Pono Presents the Tree Project: Benefit Picnic, Music, and Performance

Pono invites you to a fundraising show and picnic featuring The Tree Project climbers and musicians. Join us under the Pine Grove in Prospect Park as the climbers embrace trees as playmates, questions, and living connections.

The climbers, a group of acrobats and dancers, use their diverse training to create spontaneous dances in the trees as musicians play and audience members join in. Children and adults alike are invited to make music and art inspired by the dance, experience tree climbing with a safety spotter, or watch while enjoying a healthy picnic and medley of music.

Healthy lunch, after-show live music with Patrick Metzger and Amie Rose, and Art activity included.

Tree Project started with a wink and a parade. Mandy Hackman, an acrobat, and Patrick Metzger, a musician, got together to jam in a tree during a spring festival in 2009 - and that's when they realized how amazing trees are. How they invite you to think about the big questions and the little ones, have fun, make art, and connect with other people. The performers include Larissa Sheldon, Elaine Ruschetta, Hadar Ahuvia, Kate Kernochan,  and Ilona Bito. Some of them just returned from the summer tour collaborating with artists in  Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Chatanooga, New Orleans, and Austin, TX.  Aside from Tree Project, Patrick recently collaborated with Amie Rose Anderson and the ECC Singers to create an album of children's music titled Playing Outside, and Amie and Patrick will be sharing some of these songs once more at the jamboree. Patrick Metzger and Ilona Bito have both taught at Pono since 2011. 

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