The illuminated night show Symbiosis forms part of Canberra's Enlighten Festival and has been crafted by the Australian Dance Party to include dance, poetry, light and sound as attendees are led through the gardens.

The showcase will have 13 performers spread along the walkways, who each have the task of creating a new experience for those involved.

Adventure, beauty and an awakening of senses is what you can expect from the Botanic Garden's illuminated night show 'Symbiosis', according to event organisers.

"Expect an adventure. Expect to feel open and be immersed in the beautiful surrounds of the gardens and to be surprised by the performance that pops up around you," Australian Dance Party founder and leader, Alison Plevey said.

"Hopefully it will be a really special, memorable performance where your eyes, your ears, your smells and your physical body is really awakened to the beauty and awe of nature as well as performance we've created within it," she said.

"We are really exploring this idea of symbiotic relationships - that means how two organisms live together. We are looking at how are we, as humans, are living with the natural world and that's a really important question at the moment for our ecological future."

The Enlighten Festival started on Friday, with thousands of Canberrans expected to attend vibrant pop-ups all over the city.

The festival will operate differently to previous years due to COVID-19 health restrictions, with many events being held in enclosed areas with limited capacity. Registrations will be required at all events.

Buildings in the Parliamentary zone will be lit up. Visitors can attend luminous beer gardens and eateries along the lake and there will also be a special performance at the gardens.

The dance company, which was founded in 2016, uses contemporary dance to educate as well as entertain.

"I tend to think about the themes and the concepts, that we want to communicate as a company, that works with change and activism," Ms Plevey said.

"We try to make dance work as communicating something urgent and important. It's a combination of the concepts and themes and then the site being a part of how we tell that story."

The performers will use the location to help illustrate their message, says poet Melinda Smith.

"The dance party chose this location, because if you think about the rainforest, it's an ecosystem that's incredibly important to the way the whole earth functions. Without the rainforest doing their job, as places to store carbon, as great big oxygen producers and as producers of incredibly rare plants and resources, we can't survive, so our relationship with the rainforest is a symbiotic one. And now, unfortunately, they need us to protect them, too," Ms Smith said.

Ms Smith, along with Ryan Stone, co-wrote poems that will be showcased throughout the performance which aim to illustrate the symbiotic relationship between human's and the environment.

"The performance is a kind of a message to the human listeners to take account of what is already happening and how much benefit you're already getting from living systems, particularly forests," Ms Smith said.

Other forms of relationships including parasitic relationships, and mutualism are also explored throughout the performance.

The event will run over 12 sessions, from Friday, March 5, to Sunday, March 12.

"People can choose from a twilight session or a nighttime lit performance and both of them are going to be a different experience," Ms Plevey said.

"It's a good date night because it's an adventure that you go on together and even if you hate it, you'll have really quite a lot to talk about. Plus there's a bar at the end," Ms Smith said with a laugh.

Tickets are available to purchase via the Enlighten website

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