HOT: Astonish Me! CREATIVE AUSTRALIA Responds, Creative Australia and the Ballets Russes, The Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne

As part of Australian Ballet's 2009 Ballet Russes season, the Arts Centre is holding a free exhibition called Creative Australia and the Ballet Russes which explores the influence of the Ballet Russes on the art and design scene in Australia, the legacy of the ballet company in Australian dance and its inspiration for three visual artists today.

The exhibition talk I attended covered all of those areas in great detail. While I thought the paintings and photographs were mildly interesting, I was most entranced by the exquisite detail of Leon Krasenstein's Firebird costume, with each piece of fabric handpainted to look like a red feather and then twisted into a shape approximating a tutu. I also loved the smudgy charcoal drawings of Tania Mason, which perfectly captured the delicacy of the Firebird costumes coupled with the strength of the dancers in soft focus.

HOT: Collection Tour, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Rd, Southbank

I had originally planned to attend a Henry Purcell lecture at NGV International, but when it was cancelled at the last minute I decided to take a collection tour instead. I've never actually explored the permanent exhibition spaces of the NGV and the free tours are a good way to get a taste of what's on offer.

First stop was the huge stained glass ceiling by Leonard French. I had always assumed that the patterns were abstract, but my guide pointed out that the design actually contained symbols representing different belief systems such as the Celtic cross, doves of peace, a turtle and a snake or rainbow serpent.

I'd also never realised that the emanciated figures lining up behind the water wall were made by Antony Gormley, one of my favourite sculptors.

In an hour we covered many different eras and styles of art. We cantered through medieval paintings and religious triptych, two Rembrandts from his early and late periods, Van Dyck's aristocratic portraits, Flemish landscapes, Dutch portraiture, counter-reformation Carravagesque paintings and the famous Tiepolo painting of The Banquet of Cleopatra.

Once outside in the sculpture garden I was immediately captivated by the stunning bamboo sculpture by Tetsunori Kawana, a master of ikebana. It is a shame that Five Elements - Water is only on display until 26 July (and then probably mulched!). It's a dramatic and beautiful work which captures the awesome power and rhythm of crashing surf, even down to the sprays of foam. The sculpture was particularly remarkable given that the flowing waves have been constructed using thick and relatively inflexible sticks of bamboo.

The sculpture garden also contained a seated woman by Henry Moore, another one of my favourite sculptors and a bronze cast of Rodin's haughty and windswept Balzac.

I've barely scratched the surface of the the surprisingly broad collection, so it's my aim to return to the NGV to take as many tours as I can while I have the time.

NOT: 2009 Duldig Lecture on Sculpture: Soft Sculpture, Clemenger BBDO Auditorium, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Southbank

The Duldig lecture on sculpture is an annual talk jointly held by the NGV and Duldig Studio - the Glen Iris residence, sculpture garden and studio of the renowned sculptor Karl Duldig.

This year's lecture was given by Elliott H King, an American art historian specialising in Dalí and Surrealism, and entitled Soft Sculptures. I have to admit that a lot of his talk went over my head and it seemed several members of the audience felt the same, as they slipped out or snoozed next to me. I could only catch a few glimmers of understanding during the hour - something about Camembert, the form of melted vs melting clocks, the theory of relativity and a precursor to the discovery of DNA. Let's hope the exhibition itself is more enlightening.

HOT: August: Osage County, Playhouse Theatre, Southbank

Every single one of my London theatre buddies went to see the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's multi-award winning August: Osage County at the National Theatre, so I was excited to discover that I wouldn't miss out after all as it was included in the 2009 repertory of the Melbourne Theatre Company.

Tracy Lett's darkly funny story has been called 'a Great American Play' in the vein of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. It certainly doesn't hide from confrontational issues, including suicide, drug addiction, infidelity, paedophilia and child abuse. The multi-generational sprawl of storylines is heightened by the impressive three-level set, a cross-section of what you'd imagine to be a typical American family home. For over three hours, the members of the dysfunctional Weston family climb, stumble, destroy and storm out of the house as they live out their petty dramas, screaming confrontations, tender moments and the gradual unveiling of family skeletons.

