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. 

Modern Guitar is a one on one private lesson.  Occasionally if two students are about the same level the class will accommodate two students at a time.

It is expected that a firm grasp of all the concepts taught in Beginning and Intermediate Guitar are fully understood.

If you haven’t taken these classes you would have to audition to receive the instructors permission to demonstrate skills.

Correct posture for playing the guitar Several approaches to tuning the guitar

Twelve week study of twelve different guitarists of varying styles for awareness of the history of the guitar and the various styles the instrument is capable of. Enhances listening skills.

Finger independence and strength exercises. Attaching finger skills and independence to the brain.

Instrumental Study on Guitar.  Continued studies from Beginning Guitar. Advanced study in fret-board harmony and theory.

The course is for intermediate to advanced students.
Students are expected to practice daily (minimum of 45 minutes). End-of-semester performance is required.

In her essay, Violence, director Anne Bogart writes, "Richard Foreman, perhaps the most intellectual of American directors, said that, for him, creation is one hundred percent intuitive. I have learned that he is right. This is not to say that one must not think analytically, theoretically, practically and critically. There is a time and a place for this kind of left-brain activity, but not in the heat of discovery in rehearsal and not in front of an audience. As soon as the door closes in rehearsal or as soon as the curtain goes up in performance, there is no time to think or reflect.

This two-credit course involves working on the conceptualization and editing of the national print literary magazine Bennington Review. Students will serve as Editorial Assistants for the magazine. The course will also engage students in how to approach fiction as an editor: from the selection process, macro edits, and micro edits—to the conversation with the writer.

According to "All Englang," Joan Acocella's essay in The New Yorker, Geoffery Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, "was the freshest, clearest, and sweetest of the great English poets." She goes on to say that, living in the 14th century, he was also perhaps the first great English poet. Still.

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.

Beginning, intermediate and advanced group lessons on the mandolin will be offered. Students will learn classical technique on the mandolin and start to develop a repertoire of classical and traditional folk pieces. Simple song sheets with chords, tablature, and standard notation, chord theory, and scale work will all be used to further skills. History of the Italian origins of mandolin and its introduction to the western world will be discussed as well as past and present practices.

Introduces the fundamentals of guitar playing, including: posture, hand positions, tuning, chords, strumming, finger-picking, songs and tunes, major scales, and beginning to read music. History of the guitar and its past and current artists will be shared.

For the experienced (3+years of playing) violinist/violist. Lessons in traditional styles of fiddling – Quebecois, New England, Southern Appalachian, Scandinavian, Cajun, Irish, and Scottish. This course is designed to heighten awareness of the variety of ways the violin is played regionally and socially in North America (and indeed around the world) and to give practical music skills for furthering personal music making. Students will be expected to perform at Music Workshop, or as part of a concert, in ensemble and/or solo.

Instrumental Study on Guitar. Continued studies from Beginning Guitar. Advanced study in fret-board harmony and theory, play in different tunings, increase chord vocabulary and repertoire.

A comprehensive course in learning musical skills on the ukulele. We will learn the history of the uke, from its Portuguese and Indigenous Hawaiian origins, and both traditional and contemporary styles. Music theory and playing techniques will be learned and practiced. Awareness of traditional styles of playing the instrument will be furthered through a listening component and ensemble playing with other instrumentalists. Repertoire will be drawn from traditional and original Hawaiian songs, as well as contemporary music from the past 60 years.

Instructor will provide musical prompts such as chordal patterns, melodic fragments, and rhythms as a basis for evocative and expressive improvisation. While we will learn some music theory terminology, the class will de-emphasize sheet music in order to focus on navigating the keyboard itself. All experience levels are welcome.

Lessons offered one on one or in small groups. All experience levels welcome. Trumpet, Cornet, Horn, Trombone, Tuba. Some instruments available to borrow. Students should plan to practice daily for ten minutes.

Mutually agreed upon lesson time to be arranged following registration.

