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In this course we will encounter various strategies for building a career in the performing arts field.

In this course we will examine the role of music as a vehicle for political and social change in Africa. Our focus will be music-making throughout the continent of Africa during the nationalist struggles that resulted in independent African states and how musicians responded (and continue to respond) to the persistent challenges faced by those post-colonial states.

This class uses movement and the principles of the Alexander Technique to prepare the body for making sound. It is designed for singers, actors, dancers, or anyone interested in using their body as an instrument. Our goal is to root sound in the body before the mind gets in the way. Class begins with gentle movements on the floor, sitting and standing to develop physical awareness and ease, and over the term will progress to vocal warmups, spatial games, and exercises that allow the free flow of air, vibration, resonance, and emotion.

The Voice Performance Intensive is an advanced voice course designed for experienced singers looking to elevate their vocal craft and take their performances to the next level. We will explore a diverse range of singing styles, including classical, contemporary, and other genres, enabling students to develop a versatile portfolio of repertoire. 

At the center of almost every live performance is a single human being who quite literally runs the show: the stage manager. This course will explore the stage manager’s role as both an artist and an administrator, using the SM’s wide-ranging responsibilities as a roadmap to understanding the production process and all the people involved in it.

This 2-credit course is an introduction to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, which inaugurated a distinctly American free verse by breaking with European formal traditions of poetry. We will read the entire original 1855 version (a self-published volume with only twelve poems) as well as selections from some of the subsequent editions that Whitman published over his lifetime (including the 1892 “deathbed” edition, which contains 383 poems!).

The Voice Performance Intensive is an advanced voice technique course designed for experienced singers looking to elevate their vocal craft and take their performances to the next level. We will explore a diverse range of singing styles, including classical, contemporary, and other genres, enabling students to develop a versatile portfolio of repertoire. 

In this class we will explore the art and practice of scientific communication. This course is inspired by the work of Edward Tufte as well as a lifetime of experience in scientific research and presentation. Our aim is to learn how to create elegant explanations of complex ideas using pictures, charts, numbers and words. We will analyze and produce displays for use in journalism, research publications and scientific presentations, as well as other art forms that inspire multifaceted understanding.

Climate change, poverty, and food access are all compelling and urgent issues confronting our society. Growing local food is one significant way we can respond. Having received the Bennington Fair Food Initiative Grant with the mission to develop educational training programs in agriculture/food system workforce development and to create small business, this class will be practice based learning in regenerative agricultural practices and the creation of sustainable food systems.

Scanning electron microscopes are a fundamental tool in the physical and life sciences. When equipped with an X-Ray spectrometer, a SEM can provide rapid physical and chemical data of specimens on extremely small scales. This class with cover the theory and practical applications of SEM imaging and analysis for advanced science students who have their own research interests. Students will be expected to develop and conduct an independent research project through this class.

This seminar course explores and enacts multidirectional modes of research in and through dance. The course moves through lectures, workshops and experiments that activate processes of creation/performance and guide each student in the development of a portfolio of documents related to professional practice. Students will create social and public platforms for their research and engage in dialogues related to sustainability, equity, and possibility within the field of dance.

In this seminar, we will dive into the complexities of today’s global economy, engaging with the most pressing economic challenges of our time. We will explore how economic policies, geopolitical dynamics, and global trends intersect, shaping the economic landscape. Through real-time data, contemporary research, and case studies, we’ll analyze the forces driving change and the key decisions shaping the future of the global economy.

“Not long ago, a near prerequisite for vanguard architecture was an engagement with theory; lately it has become an acquaintance with art” or so observed Hal Foster in his 2011 book ‘The Art Architecture Complex.’ While ideas about what constitutes cutting edge architecture may have transformed in the decade since, entanglements between art and architecture and the reciprocal effects that they have on each other remain central to architectural discourse.

This course explores the life, works, and revolutionary contributions of Harry Partch (1901–1974), one of the most original and influential American composers of the 20th century. Partch was a pioneer of microtonal music and developed a unique 43-tone scale, which led him to construct his own instruments to realize his visionary compositions. Students will examine Partch’s unconventional approach to tuning, his rejection of equal temperament, and his philosophy of music as an integrated theatrical and corporeal experience.

This is an advanced improvisation class for students from all disciplines. We will learn the concepts of complexity and advance our skills in pattern recognition, self-organization, emergent structuring, and development of movement, verbal, visual and design vocabularies. Collaborative processes will be explored to further different forms of creative practices, both to address an artistic practice and a dialogic practice.