Library Duet

Excerpts from "Library Duet," choreographed and performed by Emma Villavecchia '14 and Ben Broderick Phillips '13.

At Bennington, just as the lines between work and play are often blurred, so are the boundaries between ordinary campus space, stage, gallery, and classroom. In "Library Duet," work becomes play and library courtyard becomes venue.

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Dance

Dance students at Bennington create, practice, and perform the majority of their work in the Visual and Performing Arts Center (VAPA), a 120,000-square-foot facility that houses three dance studios and the Martha Hill Dance Theater. Our best advice is to come see it for yourself. But in the mean time, consider this a digital pamphlet: a few snapshots of a building that doesn't sleep.

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Student Work: Collaboration

Dancers Niko '11 and Theo '12 talk with musician Dmitri '12 about their whimsical collaborative piece, "In Here." The making of new work is at the center of dance at Bennington. Technique training—fundamentals, the discipline of movement, an awareness of the dancer's own body—goes hand in hand with the creative process.

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Student Work: Lydia and Taylor

Lydia '12 and Taylor '12 perform "Etchings" in one of Bennington's dance studios.The making of new work is at the center of dance at Bennington. Technique training—fundamentals, the discipline of movement, an awareness of the dancer's own body—goes hand in hand with the creative process.

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Dance Teacher-Practioners

More than 75 years ago, hundreds of students flocked to The Bennington School of the Dance to study with the "Big Four" of modern dance: Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Hanya Holm, and Charles Weidman. Today, an esteemed faculty of professional dancers and choreographers continues to draw students interested in making daring new work to Bennington.

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Student Work: Niko and Theo

Dancers Niko '11 and Theo '12, accompanied by musician Dmitri '12, perform "In Here" in Bennington's Martha Hill performance space.The making of new work is at the center of dance at Bennington. Technique training—fundamentals, the discipline of movement, an awareness of the dancer's own body—goes hand in hand with the creative process.

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A Bennington Legacy

In 1934, Bennington School of the Dance—one of America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures (Dance Heritage Coalition)—began as a creative laboratory for modern dance. Hundreds came to study with the “Big Four”: Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Hanya Holm, and Charles Weidman. This commitment to making new work continues to attract students today.

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Skip Navigation LinksDance

Make new work.

The making of original work is at the center of dance at Bennington.

Every facet of this unique program—technical practice, improvisational and compositional research, peer and faculty collaboration, interdisciplinary investigation, production and performance—works to expand your understanding of the creative process and deepen your awareness of the connection of mind and body. Study of dance in history helps place creative work in a cultural context.

In the First-Year Dance Intensive, you begin making dances immediately. Over four years, you are continually involved in making and performing new work, whether your own or someone else’s. At the weekly Dance Workshop, students of all levels join our full faculty to show and respond to works in progress. Whether dance is central to your education or a peripheral interest, you are invited to make work, show it, talk about it, revise it, and perform it again. Everyone is encouraged to work in all aspects of production.

Our faculty of renowned professional choreographers and dancers are well versed in a number of contemporary forms. Guest artists and graduate fellows come to Bennington from diverse backgrounds, styles, and cultures, and have taught a wide range of classes. These have included West African, Caribbean, and Butoh alongside notable and varied Western contemporary dance practices.

Bennington’s remarkable dance facilities, available round-the-clock, include beautiful studios and a 10,000-square-foot black box theater, fully equipped.

Bennington’s annual Field Work Term invites you to forge connections with the outside dance world by way of the College’s well-established professional network, its expansive roster of alumni dancers, and its outstanding reputation as an iconic American dance institution.