How Forests Dream in This Summer - An Immersive Dance Performance at Fou Gallery

《寻梦森林》，降临在这个夏天—沉浸式舞蹈演出

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New York City is a place where countless stories happen all the time. In Brooklyn, New York, quietly hidden in a brownstone built in 1905, the gallery named "Fou" has elegant wooden architectural details and an extensive art collection. Ever since the advent of spring and summer, the greenery in the backyard has gradually covered the ground and windows. Time passes and flowers return every spring, but the past memories never recur. Birth, death, love, hate, reunion, separation, stories unceasingly unfold here.

From the end of August to the beginning of September in 2021, this beautiful place will become an immersive stage for the interactive dance performance How Forests Dream. The theatre is based on a true story that happened here: after the sudden death of the husband, the wife passed through darkness as if she walked among thorn bushes. She never loses her longing for the glimmer of hope, and finally managed to calm her broken heart. Following the journey of the solo dancer, the audience will travel around the border of life and death. Traversing truth and illusion, they will immerse themselves into unique and mysterious dreams, and obtain a profound and memorable experience. Everyone will realize that there are always so many thrilling epic stories happening in places where we do not know. In How Forests Dream, several dreams are scattered all over the space of Fou Gallery, complete or shattered, waiting for the audience to explore. Every audience will be assigned with a unique vintage style fascinator. The hats and the letters hanging in Fou Gallery will be the clues and keys to the dreams. The performance will create a subconscious world through dreaming and meditating, full of fantasies and unknowns. With the fascinators as lanterns in their hands, the audience will walk through this bizarre misty forest together.

Due to the peculiarities of the performance, we can only accommodate 12 people per show. From August 26th to 29th and September 9th to 12th, there will be one performance per day. The audience will not be spectators as in traditional dramas, but participators as a part of the story. They will join the adventure together with the  dancer during the performance. We hope this journey across life and death in the forest of dreams will help everyone see their inner self more clearly. Life is like a dream. We hope everyone can truly find their own path of self-healing.

纽约是时刻都发生着无数故事的城市。静静藏身于纽约布鲁克林一栋1905年的砖石小楼中，名为“否”的画廊有着充满优雅气息的木质建筑细节，与琳琅满目的艺术收藏。随着春夏来临，后院的绿色渐渐覆住了地面与窗口。时光往复，昨日记忆却不能复返。生老病死、爱恨聚散，辗转不休，在此上演。

2021年8月底至9月初，这座桃源般的画廊将成为一座沉浸式舞台，上演八场互动式演出《寻梦森林》。戏剧的故事源自曾经发生于此地的真实故事，爱人突然离世，妻子如在黑暗的荆棘丛中一般艰难向光而行，最终将所有撕心裂肺归于平静。跟随着独舞者的旅程，观众将与她一起徘徊于生与死、真与幻的交界，沉入一个个独一无二的梦境，度过一段深刻而震撼的时光。相信每个人都将深深感受到，在我们未知之处，总是有如此之多惊心动魄的戏剧般的故事正在发生。《寻梦森林》在静谧的否画廊中散落着十数场破碎或完整的梦境，等待观众探寻。梦的线索与钥匙是分配到每位观众手中的一顶独特的礼帽，以及空间中垂挂下的信件。这是由梦境与冥想所引导的潜意识的世界，既有着引人入胜的绮丽奇谭，又充斥着未知的危险。观众们将以礼帽作为手中的提灯，一起穿越这片光怪陆离的迷雾森林。

因演出的特殊性，每场只能限制12名观众参加。8月26日至29日与9月9日至12日，每日将举办一场演出。来到演出的观众并非传统戏剧中的旁观者角色，而是故事的一部分，是共同冒险的伙伴。我们希望这场在梦境之森中跨越生死的旅程能够让每个人都更清晰地看见挣扎于世的内心自我。人生如梦幻泡影，愿每个人都真正寻到属于自己的疗愈之路。

Words from the production team:

How Forests Dream is a non-profit performance. It is organized by a group of young creative professionals in New York, who have contributed their time and energy to realize this dance theatre that aims to bring healing power to the audiences. Because of the peculiarities of the performance, we can only accommodate 12 people per show. Therefore, we are launching this crowdfunding campaign on Go Fund Me, hoping to make the dream come true through everyone's efforts.  With sufficient funds raised, we’ll open the entire performance to the public for free.

