HAPPY 30^TH BIRTHDAY to Canberra Dance Development Centre, which is celebrating with a new production, “Crossing Ahead” on August 28 and 29 at the Canberra Theatre.

CDDC’s director, Jackie Hallahan, has asked four of her star graduates, Daniel Riley, Paul Knobloch, Sarah Black and James Shannon, to choreograph the new work. Bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.

RECENTLY the Griffyn Ensemble performed a tribute to the Gungahlin Bulls Rugby League Club and now the Canberra Contemporary Art Space’s curator Alexander Boynes is staging a show called ‘Footy Fever’. “Within the overarching umbrella of football in this country, Footy Fever seeks to represent the wildly varying connections that artists have with Aussie Rules, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Soccer, and Wheelchair Rugby,” Boynes says.  It’s a largely blokey line up, as you’d expect, but Heather Koowootha, Louise Paramor and Mariana del Castillo will hold up the female side of the subject. Opens 6pm tomorrow, Friday August 28 then the show continues until October 3. CCAS at Gorman Arts Centre, Tuesday to Friday 11am to 5pm Saturday 10am to 4pm.

MEANTIME at M16 there’s a collaborative exhibition by artists Julian Laffan and Kate Stevens, who have known each other since attending art school together. It’s  called ‘World Series’, but it doesn’t appear to be about footy, having been inspired by the stereoscopic double images from the early days of photography.  Opens 6pm Thursday August 27 Gallery 1 and runs 12 – 5pm, Wednesday to Sunday until September 13.

ALSO at M16 until September 13, but in Gallery 2, is “Selkie Stories” by Spike Deane, who uses glass and animation to create an installation that tells a tale of supernatural transformation. The Celtic tales tell of a folkloric seal people whose stories touches upon the very human emotions of love and loss.

THEN in Gallery 3, also at M16 until September 13, is “Wordsmith,” curated by Sarah Norris, a collaborative project that features the work of both visual artists and writers. The writers were asked to produce a work that would act as inspiration for a group of visual artists. The writers taking part in this exhibition are CJ Bowerbird, Farz Edraki, Tasnim Hossain, Yolande Norris, Claire Capel-Stanley and Sarah St Vincent Welch. The visual artists include Kate Barker, Julie Bradley, Shan Crosbie, Kristin Firth, Ian Roberston and Bernie Slater. Samia Goudie has taken on both roles.

A JAZZ fund-raiser, “Mingus, Monk and More,” will be held today Thursday, August 27 at 7.30 pm in the Big Band Room at the ANU School of Music. Students and staff of the School will be playing the music of Monk and Mingus and some of their own compositions inspired by these jazz greats. Tickets at the door.

THIS Saturday, August 29 from 2.15 to 3pm, Duke Ellington and Count Basie come to Cooinda Hall, Kangara Waters Community Centre in the form of the John Black Trio, John Black (piano), Ben O’Loghlin (double bass), Jamal Salem (drums). Tickets $25 (includes afternoon tea) at trybooking.com/IQQQ, or at the door, 2 Joy Cummings Place, Belconnen.

“SKIN” is Canberra Youth Theatre presents a performance installation of four hours at the National Portrait , a response to the NPG exhibition “Bare: Degrees of Undress”. Devised by CYT’s 2015 Actors Ensemble and co-directed by Katie Cawthorne and Alison Plevey, it will be performed continuously August 27 – 30, between 11am and 3pm, restarting at the top of each hour and roving throughout the exhibition. No bookings required

TONY Faber will give a lecture today Thurs August 27 at 2pm for ADFAS Molonglo Plains entitled “The Imperial Easter Eggs of Carl Faberge before the Revolution”. Faber’s career began in natural sciences, investment banking and management consulting before joining the family publishing company Faber and Faber. At the Comfort Inn Airport International. Refreshments follow. Entrance fee $25 for guests. All welcome. Inquiries to judy.inveen@bigpond.com

“THE 26-Storey Treehouse” has been adapted from Andy Griffiths’ book by playwright and author Richard Tulloch, and it’s at The Q, Queanbeyan, until August 28. It’s a follow-up to the hit, “The 13-Storey Treehouse” and sees Andy and Terry encountering the 78 flavour ice-cream dispensing robot, the self-inflating underpants, and a pirate with a really bad pirate accent. Recommended for ages 6 – 12 and their adults. Bookings to 6285 6290 or theq.net.au

IN their first appearance together, classical guitarist Jacob Cordover and his brother as narrator Gideon Cordover bring to life to life the prose of Juan Ramón Jiménez, a Spanish poet who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956 for his lyrical poetry. The poems relate the adventures of a young boy and his donkey in their Andalusian village and ‘Platero and I’. Music is by written by Italian composer Castelnuovo-Tedesco. At Wesley Music Centre, 20 National Circuit, Forrest Friday, August 28 at 7pm.Tickets at the door.

