Our Last Tree is a new full-length contemporary dance and music work by Nelipot Collective, currently in advanced creative development and scheduled to premiere in September 2026.
Set in a near dystopian future, the work imagines the last of the forest giants standing here in lutruwita/Tasmania. Through a non-linear structure, the piece layers time, holding collapse, memory, and possibility in the same space. It resists a simple cause-and-effect narrative, moving instead between future consequence and present choice.
At its centre is the tree itself, situated within the Tasmanian landscape and imagined as witness, ancestor, and living record. It stands as evidence of adaptation across centuries, holding shelter, renewal, and warning within the same form. The tree carries ecological memory and asks what remains when community fractures and extraction outweighs care.
Grounded in place and informed by the realities of climate change in the Anthropocene, Our Last Tree explores environmental loss alongside the breakdown and potential rebuilding of collective responsibility.
Artistic Approach
Responsive, relational movement language
The choreography is ensemble-based and physically rigorous, shaped through ongoing dialogue between dancers and musicians. Movement develops in close relationship to the imagined presence of the tree and the evolving sonic environment. Physical motifs circulate through the ensemble, accumulating weight, dispersing, and reforming in shifting configurations that reflect interdependence under pressure.
Integrated original music and sonic environment
Music operates as structural partner rather than accompaniment. Composed and performed elements evolve in direct dialogue with the choreography, shaping rhythm, atmosphere, and momentum. The sonic world draws from environmental textures and human interference, reinforcing the work’s ecological grounding.
Place-based ecological storytelling
Developed in response to the landscapes of lutruwita/Tasmania, the work situates global climate realities within local experience. The forest giant is both specific to place and resonant beyond it, inviting audiences to consider their own relationship to land, resource, and responsibility.
Creative development
Our Last Tree evolved from an earlier research phase titled Raze Rays Raise, which explored the sustainability triad of individuals, communities, and environment. That investigation formed the conceptual foundation for the current work.
The project is now in its next phase of development, refining dramaturgy, deepening choreographic material, and strengthening the integration of movement and music in preparation for its September 2026 premiere.
During early development, we collaborated with Sam from Equinox Dance + Film to create a short film responding to the work in progress.
