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Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) saw all music as a metaphor for the body experiencing itself. We don’t just hear music: we feel it, and the Swiss-born composer and teacher invented a whole coursework to musically explore our sixth sense, proprioception. In Eurhythmics, (greek for ‘good flow’) we'll play with embodiment as the origin of dynamic, felt experience, designing

How do performing musicians develop their personal voices? The Swiss pedagogue Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) invented Eurhythmics to address this question. Specifically, we’ll focus on plastique animée, a movement practice that Dalcroze created for analyzing sound through movement. We’ll attempt to feel with our arms and legs what a

Dalcroze Eurhythmics is a music class where we practice sensing the body through sound. What do you know that your sentient, feeling body did not first experience? How does music help you know and express yourself? Can music help you understand someone else? Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) saw all music as a metaphor for the body experiencing itself. We don’t just hear music

What do you know that your sentient, feeling body did not first experience? The musician Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) invented Eurhythmics to explore this question. Self-awareness, self-expression, and musical knowing are all seated in the body, the fundamental constant of all experience. So how do we honor that truth in our learning? We notice and name discrete events,

What if everything you want to understand about music is already within you, innate, instinctive, indelible? When Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) first taught harmony to students at the Geneva Conservatory in the 1890s, he found a disconnect between their aural perception and physical coordination, and devised a coursework to re-unite the two. He called it Eurhythmics,

Dalcroze Eurhythmics is a music class where we practice sensing the body through musical movement. Can our bodies help us learn how to read and interpret sheet music too? Yes! The feeling body is the single constant throughout all of our experiences, but

We performers, makers, and listeners think of sound as music’s medium, but we don’t just hear music: we feel it. We will play with embodiment and as the origin of dynamic, felt experience and with proprioception as the bridge connecting our innate musical understanding to the abstract language of musical sound. Students’ weekly homework--listening, conducting, and following

Dalcroze Eurhythmics: what does a conductor do? What can embodiment, proprioception, and attention to nuance teach us about how we express ourselves and interpret the expression of others? How do conductors lead groups of musicians without making a sound?

***TIME CHANGE*** The goal of this class is to develop and extend both solo and ensemble improvisational practices.  Working toward the performance of improvisation, we will determine appropriate settings and situations to extend our research outside the classroom. We’ll research the roots of improvisation in performance starting with the Judson Dance Theater, and look

For students with extensive experience with dance improvisation. Our practice will involve developing scores by the participants using both solo and ensemble forms. Students may then show their work-on-progress in Workshops and/or in public performances.

The goal of this class is to develop and extend both solo and ensemble improvisational practices.  Working toward the performance of improvisation, we will determine appropriate settings and situations to extend our research outside the classroom. We’ll research the roots of improvisation in performance starting with the Judson Dance Theater, and look at the cultural

This course is for students who have a serious interest in dance or desire to explore embodied cognition, whether or not you have previous dance experience. We will consider many aspects of dance making, embodiment, and performance. We will work towards constantly evolving ways to be one’s own teacher—recognizing patterns, heightening awareness of observation, and selecting

This course is for students who have a serious interest in dance or desire to explore embodied practice and cognition, whether or not you have previous dance experience. We will consider many aspects of dance making, embodiment, and performance. We will work towards constantly evolving ways to be one’s own teacher—recognizing patterns, heightening awareness of observation, and

This course is designed for students with a serious interest in dance, as well as those curious about exploring embodied cognition and movement practice, whether or not they have previous dance experience. Together we will investigate multiple aspects of embodiment, dance-making and performance, cultivating tools for attentive observation,

This course serves as an introduction to dance studies at Bennington College. It is intended for students new to Bennington who have a serious interest in dance, as well as those with a desire to deeply explore movement and embodied practice as an artistic form, whether or not you have previous dance experience. Through a broad range of cultural and artistic perspectives, we

This course serves as an introduction to dance studies at Bennington College. It is intended for students new to Bennington who have a serious interest in dance, as well as those with a desire to deeply explore movement and embodied practice as an artistic form. Through a broad range of perspectives, we will encounter many

This beginning level course is for any students interested and/or curious about the dance-making process, whether or not they have previous dance experience. We will first work to connect with physical sensations and develop physical awareness as well as physical skills and facility.  We will work to unearth movement ideas and particular images.  We will develop solo

This course is an introduction to the creative process of dance making. We will look at choreography as a format for arranging bodies and movement; considering time, space, and emotion in performance based work. We will explore, improvise, watch, and discuss our work and the work of others.  We will develop personal movement material from multiple sources and investigate

A great deal of what we know of Non-Western dance makers is through written critiques, reviews, and social media. Contemporary dance artists in West and East Africa are essentially unknown in the United States. Dance as an art form is situated in a context of politics, history and the environment. In this course, we will look at, not only the critiques and reviews, but also the

For students of all disciplines, this course will include weekly screenings of dance on film. We will be looking at a wide variety of dance, from The Ballets Russes to early Modern Dance at Bennington to Postmodern Dance, nationally and internationally. We will also utilize the library collection of dance films from cultures around the world, to examine the diverse styles and

Dance performance exists in time and space. How does our experience change when we see dance mediated by the videographer or the choreographer through a camera lens? In this course we have two simultaneous tasks: (1) to perceive and understand the point of view of the videographer/choreographer as we watch dances made for camera as well as documentary films, and 2) understand

For students of all disciplines, this course will include weekly screenings of dance on film. We will be looking at a wide variety of dance, from The Ballets Russes to early Modern Dance at Bennington to Postmodern Dance, nationally and internationally, and try on some of this movement ourselves. We will also utilize the library collection of dance films from cultures around

This hands-on course co-taught by dance faculty Elena Demyanenko and guest video-artist Tori Lawrence will utilize camera/iPhone exercises, selected film screenings (to understand a range of perspectives), and improvisational games to give students an opportunity to expand and refine their own visual sensibilities with the goal of creating collaborative dance and camera