The arts are in full swing as HELEN MUSA’s latests Artsweek column will attest.

Ausdance ACT’s Australian Dance Week turns the spotlight on our local dance scene, with dance shows, workshops, classes and general fun making  up the biggest dance celebration in the country, until May 5.

ABC Radio National’s Andy Ford will be broadcasting his Music Show live from MOSSO, the special focus new music day in the 2025 Canberra International Music Festival, which runs all around town until May 4. He welcomes people to come and be in the audience. National Film and Sound Archive, May 3.

The annual Kindred Trees poetry reading is coming as part of Tree Week again, with commissioned poems by Kerrie-Anne Nelson, Alex Eagleton, Moya Pacey and Martin Dolan. Smith’s Alternative May 5.

Dymphna Clark: Women in the Making of Canberra is a workshop that will explore aspects of women’s in Canberra’s history, especially from the 1930s to the 1970s. Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest, May 3.

Juno Gemes, Djon Mundine and Michael Aird will share their own personal histories as friends, colleagues and collaborators, telling the history of Australia. National Library of Australia, May 2.

The 2025 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour is a three-hour celebration of the mountain and adventure sport world. Arc Cinema, NFSA, May 6.

Concerts

• Polish pianist Rafal Luszczewski will be in recital at Wesley Music Centre, May 1.
• Canberra Choral Society will perform Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Arvo Pärt’s Berliner Messe, directed by Dan Walker. St Paul’s Anglican Church, Manuka, May 3.
• Ali McGregor, the opera star-turned-cabaret-queen, will be joined by Signum Saxophone Quartet for a musical journey from Berlin to Hollywood in Musica Viva’s Hollywood Songbook. Llewellyn Hall, May 3.
• Cabaret band The Loveys, featuring percussion, bass, ukulele, keyboards and a bassoon, are returning to play at Smith’s Alternative on Election night, May 3.
• The Cruel Sea will perform the album, Straight Into The Sun, in whole as well as a set of Cruel Sea classics and selected tunes. Canberra Theatre, May 3.
• Brindabella Orchestra’s Autumn Concert, conducted by Shilong Ye, will include works by Rossini, Coates, Grieg, Meyerbeer and Offenbach. Weston Community Hub, corner of Hilder and Gritten Streets, Weston, May 4.
• The Austrian Harmonie Choir presents its autumn concert which will include peace-themed songs. Harmonie German Club, Narrabundah, May 4. Free for under 18s.
• Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan will appear at the Canberra Southern Cross Club, Woden, May 6.

Stage

• Noël Coward’s brilliant comedy Blithe Spirit, will be at Canberra Rep Theatre, Acton, May 1-17.
• The musical Sweet Charity is at The Q, Queanbeyan, May 1-May 18.
• QL2 Dance will stage Garden, its double bill of new contemporary dance, with a cast of 27. Fitters’ Workshop, Kingston, May 2-4.
• Truth to Power Café is a cabaret event combining memoir, image, poetry, music, film and live testimony from participants who respond to the question: “Who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?” Tuggeranong Arts Centre, May 3.

Galleries

• Open-access print studio Megalo is celebrating its sapphire anniversary with the exhibition, Megalo: 45 Years of Print. Megalo Print Studio, Kingston until June 8.
• Tensions and Connections: Meditations with Nature is an exhibition by Tess Carlton and Isabella Roberts, curated by Courtney Jacopino and Ivy Moore. Platform, Manuka, May 2-18.
• Two new solo exhibitions that explore themes of protest and direct action, The Lodge by Amala Groom and Am I In Your Way? by Raquel Ormella, are showing at Canberra Contemporary, Parkes, May 3-July 12.