Skip to main content.
Bard
  • Bard
  • Academics sub-menuAcademics
    Bard College Commencement
    • Academics
      • Programs and Divisions
      • Structure of the Curriculum
      • Courses
      • Requirements
      • Discover Bard
      • Bard Abroad
      • Academic Calendar
      • Faculty
      • Libraries
      • College Catalogue
      • Dual-Degree Programs
      • Bard Conservatory of Music
      • Other Study Opportunities
      • Graduate Programs
      • Early Colleges
  • Admission sub-menuAdmission
    • Applying
      • Apply Now
      • Financial Aid
      • Tuition + Payment
    • Discover Bard
      • Campus Tours
      • Meet Our Students + Alumni/ae
      • For Families / Familias
    • Stay in Touch
      • Join Our Mailing List
      • Contact Us
  • Campus Life sub-menuCampus Life
    Bard Campus Life

    Make a home in Annandale.

    • Living on Campus
      • Housing + Dining
      • Campus Resources
      • Get Involved on Campus
      • Current Students
      • New Students
      • Visiting + Transportation
      • Athletics + Recreation
      • New Students
  • Civic Engagement sub-menuCivic Engagement
    • Bard CCE The Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) at Bard College embodies the fundamental belief that education and civil society are inextricably linked.

      Take action.
      Make an impact.

      Get Involved
      • Campus + Community
      • In the Classroom
      • U.S. Network
      • International Network
      • About CCE
      • Resources
      • Support
  • Newsroom sub-menuNews + Events
    Upstreaming
    • News + Events
      • Newsroom
      • Events Calendar
      • Video Gallery
      • Press Releases
      • Office of Communications
      • COVID-19 Updates
    • Special Events
      • Commencement Weekend
      • Alumni/ae Reunion
      • Family + Alumni/ae Weekend
      • Fisher Center
      • Bard SummerScape
      • Bard Athletics
  • About Bard sub-menuAbout Bard

    A private college for the public good.

    Support Bard

    Legacy Challenge
    • About Bard College
      • Mission Statement
      • Bard History
      • Love of Learning
      • Visiting Bard
      • Employment
      • OSUN
      • Bard Abroad
      • The Bard Network
      • Montgomery Place Campus
      • Campus Tours
      • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
      • Sustainability
      • Title IX and Nondiscrimination
      • HEOA Disclosures
      • Institutional Support
      • Safety and Security
      • Inside Bard
      • Alumni/ae Network
      • Family Network
      • Support Bard
      • Legacy Challenge
  • Give
  • Search
Main Image for Bard Dance Program

Bard Dance Program

Dance Menu
  • The Development of the Artist
  • Partnerships sub-menuPartnerships
    • Gibney
    • American Dance Festival
    • Trisha Brown Dance Company
    • Bill T. Jones Dance Company
  • Faculty
  • Alumni/ae
  • Partnerships sub-menuAbout the Program
    • Courses
    • Requirements
    • FAQs
  • Facilities
  • News + Events
  • Home
Apply Now!
About the Dance Program

Statement on Equity

The Dance Program at Bard values the experience of individual body sovereignty and is committed to providing equal access to students who are exploring life’s questions through an artistic physical practice.

The Dance Program will contribute to changing the narratives of white supremacy, patriarchy, and racial inequity that have characterized the persistent undercurrent flowing beneath the ground on which we dance in this country.

We will endeavor to be a refuge for any persons who are vulnerable to ideologies defined by racism, homophobia, transphobia, and anti-feminism. We will use the tools of our discipline to challenge the structures that maintain a hierarchy of human value. We will consistently offer a rigorous learning environment that celebrates that people are “equal in all of our apparent differences.” (Ibram X. Kendi)

Mission
Bard student Micah Thomas prepares for a Moderation performance.

Mission

The Bard Dance Program sees the pursuit of artistry and intellect as a single endeavor and the study of the body as a cognitive act, demanding both physical practice and exploration of the broader academic contexts in which the art form exists. The program fosters the discovery of a dance vocabulary that is meaningful to the dancer/choreographer and essential to his or her creative ambitions. This discovery leads students to cultivate original choices that are informed by a full exploration of their surroundings and to find expression in new and dynamic ways. Through intensive technique and composition courses, onstage performance, and production experience, dance students are prepared to understand and practice the art of choreography and performance.

