Performance - News and events

Events | Featured projects | Call for entries | Announcements

Events

Bangarra Dance Company, Fire – A Retrospective - Canberra

20–21 November 2009

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Australia Indigenous dance company the Bangarra Dance Theatre, artistic director Stephen Page has created this retrospective work features the most memorable elements of the company's repertoire. Various locations.

Australasian World Music Expo 2009 - Melbourne

19–21 November 2009

The Australasian World Music Expo brings together musicians, industry representatives and festival audiences from across Australia and around the globe for three days of the finest Indigenous, roots and world music from the Australasian region. The primary emphasis of the event is to provide a platform to foster stronger relationships with music industry associates both nationally and from around the globe that are specifically interested in product from this region. Various locations.

Dance Dialects09 - Perth

19–21 November 2009

Dance Dialects celebrates contemporary dance by West Australian artists from culturally diverse backgrounds with new choreographic works by Rakini Devi, Sete Tele, Daniel Daw with Maria Lisa Hill and The Chung Wah Dancers with Shona Erskine. Perth Town Hall.

Tea and music: beautiful, beautiful Queensland - Brisbane

24 November 2009

In a celebration of Queensland through song, three soloists sing songs dating from Australian Federation to Queensland's 100th anniversary in 1959. Many of these historical songs are held in the State Library's Music Collection. The repertoire includes the songs When the Jacaranda Blooms, I've set sail for Innisfail, Down on the Sands at Emu Park, I met her Monday on Thursday Island, and Life is great in the Sunshine State. State Library of Queensland.

Western Edge Youth Arts, Frolic - Melbourne

20–21, 27–28 November 2009

Western Edge Youth Arts is a non-profit organisation established to provide positive performance experiences to young people from Melbourne's western suburbs. Frolic fuses live performance and such multimedia elements as animated video projection, soundscape and a habitable installation. It operates as an adventure trail through sections of a party, journeying around the world. Signal Youth Arts Centre, North Bank.

13th Queenscliff Music Festival - Queenscliff, Victoria

27–28 November 2009

The Queenscliff Music Festival's 2009 program features over 200 performances from across Australia and around the world, with cross-generational music played across venues including circus marquees, Victorian ballrooms, church spaces, and the street. Various locations.

Nick Cave – the Exhibition - Canberra

15 August – 29 November 2009

Go behind the music and into the imagination of iconic Australian musician, songwriter and author Nick Cave. Discover his unique vision through original lyrics, notebooks, works of art, photographs and books. National Library of Australia.

Perth Theatre Company, An Oak Tree - Perth

12 November – 5 December 2009

A comic play by Tim Crouch about suggestion and the power of the mind, about art and loss, is set in a stage hypnotist's act, and performed by two actors. The actor playing the hypnotist will never have seen or read a word of the play ... until he is in it. He will not rehearse with any of the guest performers or spend time with them before the performance. His Majesty's Theatre.

National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA): 2009 Circus Showcase - Melbourne

3–12 December 2009

Graduating students from NICA step into the spotlight to perform their finely-honed solo acts that are a culmination of three years of intensive circus training and tertiary study. Three years ago they were just 15 spritely and peculiarly bendy young people. In December they will emerge as the next generation of NICA's Bachelor of Circus Arts graduates and tomorrow's circus stars.  NICA National Circus Centre, Green Street, Prahran.

Australian Ballet 2009 Season

January – December 2009

With the debut of the famed Ballets Russes in Paris in 1909, a treasure trove of Eastern European fables and exotica came to the West. Firebird and other legends is three spellbinding Ballets Russes works to mark the centenary of their explosive debut. This performance marks the beginning of the Australian Ballet 2009 season.

11th annual Summersong Music Camp - Lennox Head, New South Wales

15–22 January 2010

This intensive music holiday camp for ages 17+ is a career catalyst and music community creator. Daily classes include two levels of songwriting, vocal explorations, a cappella, guitar, guitar accompaniment for songwriters, band lab, jamming, african dance, african percussion and more. Evening activities include concerts, jams, parties, games, and song circles. Participants live on or off site. Two levels of Partial Youth Scholarships are available. Lake Ainsworth Sport & Rec Centre.

QPAC Presents: Frocking up: the Art of the Costume Maker - Brisbane

22 September 2009 – 6 February 2010

Drawing on theatre, opera, and dance costumes, as well as design sketches from the QPAC Museum Collection, Frocking Up features garments created for many different performance styles. The exhibition looks at the special requirements that the designer and costume maker need to consider when working with the performer.

Mamma Mia! (musical) - touring Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane

23 October 2009 – 19 September 2010

This is the tenth anniversary of this musical, which incorporates 22 of ABBA's hits including Dancing Queen, I Have a Dream and Voulez-Vous. A daughter's quest to discover the identity of her father brings three men from her mother's past back to the Greek island they visited 20 years before. Various locations.

