Arts editor HELEN MUSA says that “brilliant individual artistry” triumphed in her picks for the best five arts moments in 2025.

Musicals

Sweet Charity, The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, April 29-May 18: A new local star was born when Amy Orman stepped on stage for Free-Rain Theatre to sing and dance up a storm in the role of dancer-for-hire Charity Hope Valentine.
Orman brought overseas professional experience to the role, easily capturing the vulnerability and indomitable spirit of a girl who, in her search for love, wears her heart on her sleeve.

Music

Greater Love, Second World War Memorial Concert, Llewellyn Hall, August 15: Conceived by Christopher Latham to honour the many acts of sacrifice by those who fought in World War II, this concert honoured heroism through the power of music.
Featuring nine newly commissioned works, the concert presented an extraordinary line-up of performers including actor John Bell as narrator, William Barton on didgeridoo, Dong Ma on erhu, the CSO and ADF musicians, the Flowers of Peace Chorus, Brisbane Chamber Choir and the Luminescence Children’s Choir.
Surprisingly, this epic concert came to a quietly optimistic close.

Theatre

Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Echo Theatre at Aunty Louise Brown Park, The Q, Queanbeyan, February 12-16, then at other venues across the ACT: Macbeth may be one of Shakespeare’s darkest works, yet Jordan Best’s open-air performance proved almost joyous. 

With Isaac Reilly, as Macbeth, and Lainie Hart, as Lady Macbeth, none of the tragedy was lost.
Performed on the grass in front of a tent, it conjured up Shakespeare’s own theatre, where audience and actors could share intimate moments.

Dance

Essor [Thank You], The Australian Dance Party at the National Portrait Gallery, March 1-2: This 20-minute solo performance, choreographed and danced by First Nations performer Yolanda Lowatta, was created in response to Some Lads, a series of photographic portraits by Tracey Moffatt of dancers such as Russell Page, Graham Blanco, Matthew Doyle and Gary Lang who had influenced Lowatta.
Here, the choreography unveiled a beautiful overall fluidity, with some movements derived from indigenous women’s dance and others from Western contemporary dance. Moments such as the leaps with a leg held in arabesque were quite balletic.

Visual Arts

Portrait of a Landscape, GW Bot, Belco Arts, May-July: A celebrated Canberra artist, GW Bot’s works have been likened to earth songs.

This curated collection showed her art from the past four decades.
Some works reflected the landscapes of the Canberra region – the grasslands, the mountains and the expansive waters of Weereewa (Lake George). Others tracked the artist’s wanderings through Cornwall, France and Austria.
Most notable was the artist’s way of expressing meaning through her use of signs, marks and symbols that she calls glyphs. Through her own visual experiences, recounted in her poetic and deeply moving works, Bot linked herself to ancient wayfarers.