The Fringe takes to the streets today. You could be sitting in a cafe enjoying your foie gras or duck à l'orange when a fouetté jeté flies past.
Or a dancer could glissade past your eggs benedict and pull off a grand pas d'action.
Nobody will be safe when Faux Pas: Random Acts of Dance sets upon your table, drives a fork through the linen and steps the unwary out of their comfort zones.
Enjoy a meal garnished with dance and schadenfreude today and tomorrow at the Green Acorn Cafe at 11am, Ironic Cafe at 1pm and the Ra Bar at 9pm.
"Putting contemporary art under people's noses is an important part of the festival," director Paul Smith said.
"You can't escape. The Fringe is coming to get you."
The Footnote Dance Company also returns to Dunedin with Made in New Zealand, and four swashbuckling cutting-edge works by the new wave of New Zealand choreographers: Sex by Ross McCormack, In Pieces by Malia Johnson, Southern Cross by Clare O'Neil and Trance Like Happiness by Sarah Foster-Sproull.
A sad note for Footnote is it is the last tour by veteran director Deidre Tarrant, who is retiring after leading the company for 25 years. Tarrant is the mother of Bret McKenzie, of Flight of the Conchords fame.
Made in New Zealand plays at 7.30pm tomorrow in the Mary Hopewell Theatre.
Free Theatre Christchurch brings its latest dramatic offering, Hereafter, to the Temple Gallery for the final time at 8pm tonight.
The innovative and imaginative company produced Faust Chroma and Ella and Susn, which won the 2008 and 2009 Dunedin Best in Fringe awards.
"It's the life story of a guy who you wouldn't want to run into on a dark night," producer Marian McCurdy mysteriously told me in the Octagon yesterday.
Cabaret Botanica at St Martin's Hall tonight and tomorrow promises to be an engaging event, as a collective of talented Northeast Valley artists, musicians, dancers and actors collaborate on a visual and aural production with a botanic twist.
The fire bugs are out at Chingford Park tonight, in the fire, dance and music show The Fire of Life: A Journey to the Underworld and Back, and the larger-than-life Milly Wonka and the Burlesque Factory is on at Sammy's.
The Festival Club starts tapping at Ironic Cafe from 10pm, with the carnal carnival of Opposite Sex, and poetrix Penny Ashton plays up with a party piece she describes as "Play School meets Playgirl."
What's on
TODAY
Daily: Rare Goods, Lower Octagon.
Daily: Billboard Sixty Special, Andersons Bay Rd.
9am-4pm: Performative Painting, Studio2 Gallery.
10am-6pm:Botanica Banners, Dunedin Botanic Garden.
12noon: Fringe Picks, Lower Octagon.
12noon: Perky and Fiddle, Octagon and various locations.
12-3pm: Concrete Chimera, Bunker Under Salisbury Boutique.
12-6pm: Transit, Glue Gallery.
12-6pm: The Moon Knows: New Work by Mary McFarlane, Glue Gallery.
6pm and 9pm: Cabaret Botanica, St Martin's Hall.
7pm: Pink Spider Man, Globe Theatre.
7pm: Richard Meros Salutes the Southern Man, Fortune Theatre Studio.
7.30pm: Comedy Club, Ironic Cafe.
8pm: Hereafter, Temple Gallery.
8pm: Milly Wonka and The Burlesque Factory, Sammy's.
8pm: Wom!n in my Life, Allen Hall Theatre.
8pm: The Fire of Life: A Journey to the Underworld and Back, Chingford Park.
9pm: Mind Reader, Globe Theatre.
9pm: Gush: Love and Other Filthy Habits, Fortune Theatre Studio.
10pm: Festival Club, Ironic Cafe.
Night: Music to Repel, Age Concern car park, Bath St.
Various: Performance Series, Blue Oyster Gallery.
Various: Faux Pas, various locations.
TOMORROW
Daily: Rare Goods, Lower Octagon.
Daily: Billboard Sixty Special, Andersons Bay Rd.
10am-6pm Botanica Banners, Dunedin Botanic Garden.
12noon: Fringe Picks, Lower Octagon.
12noon: Perky and Fiddle, Octagon and various locations.
12-6pm: Transit, Glue Gallery.
12-6pm: The Moon Knows: New Work by Mary McFarlane, Glue Gallery.
2pm: Weekend @ Burny's, Wing Sang building.
6pm and 9pm: Cabaret Botanica, St Martin's Hall.
7pm: Pink Spider Man, Globe Theatre.
7pm: Girl With a Movie Camera, Fortune Theatre Mainstage.
7.30pm: Made in New Zealand, Mary Hopewell Theatre.
7.30pm: Comedy Club, Ironic Cafe.
8pm: Milly Wonka and The Burlesque Factory, Sammy's.
8pm: Wom!n in my Life, Allen Hall Theatre.
5pm and 8pm: The Fire of Life: A Journey to the Underworld and Back, Chingford Park.
9pm: Mind Reader, Globe Theatre.
9pm: Gush: Love and Other Filthy Habits, Fortune Theatre Studio.
10pm: Festival Club, Ironic Cafe.
Night: Music to Repel, Age Concern car park, Bath St.
Various: Performance Series, Blue Oyster Gallery.
Various: Faux Pas, various locations.
Various: Hold Onto Your Horses, various locations.