Featured projects

There are currently no featured projects.

Call for entries

Eltham Little Theatre Ten Minute Quickie Play Competition - national

Entries by 13 December 2009

This competition is open to writers 16 years and over. $1,500 prizes available for scripts which are approximately ten minutes. Plays will be performed in May 2010 at Eltham Little Theatre.

Musica Viva's So You Think You Can Write music criticism competition - national

Various

Within 48 hours of attending the Jerusalem Quartet & Zvi Plesser concert in your city, enter a review. The five best entries will receive a double pass to the first concert in Musica Viva's 2010 season—the Borodin String Quartet. The winner will also receive a $50 voucher for the ABC Shop. Reviews will be posted online. Judge: Harriet Cunningham, music critic for The Sydney Morning Herald.

Sound Quality - online

Ongoing

Sound Quality is a program about music that does not need to fit into a genre to be understood and doesn't need the support of peers to sound good. New sounds and genres have found their way on to Radio National through Sound Quality. If you make or market music that needs an airing, sign up and upload to Pool. Tag it sound quality, and it'll be listened to, commented on, and might be used in the program.

ACT Dance Teacher Registration - Canberra

Ongoing

Ausdance ACT introduces a new service called ACT Dance Teacher Register. This is being introduced for individual teachers in response to the high volume of enquiries received from studios seeking teachers. If you wish to be included on this register please download the ACT Dance Teacher Register Form and return to Ausdance ACT. This is a free service and will be regularly updated.

Announcements

NICA students attend circus forum in France

23–31 October 2009

National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) students Daniel Crisp from Brisbane, Nathan Boyle from Bangor (NSW), Todd Kilby from Newcastle and Renee Koehler from Canberra and their trainers will be travelling to France as part of an educational forum on circus - the 22nd Festival Circa, held in Auch, France.

Circus Arts students awarded Bronze in Moscow

12 October 2009

National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) students Julian Aldag and Billie Wilson-Coffey won Bronze at the fourth World Festival of Circus Arts held in Moscow 15–20 September 2009. Aldag and Wilson-Coffey are the first Australian artists to be invited to perform at the international festival which attracts elite level circus performers from around the world. The couple, both third year NICA students, won for their act Memento.

Force Majeure touring Ireland, Canada and Korea in 2009

2 September 2009

Sydney based dance company Force Majeure will spend part of 2009 touring internationally with their acclaimed piece The Age I'm In to Ireland, Canada and Korea. The Age was presented at the Carriage Works, the Sydney and Adelaide Arts Festivals. In addition, Force Majeure will collaborate on co-productions with Sydney Theatre Company and Brink Productions.

Iconic choices for 2009 Sounds of Australia Registry

August 2009

The instantly recognisable Happy Little Vegemites jingle, the sound of a news broadcast of boxer Lionel Rose winning the 1968 World Bantamweight Title and Helen Reddy's feminist anthem I am Woman are among the ten recordings added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry, Arts Minister Mr Peter Garrett announced.

New Flying Fruit Fly Circus Training Centre - Albury

August 2009

The Flying Fruit Fly Circus (FFFC) has said farewell to its Hovell Street home in Albury—affectionately known as 'the Y'—in preparation for the site's redevelopment as a world-class circus centre and training facility. The FFFC has received funds from the Federal Government to undertake a $4.86 million redevelopment project.

Key online resources

• KULCHA - Multicultural Arts of Western Australia
• MusicAustralia - Australia's Music: Online, in Time
• West Australian Music Industry Association Inc
• Australia Dancing - National Library of Australia
• International Guild of Disabled Artists & Performers (IGODAP)
• The Aussie Bands Music Page
• Jazz Australia
• AusStage: Gateway to the Australian Performing Arts
• Ausdance - Australia's professional dance advocacy organisation

Collection resources and online publications

• Currency Press - Performing Arts Publisher
• MusicFestivalsAustralia.com
• The Music Network
• Parnassus' Den
• Theatre Alive
• Theatre Australia
• The Arts Centre collections
• Fools Paradise - an audio-visual exploration of twelve years of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Institutions and government organisations

• Devising Celebration - a resource for teachers who wish to devise their own celebratory performances and event theatre.
• Music in Australia: A Statistical Overview
• National Networked Facility for Research in Australian Music

Peak bodies and associations

• Music NT
• The Australian Script Centre - collects, catalogues, promotes and distributes unpublished Australian plays.
• Music NSW
• Music Council of Australia

People

• Barry Humphries
• Australian comedy

Featured websites/projects

• Questacon - Strike a Chord