MFA in Dance: Related Content

On March 10, in an event organized by Elena Demyanenko, Bennington students, faculty, and staff laid down together on the ground in solidarity with Ukraine.

Emerging from long-running experimentation with color, performance artist Elena Demyanenko presents welter, an assemblage of simultaneous solos performed by Chloë Engel '17, Leah Morrison, and Demyanenko herself.

Unstoppable Feat is Brontez Purnell's film, performance, and archive project about the late San Francisco postmodern choreographer Ed Mock.

Bennington College is pleased to announce the 2019-20 candidates for its two-year Master of Fine Arts in Dance degree.

Bennington teaching technician and sculptor John Umphlett MFA '99 was interviewed by visual arts faculty member Jon Isherwood for the September issue of Sculpture magazine.

Choreographer, dancer, and visual artist Dana Reitz weaves movement and light scores that continually shift perception of time and space. Often performed in silence, they reveal musical nuance. She has collaborated with Jennifer Tipton, created works for Mikhail Baryshnikov, and toured extensively.

luciana achugar is a dance maker and teacher whose work blurs the lines between theater and healing; and between dancing and ritual. She makes dances as a way of growing an uncivilized, decolonized, utopian body with a practice of being in pleasure.

Mina Nishimura is a Tokyo-born dance artist whose works focus on ever-changing relationships between internal landscapes and external forms. Buddhism-influenced philosophies and butoh-based principles are reflected across her somatic, performance and choreographic practices. Nishimura is a 2019 recipient of Foundation of Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award.

Susan Sgorbati is a professional mediator and educator whose creative research has led to collaboration across disciplines and borders as both an artist and a driver of social change.

Richard MacPike brings his experience working on Broadway shows such as The Lion King and companies like the Santa Fe Opera and Glimmerglass to his work as costume shop manager at Bennington.

Born in Niigata, Japan, Kota Yamazaki was first introduced to butoh under the teaching of Akira Kasai, then graduated from Bunka Fashion College (Tokyo) with BA in Fashion Design. He is a recipient of Bessie Award 2007, FCA Award 2013, NYFA Fellowship 2016, and Guggenheim Fellowship 2018.

Terry Creach directed Creach/Company, which tours throughout the United States and Europe, and his work as a choreographer was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Foundation for the Arts, and the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts.

Originally from Malvern, Ohio, Maura Gahan MFA '22 is a Northern Vermont based dancer, puppeteer, and improviser. Her practice is derived from the technical forms and philosophies of Material for the Spine (Steve Paxton), Tuning Scores (Lisa Nelson) and the Bread and Puppet Theater (Peter Schumann) and is influenced by the movement of objects, plants, and other species.


Tal Shibi is a native Jerusalem choreographer, improvisor, performer, and teacher of dance, CI, and somatic awareness. He is continuously curious in exploring collaborations between different art forms, and widening the perceptions of performance and dance.

Michael Giannitti has extensive professional experience as a lighting designer and educator. He has designed lighting at many of the most prestigious venues around the country and has taught abroad as a two-time Fulbright Specialist Grant recipient.

Erin Ellen Kelly is a body based artist that creates performances and ephemeral collages for on-site presentation, the stage, installations, photographs and video. Her aim is for the body and its dance to explore nuanced relationships to environments and society.