Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium ends spring with tango finale

            The tango has fascinated the world for hundreds of years with its stories of passion told through dramatic dips and breathtaking embraces. At 7:30 p.m. April 14 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Lied Center for Performing Arts, audiences will have the chance to experience this powerful dance firsthand. The show is the finale of the UNL Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts' third annual Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium.

            "This Is Tango Now: Identidad" uses the ferocious drama, passion and beauty of tango dancing to tell a moving human story of universal themes: willpower, love and the struggle for independence. The stage of Identidad explodes with light and colors, movement and energy, passion and emotions and music from the most celebrated tango masters -- Osvaldo Pugliese and Astor Piazzolla.

            Tickets are $18 for adults, $9 for students and youth, and are available at the Lied Center Ticket Office in person at 301 N. 12th St., via phone at 402-472-4747 or online at www.liedcenter.org. UNL students can see the performance free of charge by reserving a ticket at http://marketplace.unl.edu/liedcenter.

            "Not many people have ever seen the power of real, authentic tango up close," said Rhonda Garelick, IAS founding director. "This Is Tango Now brings this highly charged art form to the stage in a full production with lights, sets and a live band. The story of "Identidad" is about a marionette that breaks free from her puppetmaster to travel the world and explore her newfound freedom. It is the perfect way to end this year's symposium."

            This Is Tango Now is a creative project formed by renowned tango artists Fernanda Ghi and Guillermo Merlo and musician-anthropologist Alfredo Minetti. The three bring different but complementary backgrounds to the group and are united by an unconditional passion for tango and by a commitment to presenting it in all its beauty, diversity and complexity.

            They explore all the tango disciplines as one: dance, music, poetry, singing, theater, fine arts, literature, fashion, film, social aesthetics, the humanities and social sciences. It is an inclusive, multilayered and multifaceted way to integrate this tradition into the contemporary world.

            Other events remaining on the IAS calendar this spring are:

• Thursday, April 5 -- C. Daniel Dawson, an artist, photographer and New York University faculty member, will give a lecture, "Widi Mambo -- Listen to the Important Matter," at UNL's Van Brunt Visitors Center, 313 N. 13th St. The lecture is free and open to the public. Dawson's area of expertise deals with the African diaspora and its influence on the arts around the world. To register to attend the lecture, contact Petra Wahlqvist at pwahlqvist2@unl.edu or 402-472-3215.
• Thursday, April 12 -- This Is Tango Now will conduct a 2-hour lecture/master class for UNL students and the public at 4:30 p.m. in 119 Westbrook Music Building, 11th and R streets. The free lecture/master class covers tango music, singing and dancing, and will include UNL students playing and being critiqued by the visiting artists. The company will also deliver a tango dance workshop at 9:30 a.m. April 13. For more information or to attend, contact Wahlqvist. For the dance workshop, participants must be at least 16 years of age and registration is required.

            The Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium, founded and directed by Garelick, 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. The IAS 2012 season is supported by the Cooper Foundation and is devoted to exploring the rich cultural fusion that results from "Immigration, Migration, and Transplantation in Performance." More information on all events can be found at www.unl.edu/ias.

Writer: Shannon McClure