• Stories told through dance
Dance tells stories of queer love at Dunedin's Playhouse Theatre this weekend, in Dances About Love. The work has been developed by three choreographers, Hahna Briggs, Lisa Wilkinson and Brendan Kydd, who studied dance together at the University of Otago School of Physical Education and have now formed Pretty Gay Productions.
The choreographers draw on personal experience, diary excerpts and the online comic blog of a New Zealand transgender man to explore a range of real-life love stories.
It runs on Saturday and Sunday, tickets available from dashtickets.co.nz and Quest on George St.
• That blind woman judging art
The judging of one category in this year's Art South annual exhibition and TrustPower Art Awards will be a little different.
"That blind woman" Julie Woods has been selected as the mystery judge for the "Art to die for" section in this year's awards in Balclutha.
"Even I was a little taken aback when they asked me," said Julie. "But like everything I do, I'll be doing it with my eyes closed."
Ms Woods' artist husband, Ron Esplin, will judge the main awards, which will be presented at the Creative Arts Centre on Tuesday, November 15 at 7.30pm.
The exhibition runs until Sunday November 20.
• String section explored
The NZSO's final Soloists Series concert explores the string section through music by Paganini, Tchaikovsky and Rossini.
The concert also features NZSO principal double bass player Hiroshi Ikematsu, who teams up with Russian violinist Ilya Kaler in Bottesini's Grand Duo Concertant.
"Bottesini was widely acclaimed as the 'Paganini of the double bass' at that time," Hiroshi says.
The NZSO String Ensemble, including 24 orchestra players and featuring Kaler performs in Dunedin on November 23, at Otago Boys High School. A free pre-concert talk takes place 45 minutes before the performance.
• Rare Byrds headline concert
Medieval music exponents the Rare Byrds headline a Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust fundraiser and seasonal celebration at Portobello on November 26.
The Tidings of Comfort and Joy Medieval Christmas Concert and Feast will also feature fire dancers and dancing.
The feasting and merriment is on November 26, from 6pm.
For more information email ignatius@dunedinblog.co.nz.
• Contemporary jewellery
Eight contemporary jewellers from the Dunedin School of Art are exhibiting their work at Glue Gallery, Stafford St, Dunedin.
They explore the boundaries around and expectations of body adornment through the role of jewellery.
The exhibition runs from today until Sunday. The gallery is open from midday to 6pm daily.
Sharing the space at Glue is Lucy Fulford's exhibition "For the Love of Waste", which runs from tomorrow until November 20.
Fulford's work shows photography moving from 2-D to 3-D.
She has collected items of rubbish, scanned them, printed the images, then constructed a 3-D form.
The exhibition not only critiques the medium of photography, but also notions of the invaluable and disposable.
• Public lecture today
A symposium looking at the intersections between art, literature and performance includes a public lecture at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery today at 3.30pm by Prof Gerald Janecek, on Moscow conceptualist performance art group Collective Actions.
Other symposium sessions today and tomorrow at the university, organised by the University of Otago's Russian and English departments, are also open to the public.
They include discussions of poet James K. Baxter, Russian visual art and multimedia performance.
• NZ Chamber Choir visit
Fresh from the World Choral Symposium in Patagonia, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir performs Voices of Aotearoa in Dunedin later this month in the final concert of Chamber Music New Zealand's 2011 Kaleidoscopes season.
The show is at Knox Church, Dunedin, on Thursday, November 24 at 7.30pm.
Led by artistic director Dr Karen Grylls, the choir's concert begins with the call of a conch shell, the strains of Hildegard von Bingen and medieval organum intertwined with traditional Maori, Samoan, and Taiwanese chant.
Also on the programme are David Childs' Salve Regina, Danish-American composer Lauridsen's Fire Songs, Helen Fisher's Pounamu, with its Maori flute accompaniment, and the New Zealand premiere of David Hamilton's Karakia of the Stars.
FREEBIES
The Otago Daily Times has three double passes to the concert to give away.To enter the draw for one, write your name, address and daytime phone number on the back of an envelope and send it to Voices, ODT Editorial Features, Response Bag 500010, Dunedin, or email playtime@odt.co.nz with Voices in the subject line, to arrive before Wednesday.
