WHATS ON YOUR DAILY GUIDE TO THE ARTS

COME and share more than one kind of warmth around Leempeeyt Weeyn, the campfi re in the city square produced by artist Vicki Couzens and indigenous elders, for a series of performances, workshops and storytelling. Burning throughout the month, a diverse range of indigenous practitioners share their culture with Melbourne for the fi nal two weeks of The Light in Winter festival. Today Uncle Herb Patten will impart some of the skills involved in gumleaf playing as he shares music and song with his lunchtime audience.

fedsquare.com/ thelightinwinter/ 12.30pm, Federation Square.

MUSICAL

THE NAMES Maltby and Shire might not be as instantly recognisable as such musical partnerships as Rodgers and Hammerstein, or even Rodgers and Hart or, heck, Kern and Hammerstein. That isnt to say they havent done good work. Richard Maltby was the lyricist for Miss Saigon, while David Shire has composed award-winning soundtracks for fi lm, including Francis Ford Coppolas The Conversation and Saturday Night Fever. Starting Here, Starting Now a musical revue assembled from the pairs early work  takes an energetic and poignant look at the maze of modern relationships.

theartscentre.com.au 8pm, BlackBox, the Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Road, city. $55$60.

Phone: 1300 182 183.

VISUAL ART

SOME of Australias most interesting contemporary artists appear in a group show surveying the to and fro between traditional and digital media. Called A Tradigital Survey geddit?

the exhibition includes works by Lyndell Brown (pictured) and Charles Green, Alex Gibson, Stephen Haley, Irene Hanenbergh, David Harley, David Rozetsky and Brie Trenerry. According to curators Kirsten Rann and Gina Kalabishis, the artists were selected because the various ways they use new media is informed by their experience in traditional disciplines ranging from drawing to oil painting.

creativeindustries.vu.edu.

au/level17.html Opening 6pm, Level 17 Artspace, Victoria University city campus, 300 Flinders Street, city.

BALLET

WHEN Dame Peggy came to Australia the style she brought was very English, so in this program will be works by Sir Frederick Ashton and Antony Tudor, to pay tribute to that heritage of hers and also the heritage of the company, Australian Ballet Artistic Director David McAllister, says.

Peggy! is a tasting plate of dances celebrating the companys founding artistic director, Peggy van Praagh.

It includes gorgeous dances from Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty and Giselle and Tudors spiky ballet satire Gala Performance.

australianballet.com.au 7.30pm, State Theatre, the Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Road, city.

$32$124. Phone: 1300 182 183.

THEATRE

THIS theatre is truly underground. Christina: A Story with Music, the fi rst performance by new local production company AtticErratic, is being staged in the vast and haunting Collingwood Underground Arts Space (a former car park).

A one-man play, written, acted and with sound design by Tom Pitts, the plot follows the story of an unnamed protagonist as he pines for his lost Christina. Pitts was winner of multiple awards at this years Pink Shorts (part of Midsumma), including best co-writer, best overall show and a peoples choice award.

Directed by Celeste Cody.

http://atticerratic.tumblr.com 8pm, Collingwood Underground Arts Space, 42 Harmsworth Street, Collingwood.

$12$18. Tickets: email attic.erratic@ gmail.com artswhatson@theage.com.au