“ARCHAEOLOGY, Excavation and the Arcane Curator,” an exploration of new glass by curator Magda Keaney continues at Canberra Glassworks until August 30, 10am – 4pm Tuesday to Sunday. Meantime the Glassworks has the ‘Make Your Own Paperweight or Tumbler’ sessions with a professional artist: 10:00am to 4:00pm Duration: (20 minutes for a paperweight, or 40 minutes for a tumbler) every Saturday and Sunday and the ‘100 years of Kingston Power House” FREE tour will take visitors through the building, Every Saturday at 11am. Bookings to 6260 7005, or contactus@canberraglassworks.com

FILM historian and managing director of Ronin Films, Andrew Pike, will introduce clips from the film The Overlanders and extracts from the score, the only film score composed by John Ireland, Friday August 28, 6-7pm National Film and Sound Archive Theatrette. Free entry. Drinks and nibbles from 5:30 pm.

THE Uni Pub Comedy Club has award winning comedian, cake enthusiast and host of TV show ‘Spicks and Specks’ Josh Earl performing at the Uni Pub tomorrow, Friday, August 28 at 8pm tickets at the door.

“Out There” is the 2015 Canberra Photographic Society annual exhibition, showing until August 30 at Watson Arts Centre, Aspinall Street, Watson, 2015 Gallery hours 10am – 4pm Thursday to Sunday until August 30. Includes new work by previous exhibitors and celebrates the work of new members who have joined the society since the 2014 exhibition.

DRILL Hall Gallery director Terence Maloon and Canberra artist Derek O’Connor are both passionately interested in Delacroix’s 1827 painting in the Louvre, “The Death of Sardanapalus”. They will be sharing their insights at the next meeting of the Friends of the Drill Hall Gallery. This Friday, August 28 from 5-7pm. As well, there’s Peter Vandermark’s pop-up sculpture show. Admission free, Kingsley Street, Acton.

BELCONNEN Arts Centre has “Traces and Hauntings,” in which through photo media, sculpture and artist books, University of Canberra Faculty of Arts and Design staff explore the subtle ruptures of ‘reality’ and the vestiges of things well known. Until August 30.

ALSO at BAC until August 30 is “Without Borders: Emergencies, Natural Disasters, Epidemics, Conflicts Médecins Sans Frontières Australia” images of the work MSF (Doctors Without Borders) assist through the eyes of award winning photographers from around the world.

IN “Lightness of Being,” Korean abstract painter David Kim fills the BAC Arts Lounge with colour and aims to lift the spirits of his viewers. His bright and energetic works are painted spontaneously while the artist is in a meditative frame of mind. Until August 30.

PHOTOACCESS  presents “At a Loss” a new exhibition which explores the relationship between identity and the spaces we use to define that identity. It showcases works by Evan Baden (USA), Aimee Fitzgerald (Sydney), Dean Butters (Melbourne), Elly Freer (Melbourne) and Emily Jackett (Melbourne). opened by Martyn Jolly, Head of Photography and Media Arts, ANU, at 6pm today, Thursday August 27.  This Saturday, August 29 at 2pm there will be a talk with artist and curator Dean Butters.  Manuka Arts Centre, Manuka Circle, Griffith 10am-4pm Tue, Wed, Fri; 10-7pm Thu & 12pm-4pm weekends.

ALSO AT  PHOTOACCESS, Aimee Fitzgerald explores the tension between painting and photography as representational mediums, using intimate portraits to draw out dissonant attitudes to authenticity, artistic value and the depiction of beauty and Emily Jackett’s series “Myth” explores identity through the difference and repetition of memory.

THE “Gestures of Goodwill” exhibition in the Presiding Officers’ Exhibition Area, Level 1, House of Representatives, Parliament House, has a selection of the unique gifts given to the Australian Parliament and its highest officeholders– artworks, decorative and commemorative objects, textiles and rare mementos gifted to Australia by foreign governments and delegations over the last 25 years. 9-5, until Sunday, October 11.