IAS Seminar

Spring 2013 Course: "Ancient World through Modern Eyes"

This is the special seminar that accompanies Season IV of the Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium, taught in conjunction with the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. We will be reading ancient classics (plays by Sophocles and Euripides, Plato's Symposium, Aristotle's Poetics), and modern re-interpretations of them (by Freud, Sartre, Jean Cocteau, Rita Dove, Ellen McLaughlin, and more). We will also study how modernist performance interpreted ancient texts and rituals, especially through modern dance (looking at work by Isadora Duncan, Nijinsky, the Ballets Russes).

The Symposium features a semester of visiting artists, performances and lectures, including the Joffrey Ballet performing Stravinsky's Rite of Spring . Class is routinely guest-taught by visiting choreographers, dramatists, choreographers, etc. Students attend performances and interact with the artists. This is a rare and exciting opportunity for Graduate students and advanced Undergraduates. No two seasons of IAS are alike.


Sample feedback from previous students enrolled in the IAS special seminar:

• "the speakers/scholars/artists brought in through IAS made the experience unique and wholly involving."
• "Very well taught [by a] wonderful scholar, knowledgeable, engaged.....a great class based in inquiry"
• "I have greatly benefited from this course! It allowed me to discover the importance of performance and the dialogue it opens up."
• "This is by far the most informative and intellectually stimulating course I've ever taken at UNL"