Click here to support How Forests Dream

From the Producer Echo He:

How Forests Dream was first conceived on the anniversary of my husband's sudden death, also the peak of COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. After Eugene’s sudden death, I had a lot of wild dreams. I try to understand the meaning of life and death through these dreams. In the dreams I witnessed the whole process of recovery from bereavement. Many dreams have crossed the boundaries of time and space, reappeared in reality, and connected the past, the present, and the future. Dreams have also allowed me to further think about the meaning of life, the world after death and the existence beyond the visible world. After the sudden breakout of COVID-19, pandemic, violence, discrimination and death, miserable stories in the news have become part of our new normal. Regardless of all the sufferings in the human world, nature repeats its endless circle. In May 2020, I suddenly suffered from unbearable nerve pain. In great pain, I began to explore different esoteric healing methods and reconnect with nature. After I returned back to studio practice, I sought to use hat making as a way to describe the scenes I saw in dreams and meditations. I wish these fascinators could be presented through a dance theatre where visual and texts, body and space, art and nature are intertwined. Through the unique interactions, the audience will be able to reflect on the daily patterns of our attachment and desire, and experience a glimpse of awakening in the midst of a dream.

From the Director Zi Ye:

I have always been interested in the performances that  break the boundaries  between the regular stages and the audiences. When I first visited Fou Gallery, I found that this space was so unique .  It has a special energy field, which can bring people into its own world as soon as they enter it, and that quality makes this space a perfect immersive theater. For people who visit here for the first time, they will find many details in this space that seem to be deliberately laid out. For instance, the creaking noises made by people going up and down the stairs in this old brownstone building  have become the most precious sound effects of this performance. And that’s one of the most important reasons why I wanted to create an immersive dance performance here. Another thing that I was thinking most frequently during the creating process is that our body helps us store our emotions subconsciously, and dreams help us express those feelings. Through this work, I want to shed light on the subtle relationship between our body and our memories, and the state of struggle in this relationship for the most of the time. I hope this performance can serve as an exit for those emotional memories that are holding you back even momentarily, or it can evoke those memories sealed in your bodies, and help you make peace with them in the days to come.

演出团队想对您说：

《寻梦森林》是一部非盈利公益演出，制作团队是一个临时组织在一起的剧团，演职人员都是在纽约的年轻华裔创意工作者，贡献自己的时间和精力来完成这个希望带来治愈能量的项目。演出每场仅能容纳12名观众，募集到足够资金将对公众免费开放。

支持演出请通过GoFundMe捐款：https://www.gofundme.com/f/immersive-dance-performance-how-forests-dream

主创何雨手记：

《寻梦森林》在我先生去世一周年，亦是新冠疫情顶峰之际开始酝酿。他突然去世后，我做了各式各样的梦。死亡和梦境如此相似。这些梦境的变化见证了我从丧亲之痛中慢慢疗愈的整个过程。很多梦穿越了时间和空间的界限，在现实中重现，并联结起过去、现在、未来，让我更进一步地思考人生意义，死后世界，能量语言，和肉眼所见世界以外更大的存在。一周年祭日时我的身体突然爆发难以承受的神经疼痛。之后我的身体慢慢恢复，重新回归创作古董帽，开始有了非常不同的感受。我希望这些礼帽不是静止的呈现，而是与肢体语言结合，与观众对话，创造出一个文字与视觉，肢体与空间，自然与艺术交织在一起的剧场。我们希望与观众一起借此观看和冥想对自我和尘世欲望的执著，与众生万物一同体验这场仪式般的旅程，一瞥人生如梦如幻的本质。

导演叶子手记：

打破常规舞台与观众界限的演出是我一直以来非常感兴趣的研究方向。初到否画廊时，只觉得这个空间实在是太特别了。我觉得这个空间本身就有一种特殊的能量场，能在进入这里的一瞬间就把人带入到它的情境里，简直就是一个完美的沈浸式剧场。这里有太多在初次造访的人看来像是精心布置过的细节，在这幢老房子里上下楼梯时发出的吱呀声，最后都成了这个演出格外珍贵的音效。此外，我们的身体在自我毫无察觉的状态下替我们存储了多少的情绪记忆，而梦境是我们的潜意识频繁借助的记忆的出口。我想表达我们的身体与记忆之间微妙的关系，以及这种关系中大部分时候的挣扎的状态。我希望它能在哪怕某一个瞬间成为一种出口的可能，抑或只是能唤起身体里被封存的某个情绪记忆，在接下来的日子里，为它们找到安身之所。

Selected Fascinators in the Performance | 一些礼帽和故事：

More Stories of the fascinators can be found HERE

Music:

November; written by Max Richter; performed by BBC Philharmonic Orchestra & Rumon Gamba.

In the Dark Woods; composed & arranged by Akira Kosemura.

Letter from a Distance; composed & arranged by Akira Kosemura.