Some performances ask you to watch. The Forest asks you to wander.
Lucy Guerin’s hallucinatory dance work leads audiences into a place that feels both ancient and immediate, exploring humanity’s enduring relationship with forests, myth and the natural world. The premise sounds deceptively simple, but what unfolds is something far more immersive: a sensory journey through the tangled roots of memory, imagination and instinct.
The visual language is extraordinary. Ethereal projections and vivid imagery blur the boundaries between stagecraft and dreamscape, creating a world that feels alive and constantly shifting. At times the performers move with startling velocity, bodies darting through space like startled wildlife or wind ripping through a canopy. Then, just as suddenly, the work slows into something meditative, inviting the audience into a state that feels remarkably close to Shinrin-yoku, the Japanese practice of forest bathing.
That oscillation becomes the work’s greatest strength. One moment you’re caught in a rush of movement and sensory overload, the next you’re suspended in stillness, listening to the imagined crunch of soil beneath your feet and the whisper of unseen life beyond the edge of the light. The result is a performance with its own unique cadence, never settling into a predictable rhythm.
What lingers most is the feeling of being transported somewhere beyond the theatre. The Forest taps into something primal: our fascination with woods as places of mystery, transformation and uncertainty. It evokes folklore, dreams and eco-anxiety without becoming heavy-handed, allowing images and movement to do the storytelling.
As part of RISING’s inaugural Australian Dance Biennale, The Forest demonstrates how contemporary dance can be both intellectually rich and emotionally intuitive. It is a work that doesn’t simply depict nature. It immerses you within it, leaving you feeling as though you’ve emerged from a long walk through a strange and beautiful wilderness, carrying fragments of it home with you.
The Forest runs until 7 June 2026.
Tickets can be found here.
