IAS Season IV: Ancient World through Modern Eyes: Modern performing arts have returned consistently to classical antiquity and ancient mythologies to make sense of the contemporary. Join us for world-class drama, ballet, modern dance, philosophy, and poetry, as we consider how performance renews itself through consideration of its ancestry.
For tickets: contact the Lied Center Ticket Office: 402-472-4747 or liedcenter.org.
The Joffrey Ballet: The Rite of Spring
March 2 | 7:30 pm | Lied Center for Performing Arts
Adults – $46 / $36 / $29
Students – $23 / $18 / $14.50
Widely considered one of the world’s finest ballet companies, The Joffrey Ballet celebrates the 100th anniversary of Stravinsky and Nijinsky’s The Rite of Spring in a triumphant performance. The Rite of Spring, which premiered in 1913, stunned audiences with its incorporation of ancient, pagan mythology, Slavic folklore, and high modernist kinetic movement. Nijinsky promised it would “open new horizons flooded with different rays of sun.” He kept his promise. The Rite of Spring remains one of the most celebrated and controversial productions of the 20th century.
Co-presented with the Lied Center for Performing Arts
Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company: Dances Inspired by Greek Antiquity
March 13 | 7:30 pm | Lied Center for Performing Arts
Adults – $12 (FREE to UNL faculty & staff)
Students – $6 (FREE to UNL students)
Founded in 1979, Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company is the pre-eminent Isadora Duncan dance company performing in the world today. Duncan created dances in homage to the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysius, and lesser gods, nymphs and heroes found in ancient Greek mythology. She infused her particular brand of American spirit with her love for the Greeks, convinced that the “Dance of the Future” should adhere to the ideals found in ancient Greek tragedy.
Belilove and company bring fresh interpretations to Duncan’s works in a cohesive program including a lecture and screening of rare films clips.
Target Margin Theatre: The Argument and Dinner Party
April 23–24 | 7:00 pm | Johnny Carson Theater at the Lied Center
Adults – $12 (FREE to UNL faculty & staff)
Students – $6 (FREE to UNL students)
Experience two theatrical works in one evening, directed by award-winning David Herskovits, founder of acclaimed Target Margin Theatre.
Based on both Aristotle’s Poetics and the essays of Gerald F. Else, The Argument is a passionate student’s love-letter and farewell to his teacher — reminding us of the personal pathos that binds us to the Greeks, and firing us to capture that chimera, art. A detailed yet playful adaptation of Plato’s Symposium, Dinner Party takes on love from every angle, delving into the original text with gusto to bring out the philosophy and lust, language and appetite — not to mention really good wine.
The Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium is sponsored by the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, presented, in part, by the Lied Center for Performing Arts, and funded, in part, by the Hixson-Lied Endowment.