Upcoming Events
Shared Spaces Incorporated presents Padma Menon’s
Mother: A Tribute through dance and song
Performances: Saturday 31 October at 7.00pm
Sunday 1 November at 7.00pm
Pre-performance forums on both nights at 6.00pm
at the National Gallery of Australia, Parkes
Tickets $22, $18. NGA members/concessions
Bookings: 02 6240 6504 (weekdays) or eventbookings@nga.gov.au
Presented in association with the National Gallery of Australia
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
A curtain-raiser for Mother: a tribute through dance, stories and song.
Saturday 24 October 2.00–2.30 pm
Padma Menon and dancers discuss the dances and stories that inspired the performance
Free | Australian National Gallery foyer
ENQUIRIES. 0447643646
FOR CHILDREN
Dancing Stories
A special interactive performance combining dance with storytelling. Suitable for ages 6–11
Sunday 1 November 2.00–2.45 pm
Free | James O Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery of Australia
Enquiries: 0447643646
PUBLIC FORUM
Mothers: cross-cultural dialogues
A public forum presented by ANU and Shared Spaces Incorporated with popular authors, researchers, dancers and policy makers exploring the diversity of mothering today
Monday 2 November 9.30am -1.00pm
Finkel Theatre, The John Curtin School of Medical Research
The Australian National University
Enquiries: 6125 4144 Registration: events@anu.edu.au
Mother- A Tribute
“Idealization of the mother has been driven out by the criminalisation of the mother”.
Germaine Greer, “The Whole Woman”
Shared Spaces and Padma Menon will once again take you to places “where angels fear” in their new work “Mother- A Tribute”.
Motherhood has become a loaded and political space of struggle in our times. This work is a tribute to the simplicity of the calling of mother, an exploration of the many dimensions of this calling embracing the small victories, the anguish and the special joys of motherhood which create new meanings for happiness.
It is the story of women of different generations and different cultures who share their expectations and stories of mothers and mothering. The work is an open, personal sharing inviting people to remind ourselves of the roles that mothers have played in all our lives.
Mother is neither criminal nor saint. She is sometimes absolutely wrong and sometimes undeniably right. She is someone who haunts us or affirms us. A Mother is someone we all experience, even if it is as an absence.
Padma Menon says “I offer this work as a dance snapshot of some moments in the lives of three women. We have cried and laughed in making this work and it has woven itself and emerged from our lives as women and mothers. We transform this life into dance stories.”