AS part of the “Celebrate Gungahlin Festival” Canberra-raised dance artist James Batchelor joins Sally Holliday to perform a new dance work, “Shortcuts to Familiar Places”, inside the Mulanggari Grasslands in homage to his mentor Ruth Osborne. Beginning at 130 The Valley Avenue, Gungahlin, 3.30pm-5.30pm, Sunday, March 21. Free but registrations here. 

THE “Celebrate Gungahlin Festival” runs from March 20-28 as the whole Gungahlin region comes alive with activities and more than 20 events such as the locally driven talent competition, “Gungahlin’s So Talented”. All details here.

MARKING 200 years of Greek Independence, the inaugural Hellenic Festival will be held this weekend in the Hellenic Club’s Woden carpark from 10am-11pm, Saturday, March 20, and noon-5pm, Sunday, March 21, with street food, traditional dance and music. And on the first-floor foyer there’ll be 16 paintings on display as part of the exhibition, “1821: An Exhibition”, by Angela Kiki Konstantinopoulou, and lectures on the events of 1821 and what it means today to be Greek, in the Apollo Room, at 2pm and 3.45pm. Free admission to everything.

FROM the romantic to the platonic, between friends, lovers, creative collaborators and within families and communities, “Australian Love Stories” is a major new exhibition developed at the National Portrait Gallery, March 20 to August 1. Bookings essential here.

LAKESPEARE & Co — Shakespeare by the Lakes — is staging “Songs and Sonnets by the Lake” for one night only at Glebe Park, Civic, from 6pm-8pm, this Saturday, March 20. Free, but bookings essential at lakespeare.eventbrite.com.au

THE Song Company opens its touring season with “Dances of Passion”, a program of Brahms’s “Liebeslieder Waltzes” and “Tonadillas en un stile antiguo” by Enrique Granados and “Fables for a Prince” by contemporary American composer Juliana Hall. The Street Theatre, 7pm, Saturday, March 20, bookings here.

BHARATANATYAM dancer Vaidehi Subramanyan will perform “Sakhiye inda velaiyil”, a mix of pure dance and storytelling through hand gestures, facial expressions and acting. At ANU Drill Hall Gallery, 5.30-7.30pm, March 20 and 27. Bookings essential here. 

PIANIST Bernice Chua will be performing “Europe’s Greatest Composers and I”, a program of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Mendelssohn. At Wesley Uniting Church, 6.30pm, Saturday, March 20. Bookings here or tickets at the door.

“HALL Countryside & Beyond”, an exhibition of watercolours by Isla Patterson, will be officially opened by David Kilby at the Kyeema Gallery at Capital Wines, 13 Gladstone Street, Hall, at 5.30pm, Saturday, March 20. Bookings essential at capitalwines.com.au The exhibition will then continue 10.30am-5pm, Thursdays to Mondays, until April 19. 

ART Song Canberra’s next concert, featuring “Sonia’s Art Song/Lieder Book”, features dramatic soprano Sonia Anfiloff and pianist Kylie Loveland. At Wesley Music Centre, Forrest, 3pm and 4.15pm, Sunday, March 21. Bookings essential here.

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