Act. Sing. Dance. Write. Play music. Paint. Express yourself creatively. You can do it all and do it often at Iowa.

Iowa has a long-standing reputation for excellence in the arts. Students are invited to take advantage of a wealth of resources, including world-renowned faculty and impressive performance venues.

Many of the performance opportunities and activities are offered by the UI School of Music and Departments of Dance and Theatre Arts. Some are geared toward majors, while others are open to students throughout the University. You can find an array of additional opportunities among more than 400 recognized student organizations and various community groups.

Performing on stage builds confidence, strengthens résumés, and helps prepare students for careers after graduation. While some graduates move on to performance arts employment, many use their skills developed at Iowa to pursue jobs in non-arts-related fields.

• Why Perform at Iowa?
• Facilities
• Performing Arts Living-Learning Community
• Music Performance
• Dance Performance
• Theatre Performance

Why Perform at Iowa?
Among the top programs in the country—these are the words often used to describe Iowa’s arts programs.

The Departments of Theatre Arts and Dance and the School of Music are part of the Division of Performing Arts, which encourages and promotes interaction and collaboration among Iowa's arts departments.

For example, dance majors have opportunities to perform in opera and theatre productions. The departments also maintain close working relationships with the School of Art and Art History, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and the UI Museum of Art.

This spirit of cooperation increases the number of potential performing opportunities for students. And it enhances the already exciting arts-and-culture climate on Iowa’s campus.

Facilities
Hancher Auditorium seats 2,680 people for concerts and 2,400 for operas and stage productions. In its 30-year history, Hancher has presented more than 3,100 performances to more than 4.5 million attendees.

The School of Music offers seven practice and recital organs, four large rehearsal halls, ensemble rooms, 73 practice rooms, ear training and listening facilities with 50 listening posts, three electronic music labs, and a professional recording facility. Music performance venues include the 720-seat Clapp Recital Hall and the 80-seat Krapf Organ Studio.

Space/Place Theatre in North Hall is the Department of Dance’s 220-seat performance theatre. The department’s home in Halsey Hall features six technique studios, a video and Labanotation classroom, music studio, and Pilates lab.

Among outstanding theatre arts performance venues are the Mabie Theatre, a 477-seat proscenium playhouse; the David Thayer Theatre, a semiflexible 190-seat venue designed for experimental and environmental presentations; Theatre B, a 144-seat theatre used for workshop productions; and Studio Theatre, a 50-seat venue in the movement room for performances with minimal production needs.

Performing Arts Living-Learning Community
Students interested in the performing arts may choose to live in the Performing Arts Living-Learning Community, a coed fine arts living-learning community that serves a diverse group of artists, actors, musicians, dancers, and writers. The community is open to first-year students majoring in the visual, creative, and performing arts, with preference given to students of dance, music, art and art history, film, photography, and theatre arts.

Music Performance
Is your idea of the perfect cocurricular activity a performing group, whether choral or instrumental, jazz, popular, classical, or marching band? Students who sing or play an instrument are in luck at Iowa.

From new music to jazz, and from symphonic classics to opera, the
University has nearly two dozen campus performing groups for which musically inclined students may audition. Among them are:

• University Symphony Orchestra, open to all students, by audition.
• Concert Band, a 65-member group open to all students, by audition.
• Hawkeye Marching Band, a 260-member group that plays at all home football games, selected road games, and postseason games.
• Hawkeye Pep Bands, two bands comprised of marching band members that play at basketball games, other sporting events, and a variety of University functions.
• Percussion Ensemble, featuring percussion instrumental music of the 20th and 21st centuries in many styles and from many areas in the world.
• Center for New Music chamber ensemble, a performance organization devoted to a late 20th-century and early 21st-century repertoire.
• Scottish Highlanders, who perform Scottish piping, dancing, and drumming in traditional dress.
• Voices of Soul, a gospel choir that nurtures and enhances the musical culture of African Americans.

Students interested in auditioning for performing groups should check with the School of Music to arrange for an audition during the first week of classes in the fall semester. Auditions also may determine the winners of departmental scholarships.

Dance Performance
You’ll discover numerous opportunities to gain dance experience—ranging from modern to ballet to jazz and funk—on stage at Iowa. They include:

• 10 to 12 student and faculty productions each year in Space/Place Theatre.
• An extensive schedule of local and regional performances, demonstrations, master classes, and workshops by Dancers In Company, the University’s touring dance company.
• The annual Dance Gala, featuring 40 to 60 dancers in a concert that showcases the best faculty and student talent (major and nonmajor alike).
• Dozens of other informal and experimental concerts throughout the year.

Theatre Performance

The Theatre Arts Department at Iowa is the third-oldest theatre arts department in the country. Even though it has a historic legacy, it is committed to new plays and is one of the best-known centers for development of new works. Iowa produces more work in a year than many places do in a decade.

UI undergraduates become involved quickly in classes and productions. All students are invited to audition for every play, and there are many roles available. Among the theatre options are:

• 25 to 30 scheduled Productions each year.
• Dozens of performances or readings of new plays by participants of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, one of the finest graduate playwriting programs in America.
• Frequent participation in productions directed, designed, and/or written by, and often starring, Iowa’s faculty members.
• Internships at professional theatres, usually in the summer and involving production areas (backstage, stage management, design, or arts management), so students can learn all aspects of performance and production.