Cultural Olympiad:

‘The Tree of Light’ was one of four nationwide ‘Community Celebrations’ projects funded by Legacy Trust UK and Arts Council England and led by a newly formed partnership made up of: CIAO!, Henley Festival, Oxford Inspires and Windsor Festival.

Two years in the making, it was an extraordinary large-scale explosion of music, light, dance, and theatre. Artistic Director, Charlie Morrissey, merged ancient skills of Japanese sword dancing and contemporary flocking techniques to choreograph 1,200 young dance participants from 40 community and school groups from across the Thames Valley. The young dancers were put through their paces by 50 dance apprentices in 480 creative workshops. Additional school workshops were carried out by Oxford University who worked on the biodiversity, sustainability and science element of the project.

A new score was created by award-winning composer Orlando Gough for a community choir of 500, an eclectic band including steel pan and an Alp Horn and 10 disabled young people working with especially designed ‘sound beams’. The soundtrack ranged from choral melodies to monkey chants!

At the centre of the performance was an awesome 15m-high dystopian recreation of an organic tree designed by Block 9. It encased 50 cycling clones who through pedalling, provided all the power for the performance. The 50 cyclists were joined by another 190 volunteers to make the performances a success.