Spring 2026 Course Search

This class is an extension of the Black Music Division at Bennington College that brought dancers and musicians together for live performance in the composition of Improvisation. It is co-taught by Susan Sgorbati and Michael Wimberly. 

Musicians and Dancers will study and practice together a Solo Practice and an Ensemble Practice, building compositional structures for performance. 

Dance, Musicals, Opera - a costume studio practice

The class will consist of three elements-

1) Designing a produced piece in drama or dance

2) A paper project designing costumes for a music based narrative piece (ie:opera, musical theatre, dance)

This advanced level intensive course is designed for students who have prior experience of making a work around a body, especially (yet not limited) in dance, theater and visual arts contexts. Inspired by butoh-based movement practice, Buddhism and French post-structuralism philosophies, students will seek a way of liberating a body from a socially pre-conditioned self.

This course requires no previous dance experience, and is open to anyone who is interested in the art of absence or art that deals with the presence of things we cannot see — the invisibles, empty space and silence – found across different art forms and practices.

This beginning-level dance course requires no previous dance training and welcomes absolute beginners who would like to start a day with physical practice and body attunement. Students are introduced to some basic principles of dancing by learning various movement patterns, choreographed sequences and by engaging in improvisational and compositional movement practice.

This Beginner level course is designed and recommended for students with prior dance experience or equivalent training in any form of physical expression.

The aim is to encounter the inner energy and passion that dance evokes from within the body, alongside the choreographic language of Trisha Brown, which is rooted in neutrality and free from unnecessary movement. While these two directions may seem opposite, early recordings of Trisha Brown suggest a fascinating fusion of both qualities.

This course delves into the interdisciplinary art of screendance, examining the mediatization of the moving body within cinematic and site-specific contexts. By exploring the dynamic collaboration between camera, body, and environment, students will study a range of methods used by film and video artists—both historical and contemporary—while also developing their own experimental approaches.

This is an essential course for students wishing to make new work for performance this term, whether one project or a series. It is designed specifically to support each person’s artistic voice and manner of working.

Celtic history and music from Ireland, Scotland, Bretagne, Galatia, and Cape Breton will be experienced, studied, and performed using instruments and voices. We’ll find and cross the musical bridges between regions–from the ballads of Ireland, Scotland and Wales to the Alalas of Spain, through the Scottish Gaelic speaking Highland and Islands to the dance tunes of Brittany. An end-of-term presentation will be prepared drawing on inspiration from traditional forms.

How do actors bridge the gap between themselves and the role they are playing? How do actors rehearse with other actors in order to explore the world of the play? 

This non-performance based class is designed to help individual actors discover their own organic, thorough rehearsal process. Step by step we will clarify the actor’s process: character research, character exploration, text analysis, identifying actions, working with scene partners, emotional preparation, and scene presentation. 

This course is an in-depth exploration of improvised comedy scene work, with a central focus on finding and playing “Game.” Game is loosely defined as a pattern of unusual behavior that breaks from the pattern of your everyday life. In other words, Game is what's funny about your scene.

To play Game in a long-form scene, you’ll learn to answer three key questions:

• What is the situation?

• What is the first unusual thing?

• If this is true, then what else is true?

To do or not to do? The decision itself is a mystery. The moment of choice is often confusing, ambiguous, even traumatic—yet it is also thrilling, brimming with possibilities.

Our actions frequently arise at the intersection of embodiment and disembodiment.

Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American icon whose approach and innovation on the trumpet set him apart from the mainstream. Davis explored new approaches to creating and composing music. Davis was a trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. When you hear a Miles Davis recording, you know it's Miles. Davis's five-decade career kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz.

A performance-based course for folks interested in this medium. It is not necessary to have elaborate skill in sound design and editing, though students with this interest are welcome to enroll. All students will perform as actors in each other’s projects. Each week the class will listen to examples of current Radio Play and Theatre Podcast content, and discussion of weekly listenings.

This class is fundamentally an advanced rehearsal techniques class for actors and directors with a focus on physical sensory work. The questions investigated include: What is substitution and how can it help bring the relationships of a play to life? How do you create the physical, sensory world of the play? Where are you coming from when you enter a stage from the wings? How do you personalize and endow the set and props your character thinks of as real?