This intensive advanced translation workshop focuses on student work. Meant for those who have taken Ethical Translation and learned the nuts and bolts of translation there – or otherwise have translation and/or extensive foreign language experience – here we dig into your longer translation projects. The aim of the course is to leave with a polished translation that is worthy of publication and a general audience.

Born to a multilingual family and culture, with connections to both India and Pakistan, and educated at Cambridge in the UK, Rushdie was already a celebrated writer when an Iranian clerical fatwa against him in 1989 launched him to another level of fame (or infamy). Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini charged Rushdie with blasphemy in his novel, Satanic Verses, published the prior fall (1988), offering a bounty for his life. The fatwa was never repealed.

That writers of color earn less than their white peers in advances and fees is anecdotally well known. But we lack exhaustive data. Gearing up for such data collection the next few years in a faculty-driven project at Bennington, this course provides an overview of the broader ethical and social landscape around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in publishing. Major inquiries will include:

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.

This course serves as an introduction to rhythms, songs, and musical practices from Africa and the African Diaspora, including Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Students will learn these traditional folkloric rhythms using indigenous percussion instruments from these territories and provinces. Class discussions will convey history, culture, language, and dance from these regions. Students will also have opportunities to create rhythms and arrangements in collaboration in our “break-out” segments.

This course serves as an introduction to rhythms, songs, and musical practices from Africa and the African Diaspora, including Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Students will learn these traditional folkloric rhythms using indigenous percussion instruments from these territories and provinces. Class discussions will convey history, culture, language, and dance from these regions. Students will also have opportunities to create rhythms and arrangements in collaboration in our “break-out” segments.

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.

This two-credit course involves working on selecting and editing the content of Bennington’s recently relaunched national print literary magazine, Bennington Review. Students will serve as Editorial Assistants for the magazine, studying and practicing all aspects of magazine editing. The course will also engage students in discussions of contemporary print and digital literary culture, and of the history of literary magazines. Students will be selected in part based on their familiarity with contemporary literature, as well as for prior experience in editing or publishing.

We will spend the term immersed in in-depth reading and analysis of the plot, structure, and language, and cultural context of six Shakespeare tragedies: Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, and Othello. We will focus on the themes of power, corruption, betrayal, revenge, despair, and madness, among others. We will also spend considerable time discussing representations of gender, race, and old age in Shakespeare.

Advanced studies in theory relating to performance.

Students must be enrolled in Bass with Bisio (MIN4417) simultaneously, no exceptions. This class is only for advanced students and by permission of instructor.

Beginning to advanced lessons in bass technique and appropriate theory.

Lessons on Tuesdays – Schedule TBA.

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.

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). 

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

Individual 25-30 min. long lessons for students with prior experience who want to continue learning fundamental violin technique.
Daily practice (about 15-20 min.) is expected. End-of-semester performance is required.

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.

Studio instruction in cello. There will be an emphasis on creating and working towards an end-of-term project for each student.

The basics of cello, part one. In a small group or one-on-one, students will learn how to play cello, with an emphasis on performance at the term’s conclusion.

This course is for students who have prior experience with the instrument. Students are expected to practice daily for a minimum of 30 minutes per day. End of semester performance required.

This course is designed for students with no prior string instrument experience. Admission is on a first come, first served basis. Classes will be one on one, individual lessons.

Daily practice  of 10 to 15 minutes is expected, in order for students to become familiar and comfortable with the basic mechanics of playing viola.

Experience with reading music, playing piano, singing or any instrument prior to taking this course is helpful.

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.

Piano Lab I aims to introduce the piano to first-time musicians or first-time pianists. Over the course of the semester, basics in music theory, piano technique, and note reading will be taught, culminating in an end-of-term recital. Please note that this course is meant for beginners, not advanced pianists.

In an interview with the Paris Review in 1984, James Baldwin spoke of creative writing as a means of "finding out": "When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know. The whole language of writing for me is finding out what you don’t want to know, what you don’t want to find out. But something forces you to anyway." This is writing as a form of inquiry, so deep-seated that it's involuntary: the only real, consistently available means we have of gaining better purchase on the world around us, and on ourselves.