Dancing Tree Studio
In-House Production
In Development
Dancing Tree
A Feature Film • A Theatrical Musical • A Journey of Becoming
A Story of Longing, Belonging, and Becoming
Some stories are written. Some stories are lived. Dancing Tree began not with an idea, but with a longing. For more than a decade, Dancing Tree has grown from one artist's search for a fuller life, shaped by lived experience across Toronto and Buenos Aires—through dance, theatre, cinema, friendship, and discovery.
AWARD-WINNING TEASER (2023)
Writer • Director • Producer : June Wang
Original Teaser Cast
June Wang
David Alejandro Palo
Carlos Rivarola
Veronica Alvarenga
Natacha Poberaj
Filmed independently during a year of tango immersion in Buenos Aires, this award-winning three-minute teaser became the first cinematic expression of Dancing Tree. The production brought together Argentine actors, tango artists, and local collaborators around a shared artistic vision. Created in just five days with limited resources, it demonstrates how storytelling can transcend language, culture, and circumstance.
Rather than telling the entire story, the teaser captures its heartbeat—a first glimpse into a world where tango, myth, nature, and human transformation converge. Through music, movement, and poetic imagery, it introduces the emotional language, visual poetry, and cross-cultural spirit that continue to shape the feature film today. More than a proof of concept, it marked the beginning of an original cinematic world still unfolding.
Synopsis
April Lin, a Chinese Canadian anthropologist searching for belonging, proposes a revolutionary theory inspired by the ancient wisdom of trees. Her ideas challenge the foundations of academia and bring her into conflict with Lewis Bores, a renowned scholar whose intellectual certainty conceals his own loneliness and longing for connection. Their encounter draws them into the unexpected world of Argentine tango, where movement becomes another way of knowing, and love becomes a catalyst for transformation rather than certainty.
Journeying between the legendary Women's Kingdom of Yunnan, Toronto, and Buenos Aires, April discovers that immigration is more than crossing borders—it is learning to live between cultures, languages, memories, and identities while searching for a place to call home. As tango, friendship, love, and loss gradually dissolve the boundaries between body and mind, she begins to realize that identity is not something to be defined, but something to be embodied. Through the embrace of tango, April reconnects not only with herself and with others, but also with the rhythms of the natural world and a deeper sense of belonging that transcends nationality, culture, and place.
Blending cinema, dance, theatre, music, and poetic visual storytelling, Dancing Tree is a story of longing, belonging, and becoming. It explores our universal desire to belong—to one another, to nature, and to something greater than ourselves—reminding us that the deepest truths cannot simply be understood; they must be lived.
Dancing Tree -- Major Characters
April Lin — Anthropologist PhD. Dreamer. Seeker -- The Bridge Between Worlds
A Chinese Canadian anthropologist driven by an unshakable curiosity, April challenges the foundations of modern civilization with a revolutionary theory inspired by the wisdom of trees. Her journey between East and West, science and intuition, ultimately reveals that the deepest truths are not explained—they are embodied.
Lewis Bores — Scholar. Rationalist. Seeker -- The Modern Mind
Canada's most celebrated anthropologist, Lewis has devoted his life to understanding humanity through reason. Beneath his intellectual brilliance is a man who has mistaken certainty for safety, carrying grief where love once lived. Through April, tango, and his long-awaited encounter with his estranged father, Lewis discovers that the deepest truths cannot be proven. They must be lived. His journey is not from science to mysticism, but from certainty to openness—from a life governed by the mind to one transformed by the heart.
Gaia Bores — Former tango queen. Immigrant. Mother -- The Keeper of Memory
Gaia carries the emotional memory of migration, sacrifice, love, and survival. She represents the generations who crossed oceans and borders in search of a better life. She represents cultural memory itself.
Bruno Castillo — Maestro. Survivor. Guide -- The Soul of Tango
Forged by the streets, hardships, and contradictions of Buenos Aires, Bruno carries the lived wisdom of tango. He has known passion and regret, loyalty and betrayal, loss and forgiveness. Tango became both his refuge and his teacher. Through dance, he reveals a simple truth: human beings are imperfect, yet still worthy of love, dignity, and redemption. Bruno embodies the soul of tango—resilient, vulnerable, flawed, and profoundly alive.
Eve Romani — Physician. Healer. Truth Teller -- The Voice of Modern Feminine Wisdom
Grounded in science yet deeply attentive to human experience, Eve bridges the worlds of medicine, intuition, body awareness, and emotional truth. She represents an emerging model of feminine leadership—one that values knowledge without abandoning compassion, and strength without sacrificing vulnerability. Her presence challenges outdated assumptions about power, success, and what it means to heal.
Maya Cardinal — Indigenous musician. Survivor. Creator -- The Voice of the Land
Carrying both ancestral memory and inherited wounds, Maya transforms pain into art. Her journey embodies resilience, healing, and the enduring spirit of Indigenous peoples whose stories remain deeply rooted in the land. Through music, she gives voice to what history tried to silence.
The Interculturalism - Where Civilizations Meet
Canada's multiculturalism is the soil from which Dancing Tree grows. But the story reaches beyond coexistence. It imagines interculturalism — a living exchange in which cultures do not simply stand beside one another, but listen, respond, and transform through relationship.
At the heart of April's journey is a question both personal and civilizational: Can we learn from one another without losing ourselves?
