The World Tree by choreographer Birutė Banevičiūtė is a sensory-friendly movement performance for toddlers, giving them the freedom to explore movement, body language and objects on stage together with the actors. The actors' costumes and set details, which change colour and shape, encourage babies to move and experience the joy of discovery. And for adults, it is an extraordinary opportunity to see their little ones in a completely different - unusual - artistic environment that awakens children's imagination and develops creativity. The performance is wordless, so movement becomes a universal language.
Do you think that babies don't need theatre because they don't understand anything? B. Banevičiūtė proposes to take a closer look at the possibilities of perception and expression of toddlers, to abandon stereotypical attitudes, and to change the attitude towards the youngest members of society.
The dramaturgy of the performance by B. Banevičiūtė constructs the play based on the joint action of the actors and the children-viewers, and the idea of the play is based on the image of the world tree found in the mythology of many nations, whose roots represent the past and the underworld, the trunk - the present and the earthly existence, and the branches - the future and the sky. In Lithuanian mythology, the bottom of the tree is inhabited by snakes, the trunk by people and bees, and the branches by birds. On stage, during the performance, the actors creatively transform abstract objects of different shapes and textures into the mythological attributes of the world's tree, leaving space for the little ones to interpret the proposed ideas.
"There is no one right answer as to what the babies should understand and react to during the performance, all of their reactions are appropriate and acceptable, so moms and dads can relax and not get upset if their baby does something different than the people around them," the choreographer suggests. According to B. Banevičiūtė, art is special because it allows the audience to think in their own way, to feel in their own way and to enjoy it.
