for concert broadcasts and achieving international success.
In 2019, he was invited to serve as a Global Celebration Ambassador for the Beethoven 250th Anniversary.

CREATIVE TEAM
Director: Da Zhu (ZHU Fengwei)
Artistic Advisor: YANG Liping
Dance Director: GAO Chengming
Music: TANDun
Stage Art Advisor: AOLI(LI Ao)
Stage Designer: ZHOU Yiyang
Costume Designer: Viola
Costume Designer Execution: ZHANG Shumai
Multimedia Design Executives: PUZAOSI- Maiqiu, HIHI
Lighting Designer: ZHAO Jingyu
Makeup & Styling Director: SUN Xiaohong
Makeup Designer: GONG Guanting
Music Executive: FAN Xinghong
Associate Choreographer: GONG Zhonghui
Stage Manager: SUN Junya
Dramaturg: Yeesha
Chief Producers: He Shuting, Diankun Group
Presenters: FAN Wensheng, FAN Wenkang, Da Zhu (ZHU Fengwei)
Graphic Designer: Fengfeng
Costume Production: OUYANG Jiahui — Yunnan Wuyun Garments Co., Ltd.
Marketing & Publicity Directors: FAN Wenkang, FAN Wensheng
Promotional Video: LI Zhipeng
Post-production: Ruhe Photography