The course will be for sustained work on an animation or design project, and should be a space for both experimentation, ambition and a consistent endeavor.  Students will be expected to create a complete animation, a series of experiments, projection or interactive project.  The expectation is that students will be fully engaged in all aspects of the class from critiques, to experimenting with ideas, undertaking research and being present.

This course offers a continuing introduction to the history and development of world theater and drama. We will experience the vibrant pageant of theater history through an exploration of its conventions and aesthetics, as well as its social and cultural functions. Starting in the nineteenth century, we will read representative plays ranging from the advent of stage Realism and Naturalism with Ibsen and Strindberg, through modern and contemporary drama (from the United States, Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa).

The dramaturg serves as a powerful medium in the theatre. They bridge the past and the present, the creative team and the audience, while providing critical generosity and historical and literary insight. In this course, we will learn about the history and practice of dramaturgy, while learning how the critical and research skills of the dramaturg can apply to a wide array of theatrical and artistic disciplines. Through a varied blend of weekly readings, discussion, small-group activities, and independent projects, students will engage with various tools and methods of dramaturgy.

The dramaturg serves as a powerful medium in the theatre. They bridge the past and the present, the creative team and the audience, while providing critical generosity and historical and literary insight. Focusing upon the practical application of dramaturgy, this course will offer students a credited platform for dramaturgical work oriented toward production.

How do we recognize and make fluid forms in dance? How do we find the structural current?  How do we experience time? How do we compose with care and thought using something that keeps moving?  How on earth do we do this?

Resilience deals with not only the expected but also the unexpected.  During this period of time, Dana Reitz will create a new dance work with the entire group, in sections and as a whole, that will rise from the participants. During class and outside of class, everyone will be involved in creating individual movement material and delving into multiple variations – of the phrases, spatial use, and overall timing.

An actor honors and bears witness to humanity by embodying and giving voice to the human element in the landscape of theatrical collaboration. Investigating the impulses and intuitions that make us unique as individuals can also identify what constitutes our shared humanity. Through exploration of the fundamentals of performance, students address the actor’s body, voice, and imagination as instruments for creating drama, conflict, action, and story.

“If you are really doing it, you don’t have time to watch yourself doing it.” Sanford Meisner was an actor and founding member of the Group Theater. He went on to become a master teacher of acting who sought to give students an organized approach to the creation of truthful behavior on stage within the imaginary circumstances of a play. This class focuses on developing an actor’s ability to listen, follow their impulses, trust their instincts, and work from moment to moment off of an acting partner.

This course is designed to teach the student the many steps involved in creating a finished garment from a simple idea, piece of research, or sketch. Students will learn the basics of draping, flat patterning, and fitting. Construction of a final garment will allow them to explore and employ sewing skills beyond the fundamentals.

In this project-based class, students will undertake intermediate or advanced level work in lighting design, scenic design and/or stage management. The course is designed for those developing and implementing theatrical designs, as well as stage managers of faculty or student directed projects being produced on campus. In a studio atmosphere, students will share work in process each week, from inception through realization of their respective production projects. Particular attention will be placed on collaboration and communication between members of design/production teams.

In this project-based class, students will undertake intermediate or advanced level work in lighting design, scenic design and/or stage management. The course is designed for those developing and implementing theatrical designs, as well as stage managers of faculty or student directed projects being produced on campus. In a studio atmosphere, students will share work in process each week, from inception through realization of their respective production projects. Particular attention will be placed on collaboration and communication between members of design/production teams.

In this course, students will learn technically demanding movement material from contemporary dance choreographers. Specifically, we will focus on duet and partnering movement material that the instructor himself participated in creating and performing. We will stitch this movement material together to create an original dance piece that will be performed in the Works in Progress dance concert towards the end of the term.

This is a multi-modal course that examines how the body serves as a repository for knowledge. It is open to any student who wishes to explore the complex ways in which histories form around discourses of the body, culture, aesthetic philosophy, and power. Specifically, we will examine the theoretical proposals embedded in the history of modern and postmodern dance, and place this work within a larger social, cultural and political context. We will activate our understanding of these histories through embodied movement practices.

