The Whole Cake rises again – richer, sharper and baked fresh for Canberra

Posted on 8 September, 2026

There’s something wonderfully Canberra about a performance that serves up dance, storytelling and actual cake – especially when it arrives in early spring, just as the city starts to shake off its winter chill.

This September and October, movement artist Vivienne Rogis brings The Whole Cake to the ACT for the very first time, a decade after its original debut in Melbourne – and this time, it’s been completely reimagined for a new moment, a changed body and a community ready to savour something heartfelt.

If you’re new to Viv’s work, imagine a dance‑theatre experience that feels part confessional, part celebration and part communal kitchen table; the kind where stories are shared, crumbs are left behind, and the atmosphere feels both tender and quietly electric. The Whole Cake leans into that spirit. It’s warm, intimate, and shaped by the layered realities of women’s lives, exploring how identity shifts and stretches across time.

When the show first premiered back in 2016, Viv had plans to tour and develop it further. But life, as it tends to do, rose in unexpected ways. Kids grew up. Cities shifted. A pandemic reshaped everything. Her creative practice expanded. And her body – now navigating an autoimmune condition – began speaking a different physical truth. Returning to the work ten years later, she realised this wasn’t a simple remount.

“To keep the show as real life as it was ten years ago, I must perform the present,” she says.

“But the now includes the then. It is still in my body. It is still relevant.”

So she rebuilt it. Slice by slice.

Working with local favourite Sweet Bones Café in Scullin, Viv has crafted six new “cakes of life,” each one inspired by a facet of lived experience: sharpness, sweetness, heaviness, nourishment, celebration and those surprising flavours that appear when you least expect them. These cakes aren’t just props – they’re choreographic anchors, shaping vignettes that explore family, identity, work, community and the ongoing negotiation of self. And yes, audiences really do get served all six slices.

Canberrans will have four chances to catch the performance: Sunday 27 September at the Hall Pavilion with shows at 11 am and 2.30 pm, and Sunday 4 October at Badimara Scout Hall in Fisher, also at 11 am and 2.30 pm. With strictly limited seats available at both venues, these community‑centred spaces offer that quintessential Canberra charm: intimate settings where art feels close enough to touch.

What makes The Whole Cake feel so special is its honesty. Viv doesn’t shy away from the complexities of returning to a work that once belonged to a different version of herself. Instead, she leans in, inviting audiences to taste what has changed, what remains, and what it means to carry your past into your present with generosity.

If you’re craving a thoughtful, flavour‑filled performance that celebrates the layers of women’s lives – and you don’t mind a little lemon cutting through the sugar – this is one to mark on your calendar.

Photography: O&J Wikner Photography