Dance (BFA): Related Content
Bennington College President Laura Walker and the Director of the BFA & Low-Residency MFA in Dance Donna Faye Burchfield joined City Cast Philly to discuss how Bennington saved the storied UArts dance program.
Dance Magazine highlighted the 36 BFA students, 20 continuing low-residency MFA students, and 13 faculty members from University of the Arts who have merged into Bennington College.
After the University of the Arts in Philadelphia closed, Bennington College announced the school’s dance program will be revived as the College absorbs the dance school, three staff members and nearly 50 students.
In a rapid effort to preserve the dance programs shut down by the unexpected closure of the University of the Arts (UArts) on June 7, Bennington College summoned its forces, in collaboration with the UArts dance program, and will welcome students and faculty from the shuttered college’s BFA program this fall.
Katie Swords Thurman is a Philly-based dance artist whose pedagogic and choreographic work is influenced by the power, disquiet, and joy stirring within oneself.
Curt Haworth is a choreographer and improvise. He is currently designing evenings of spontaneous music and dance in collaboration with Free Fleet and Studio 34.
Shayla-Vie Jenkins is a Philadelphia-based performer, maker, educator, poetry lover, writer, and mama.
Kingsley Ibeneche is a Nigerian-American Choreographer, Dancer, Musician, and published writer.
kira shiina (they/she) is a freelance dance artist, sound practitioner, and educator.
Paul Matteson MFA '07 is a BESSIE Award performer and former member of the internationally touring Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.
Sidra Bell is the founder of Sidra Bell Dance New York and a dancer, choreographer, and educator.
Kyle “JustSole” Clark is an award-winning dancer, choreographer, and street dance competitor who has dedicated 20+ years to the cultivation, transmission, and preservation of Hip Hop/Street and club dance forms/cultural traditions.
Emily Wexler is a Brooklyn-based choreographer and dancer whose work explores the existential capacities of dance and performance through a collective exploration of memory and time. She works collaboratively in her work with dancers, students, artists, and senior citizens.
Rena Butler is a recipient of the 2019 Princess Grace Foundation Award and the 2024 Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Choreography. She was Gibney Company’s inaugural Choreographic Associate, and has created works for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, AIM by Kyle Abraham, Whim W'Him, Het Nationale Ballet, The San Francisco Opera, and many more.
Mark Caserta is a queer dance maker from Philly, where they direct the movement collective BIGKID DANCE.
Jesse Zaritt's work engages drawing as dancing - a visual and physical practice linked to dreaming, drafting, and materializing futures. He is a Brooklyn-based dance artist.
Donna Faye Burchfield is the Director of the BFA & Low-Residency MFA in Dance at Bennington College.
Michael Sheridan is a Philadelphia-based artist, activist, and educator.
Sara Procopio is a Brooklyn-based dance artist, educator, and arts manager.
Gary W. Jeter II has a method of moving and sharing that is influenced and inspired by many years of dancing in diverse and extended ways and working with a plethora of inspiring artists. A merge of everything he has found beneficial and enjoys, translated through his specific lens.
Song Aziza Tucker (she/her) is a project based movement and writing artist whose works have spiraled out of her love for Black femmes, music, and poetry.
Niall Jones is a NYC based artist working within a constellation of curiosities, obsessions, and practices that move across dance, performance, sound, text, photography and video.