Arts editor HELEN MUSA gets into the swing of this week’s busy Artsweek column. There’s lots to see and do… 

English choreographer Akram Khan’s Jungle Book reimagined brings Kipling’s tales up to date in an era of climate change. Canberra Theatre, February 2-3.

Mill Theatre is swinging into action with Blank by Nassim Soleimanpour. The play involves a joint effort between audience and performer to fill gaps in the script. Actors are Christopher Samuel Carroll, Stefanie Lekkas, Ali Clinch, Sarah Nathan-Truesdale and Heidi Silberman. Mill Theatre, Fyshwick, February 3, 10, 17, 23, 24.

SoundOut Festival workshops by some of the leading lights of music from Australia and France will be held at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery throughout the experimental music festival’s run, February 2-4.

Geoff’s Poetry at Smiths features Damen O’Brien from Brisbane and Melinda Smith from Canberra, Smith’s Alternative, Civic, February 5.

ZEST: Dance for Wellbeing’s Canberra-wide dance classes, for older Canberrans and for people living with Parkinson’s (and their carers), will re-commence February 5. The Rotary Club of Ginninderra is  a partner in the provision of the newest class at Ginninderra Labor Club, Charnwood, on Thursdays from 1.30pm. The first class of the year, on February 7, will be free. Inquiries to 0417 417182.

The NFSA’s Vinyl Lounge returns on February 2 when also there will be a free screening of an Australian doco about a group of artists from Urapuntja/Utopia, Central Australia, who travelled to the Brahma Tirta Sari batik studio in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The opening film in the Love is Fraught series is The Virgin Suicides, February 3, followed by A Streetcar Named Desire, February 4.

Concerts

• Tribute band “BABBA” joins conductor George Ellis and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra for an evening of music under the stars at Queen Elizabeth II Park, Queanbeyan, February 3. 
• South African guitarist Derek Gripper, known for his interpretations of traditional Malian kora music on the classical guitar, is bringing his concert, Music from the Strings of Mali, to James O Fairfax Theatre, NGA, February 5-6.
• Richard Tognetti and director Jennifer Peedom have created a film, River Live in Concert, which features narration by actor Willem Dafoe. Live music from Bach, Ravel, Radiohead and Tognetti himself, will be performed by the ACO with didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton. Canberra Theatre, February 7.

Galleries

• “Driving to Wee Jasper feels like driving to another world,” says Braidwood-Seattle artist Ray Monde, whose series of collage works of Wee Jasper scenes, The Road to Wee Jasper, runs at Tyger Gallery, Yass, February 2-18. 
• NatureArt Lab’s art and photography tutor exhibition, See What I See, will be on for eight days at the Old Barn Gallery in Pialligo, February 1-4 and February 8-11.
• Rusten House Art Centre, in Queanbeyan, has Places Near Here, Julie Colbran’s first solo exhibition of landscape paintings, February 3-24. Artist talk, February 3.
• Julie McCarron-Benson’s exhibition, Static Fluidity, runs at Kyeema Gallery in Capital Wines, Hall, February 2-March 3.
• The 28th Bald Archy Prize has paintings teeming with humour, dark satire, light comedy or caricature. Watson Arts Centre, February 2-March 17, with the winners announced on March 15.
• The exhibition, Basil Hall Prints From Studio One, 1987-1996, includes prints by Mandy Martin, Jorg Schmeisser, George Gittoes, Raymond Arnold, Garry Shead, GW Bot, Chris Denton and Dianne Fogwell. Opens at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, February 2.