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Sustainable development has been defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It calls for concerted efforts towards building an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient future for people and planet. For sustainable development to be achieved, it is crucial to harmonize three core elements: economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection. Ending poverty in all forms is vital.

The comforts and amenities of modern life require vast inputs of energy to power an industrial society. While the benefits of industrial society are significant, if unevenly shared, the environmental costs of energy extraction and production are significant. These environmental costs are also unevenly shared.

Each Practice + Process course is designed around the research/pedagogic interests of the faculty member leading the class. The overall curricular structure positions studio practice, creative process and critical reading, thinking and languaging as integrated elements within one course, enabling students to move between modes of learning, reflection and making.

Each Practice + Process course is designed around the research/pedagogic interests of the faculty member leading the class. The overall curricular structure positions studio practice, creative process and critical reading, thinking and languaging as integrated elements within one course, enabling students to move between modes of learning, reflection and making.

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.

The craft of acting will be the main focus of this class.

What happens when you start a rehearsal process and you are not sure what you are wanting yet? How do you present movement phrases, concepts, and structures and incorporate new information from the performers? What is it that you see? How do you change your mind?

In this 7-week course, we’ll explore a variety of approaches to improvised scene work, focusing on techniques beyond the Upright Citizens Brigade paradigm. Emphasizing Chicago-style improv, we’ll shift away from a strict ‘Game’ focus and instead prioritize relationship and character.

Get ready to jump in, take risks, and perform hundreds of scenes as you sharpen your skills and expand your improv toolkit. And of course, we’ll top it all off with a final class show where anything can happen!

In this course, students will work on an extended piece (10+ minutes), as well as a suite of miniatures (< 30 seconds). By playing with scale and continuity, students will be challenged to find their own way to extend their ideas while enriching their own musical language. Students can propose a piece in any style or forces, and we will work together to recruit instrumentalists or resources towards an end-of-term performance or installation.

This course will focus on teaching methods. While applicable to college, they’ll mostly be of the K-12 variety. Proleptically, it should always already recognize the false dichotomy rather too neatly encapsulated in its subtitle.

We can define Ndaga as the awareness of legacy and debt, border crossing, re/invention, re/creation, and the desire to create new space for time travel. This is a self-journey. This course is for students who wish to find their artistic voices by exploring an interdisciplinary approach to making work.

The large-scale consumer web has been defined by epochs. The first epoch was defined by the user as consumer: large companies created content which was consumed by the masses. The second web epoch (web 2.0) has been defined by consumer creators, large companies own and deliver content created by users to other users (Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, …). The third web epoch is—if you believe the hype—to be defined by self-ownership of content.

How have economic histories and past structures shaped present-day realities? Why do patterns of inequality persist between the Global North and South? This course examines these questions by exploring the long-lasting economic effects of colonial encounters—not just on the economies of formerly colonized countries, but also on those of the colonizers.

For students with some prior singing experience. This class is designed to refine awareness and coordination of the mind and body and develop a reliable vocal technique applicable to all styles of singing and speaking performance.  

This course provides its students with a deep and expansive exploration of the field of psychology. As a diverse field of study, psychology is broadly defined as the study of human behavior. Psychology has numerous sub-areas of study that take different research approaches to examine biological, social, and cultural factors and how they influence behavior, mental processes, societal characteristics, and individual differences.

In collaboration with Mass MoCA’s Director of Public Programs, Lisa Dent, this course will combine art history and museum education as modes of inquiry into the unique challenges of presenting and contextualizing Black and brown artists in museums. Students will engage deeply with three solo exhibitions at Mass MoCA: (1) RACE/HUSTLE by Zora J. Murff, whose work “bluntly signifies how the art museum itself is part of the cultural arm of white supremacy and state power,” (2) Vincent Valdez’s Just a Dream, and (3) Jimena Sarno’s Rhapsody. 

The ash trees on campus are dying from an introduced beetle. Ash trees make up about 8% of Vermont’s forests and their foliage contributes to our iconic fall colors. They are culturally important trees with deep connections to art from Indigenous basket making to Beyonce’s Louisville slugger in Lemonade. The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) beetle arrived in North America in Michigan in 2002; it was first confirmed on the Bennington campus in late 2024. The mortality rate of EAB-infested ash trees is 99.97%.

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.