The cast are uniformly excellent and create memorable characters. Robin Nevin is incredible as the stumbling, drug-addled matriach Violet, who has basically given up on keeping any semblance of holding it together. Her riveting stage presence is impressivly supported by Jane Menelaus as one of the Violet's daughters, Barbara, who looks like she will fall into her mother's path of savagery and drug dependance. The only false note is the oddly superfluous character of Johnna, the Native American hired help who goes about her housekeeping with a distant serenity - perhaps she is supposed to represent the calm eye in the familial storm.

August: Osage County is a dramatic and biting play which makes for an exciting night of theatre - go and see it.

HOT: Dressed to Rule, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Rd, Southbank

The second half of my very informative (and one-on-one) fashion-focused tour with the NGV guide was to the Dressed to Rule exhibition.

I never knew that the NGV had such a well-preserved collection of Chinese imperial robes, and this exhibition includes robes worn by members of the imperial court and even the Emperor, as well as various accessories such as queasy little shoes for bound feet.

Each of the robes is laden with magnificient, jewel-coloured embroidery, with each design containing some special meaning. You can be overwhelmed with all the symbolic commentary on the display plaques, so I think a guide, who can point out the various features on the garments as they talk, is a better way of absorbing their beauty. My favourite robes were the summer robes featuring embroidery on delicate gauze, as the filmy material revealed a further embroidered robe in a contrasting colour underneath.

HOT: Persuasion, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Rd, Southbank

I’m a keen devotee of BBC costume dramas and I’ve just finished a marathon screening of the delightful Lost in Austen - so I was pretty sure that Persuasion: Fashion in the Age of Jane Austen would be right up my alley.

The free exhibition is a small and well-curated examination of the fashion cycles that dominated during Austen’s life. The focus is mainly on women’s fashions, with its vagaries of waistlines up, waistlines down, military styling here, slashed sleeves there. There are a few instances of men’s fashions on display, including the tour de force – Colin Firth’s tight wool jacket, breeches, leather boots and top hat for his role as Mr Darcy in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Yes swooning ladies, the one where he comes striding out of the duck pond, wet shirt and britches clinging to his manly muscular physique.

What impressed me most about the exhibition was the clothes’ extremely well-preserved condition. The fine Indian muslins were still snowy white, the burnished satin pelisse still held a polished sheen and the delicate handiwork in some of the embroidery looked freshly pressed and ready to be worn.

NOT: Optimism, Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt St, Southbank

Optimism is the Malthouse's new reworking of Voltaire's seminal satiral work, Candide. A quick read-up on wikipedia at least gave us a bit of a framework as to what to expect, but the production failed to turn the famously ludicrous story into something that make it easy for me to discern the deeper messages of the work. I certainly didn't sense that it was 'a cutting commentary on the ‘no-worries’ bravura of the Australian swagger'.

Also, I don't know whether it was because our session was only the second preview and of course the Malthouse is not the MTC in terms of budget, but it really felt like I was watching amateur hour. Mildly enjoyable, but not recommended.

HOT: Rafael Bonachela's 360, Sydney Dance Company, Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne

Sydney Dance Company has always been synonymous with Graeme Murphy for me, so I was interested to see what their new Barcelona-born artistic director, Rafael Bonachela, had in store for their latest work.

360 degrees is an abstract hour-long piece which is all about the kinetic force of physical movement. Sitting in the very front row meant that we had no choice but to admire the sinewy strength, flexibility and forceful dynamism of the dancers' barely-clad bodies as they jumped, twisted and balanced in front of a silver wall which reflected every move.

I have to admit that I don't know much about modern dance, and all that abstractness can just go over my head. However, the one thing that I find exciting about it (and really all forms of dance) is that professional dancers can express spark, tension and meaning in every part of their body, right down to their fingertips. Combine that with a pumping techno beat, a dizzying video of freeway driving and precision-timed movements in some sections of 360, and the effect was very exciting.