Dancing Tree brings Chinese cultural heritage, Indigenous teachings, Argentine tango, and contemporary Canadian life into conversation — not to blend them into sameness, but to reveal how each tradition may illuminate the others.
In this world, difference is not a problem to solve. It is a source of wisdom. The film imagines Canada not only as a place where cultures meet, but as fertile ground where new forms of belonging can take root. Because perhaps the future of civilization does not belong to one culture alone. Perhaps it belongs to cultures learning how to grow together —each more fully itself because of the others.
The Creator
June Wang, Writer • Director • Producer, Toronto-based filmmaker, performer, dancer, and founder of Tree Knows Media Canada and Dancing Tree Studio. Her work bridges cinema, theatre, dance, and storytelling across cultures, exploring themes of identity, belonging, resilience, and human connection.
Her Vision
Why Dance?
The body never lies. It remembers what the mind forgets. It reveals what words conceal.
That is why dance became the heart of my artistic practice—not to illustrate a story, but to uncover truth.
I create work where movement becomes memory, presence becomes connection, and the stage becomes a place where we rediscover our most authentic selves.
That is why I dance.
For many years, I believed I was creating Dancing Tree
Over time, I realized Dancing Tree was creating me
Her Journey
🌱 2014 — A Seed of a Dream
A desire emerges: to create an original feature musical film.
That same year, I take my first tango class, unaware that it will eventually transform not only the project, but my life.
🌿 2015 — Falling in Love
What begins as curiosity becomes passion.
For the first time, movement opens a doorway into a world beyond work, ambition, and achievement - a way of being fully alive, embracing the courage to follow what truly calls us.
🌾 2016 — The First Outline
The earliest outline of Dancing Tree is written.
A story begins to form around nature, femininity, memory, and belonging, many of its deepest questions remain unanswered.
🌳 2018 — The First Script
The first complete screenplay is finished.
The project now has roots, but like many living things, it is still searching for its true form.
💃 2019–2020 — Living the Dance
Something unexpected happens.
My love for tango begins to eclipse filmmaking. I study with legendary masters and immerse myself in the culture, community, and philosophy of the dance, I almost forget my project altogether. Perhaps this is exactly what needed to happen. Instead of researching tango, I begin living it.
🎞️ 2020–2023 — Years of Refinement
During the pandemic, I create A Tango with Chino Perico—a small film made purely out of love for a beloved maestro and the tango community. Through Chino's life and artistry, I gain a deeper understanding of tango's spirit, humanity, and enduring values—lessons that quietly find their way into Dancing Tree. Meanwhile, the screenplay continues to evolve through multiple drafts, revisions, and discoveries. The story grows slowly, strengthen its roots.
🌸 2023 — First Blossoming
Dancing Tree takes its first public step.
During a year of artistic immersion in Buenos Aires, I independently bring together local actors, tango artists, and collaborators to create the first cinematic expression of Dancing Tree Teaser. Completed in just five days with modest resources, the award-winning teaser demonstrates not the scale of the production, but the power of a shared artistic vision. It becomes the first step toward the feature film and stage musical now in development.
🇦🇷 2024–2025 — Deepening the Roots
I return to Buenos Aires, not as a visitor, but once again as a student of life.
While making When Figs Ripen, I witness in Nito and Elba a way of loving, enduring, and growing old together that profoundly shapes Dancing Tree. The characters become clearer, the relationships deeper, and the story more mature, more human, and more true.
🌲 2026 — From Vision to Reality
After more than a decade of growth, Dancing Tree enters a new chapter.
The original vision is now unfolding into two artistic forms - a feature film and a stage musical - while growing into Dancing Tree Studio and the Tree Family: a creative lab, an artistic home, and a growing community.
Looking back, I realize Dancing Tree was never only about telling one story. It was about planting seeds - of creativity, connection, and hope. Perhaps that is the true mission of Dancing Tree: not standing alone, but growing a forest.
If you want to dance and love trees
Join me
Dancing Tree is Growing
After more than a decade of development, Dancing Tree is entering its production chapter.
The feature film and musical-theatre project are currently advancing through fundraising, partnership development, casting, artistic collaboration, and production planning.
We welcome conversations with individuals and organizations who feel inspired by the project's vision.
Investors & Producers
Support the development of an original international musical property with feature film, theatrical, educational, and touring potential.
Seeking:
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Executive Producers
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Investors
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Co-Producers
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Production Partners
Sponsors & Organizations
Align your brand or organization with a project that celebrates creativity, cultural exchange, community, and human connection.
Seeking:
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Corporate Sponsors
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Foundations
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Cultural Institutions
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Festival Partners
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Presenting Partners
Artists
We're building a growing creative community around the project.
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Performers
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Actors
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Dancers
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Singers
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Musicians
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Creative Team
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Choreographers
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Writers & Dramaturgs
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Composers & Arrangers
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Directors
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Designers
Film & Production
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Cinematographers
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Editors
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Sound Designers
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Production Designers
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Costume Designers
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Creative Producers
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Production Assistants
Volunteers & Supporters
Not everyone joins through funding or performance.
Some join through enthusiasm, skills, friendship, and belief in the vision.
Every tree grows through many hands and hearts.
Current Priorities
As Dancing Tree enters its production chapter, we are currently focused on:
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Fundraising & Investment
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Production Partnerships
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Creative Team Expansion
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Casting & Talent Discovery
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Festival & Presentation Opportunities