Isn’t the meaning of a work always discovered, to some extent, by its creator during the process of making it?” (Roslyn Sulcas). 

What is action? What is character? What is an “event”? What are gestures, timing, rhythm and stakes? How do actors, playwrights, and directors collaborate to create an experience/event in space and time? How do illusion and anti-illusion collude and compete to make the representation “real?” This workshop/seminar offers theater artists the chance to examine their craft from the inside out. We meet twice a week with a 4-hour block on Tuesday afternoons to allow for in class rehearsals and showings.

From Novel to Opera to Bluegrass Musical

Set in 1940’s Arkansas and then 1960’s Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry, Gancher's bluegrass musical Eugene Onegin retells the story of Eugene and Tanya—one of history’s greatest tales of The One Who Got Away. 

Isn’t the meaning of a work always discovered, to some extent, by its creator during the process of making it?” (Roslyn Sulcas). 

Coming of Age: The Open Road

I inhale great draughts of space,

The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine.

I am larger, better than I thought,

I did not know I held so much goodness.

Accessibility describes the practice of freeing a space or an event so it might be visited by more people in more ways than one could ever presume at the outset. In this course, we will explore the litany of practices that allow more people (and in particular, disabled, mad, and chronically ill people) into all spheres of public life with a particular focus on performance events.

In this course, we will explore various projects that aim to connect people with their surroundings and communities.
We will also explore the strategies that various artists have implemented to increase their audiences and interest in the arts.
We will analyze and design projects that seek sustainability, diversification, and access to the experience of art and culture.

By evaluating environments we could design artistic projects that promote art, artistic education, and the promotion of cultural products as actions to build community, identity, and a creative economy.

In this course we focus our attention on a few of the most exciting composers of the late twentieth-century, and discuss how their music has influenced the music of the current period.

This is a 2 credit course to support the Faculty Drama Production of Eugene Onegin. Voice and style instruction will be provided for the singers in the musical, and some research on American singing styles. 

This course will support the rehearsal and performance process of the student-directed productions. Students who are cast in the productions through the Drama Auditions will enroll in this 2-credit section.

This course will support student directors in the rehearsal and production process of their faculty-approved projects. It will provide a structured framework for students to conceive, rehearse, and present their theatrical productions under the guidance of faculty. Students will develop a collaborative process as they direct and manage productions from inception through performance.

This class will introduce students to the fundamentals of scenic art, including terminology, and commonly used tools and techniques. Students will learn to create processes that will guide them from a rendering or scenic finish to a completed project. Skills we will develop include color mixing, surface preparation for soft goods and hard scenery, translating small renderings to fully realized pieces, analyzing and reproducing organic textures and architectural details.

This class will introduce students to basic concepts of improvised dancing with particular focus on effort.  Class will begin with an embodied check-in and a gentle warm-up. Weekly exercises will move students through various investigations regarding effort, from organ systems to Buddhist teachings to personal preferences to the laws of Physics. While the course's references will be wide-ranging, the objective of the class will always be to learn by doing and to physicalize knowledge. 

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

This seminar course investigates the cultural, philosophical, and aesthetic dimensions of sound through critical readings, listening exercises, and discussions. Drawing from fields such as sound studies, media theory, musicology, literature, and art, Readings in Sound challenges students to consider how sound shapes experience, knowledge, identity, and space.

In 1935, at Bennington College, Martha Graham created the iconic work Panorama. This piece “was Graham’s political call to action and her attempt to awaken social consciousness and is a stunning example of 1930s modernism.” The Martha Graham Dance Company returns to Bennington to celebrate its 100th year by teaching and performing this piece.

Actions in Practice employs Sidra Bell's CONTEMPORARY SYSTEMS, an interior and material approach to movement that encourages provocative thought and an immersive approach to the subject matter of the body. The work demands a high degree of physicality and input from the dancers, encouraging them to execute movement with intention, curiosity, and empathy.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.