Read More about the Development of the Artist

Bard College Dance ProgramPartners with GIBNEY
Photo by Nir Arieli

Bard College Dance Program
Partners with GIBNEY

Bard's partnership with GIBNEY, a New York City–based dance and social justice organization, began in fall 2020.

The Bard College Dance Program and GIBNEY, a New York City–based dance and social justice organization led by Founder, Artistic Director, and CEO Gina Gibney, began a new partnership in the fall of 2020. This is the fourth professional partnership launched by the Dance Program, which began in 2009 with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

Read More

Bard College Astronomer Shuo Zhang and Undergraduate Student Rose Xu Discover New X-ray Flares from the Galactic Center Supermassive Black Hole Sgr A*

Bard College Astronomer Shuo Zhang and Undergraduate Student Rose Xu Discover New X-ray Flares from the Galactic Center Supermassive Black Hole Sgr A*

Bard College Assistant Professor of Physics Shuo Zhang and Bard mathematics and dance major Rose Xu ’23 were invited by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) to present their most recent findings on new x-ray flares from the now inactive supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Their talk, “Detection of Seven High-Energy X-ray Flares from the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole,” was presented at the 241st AAS press conference on Thursday, January 12 from 5:15pm to 6:15pm ET, in person in Seattle and virtually via Zoom and YouTube livestream. For more information about the 241st AAS press conference, click here.
The center of the Milky Way galaxy harbors the nearest supermassive black hole Sgr A* to Earth, with forty million times the mass of the Sun. Although being in an inactive status nowadays, Sgr A* demonstrates mysterious flares almost every single day, which could come from magnetic phenomena. We are sitting in the front row of these cosmic fireworks. Using 2 Ms data from NASA’s NuSTAR X-ray telescope, our math senior Rose Xu, working with Bard physics professor Shuo Zhang, has discovered seven new hard X-ray flares that took place between 2016 and 2022. This new result doubled the current database of bright Sgr A* X-ray flares, and can help to answer long-standing questions in flare physics, such as: What are the physical mechanisms behind Sgr A* flare? Do bright flares and faint flares share the same origin? 

Bard College Astronomer Shuo Zhang and Undergraduate Student Rose Xu Discover New X-ray Flares from the Galactic Center Supermassive Black Hole Sgr A*

“Astronomers are in the exhilarating process of revealing the physical conditions at the vicinity of our own supermassive black hole, which I couldn’t imagine myself being involved in before meeting professor Shuo Zhang. Solving practical problems from a liberal arts perspective is a skill that I am grateful to gain here at Bard College,” said Xu.

Moving Thoughts - a rendez vous of dance and scholarship 

 

A film by Hannah Dupre

What happens when the arts and academics meet? Within a liberal arts college, where do we draw the line? Or do we not draw lines at all? “Moving Thoughts” is a short documentary film exploring the boundaries and connections between dance and other academic fields. We follow three young Bard students (Antonia Salathé, Itzel Herrera Garcia and Justine Denamiel) in their thoughts, conversations and expressions regarding their journey at Bard and beyond.
Bardians Featured in Dance Magazine
Bard College dance student Leslie Morales (right). Photo by Chris Kayden

Bardians Featured in Dance Magazine

“Dance has always been a radical act, even if it was covered in gauze and tulle.”
—Maria Simpson, Professor of Dance and Dance Program Director

Dance Magazine features Bard College in its January 2022 issue, highlighting the work of Sam Asa Pratt ’14 in its “25 to Watch” cover story, and interviewing Bard senior Leslie Morales and Professor Maria Simpson in “Dance with a Purpose,” an article about blending art and activism in your practice, even before graduation.

Bard Dance Program Alumni/ae are kicking it in 2022!

Baye & Asa

Baye & Asa

Dance company Baye & Asa developed HotHouse, a dance work exploring the impact of social isolation and the systemic criminal confinement of American people and communities.

Baye & Asa

Baye & Asa
Baye & Asa is a company creating movement art projects directed by Amadi ‘Baye’ Washington & Sam ‘Asa’ Pratt. Individually they have performed with Akram Khan Company, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, Abraham in Motion, David Dorfman Dance, Gallim, Kate Weare Company, and the Francesca Harper Project. For the past year, they have been presenting their short film, Second Seed.

Second Seed has won numerous awards including the Jury/Audience Awards at Portland Dance Film Festival, the Best Director Award at Phoenix Dance Film Festival, and the Social Justice Award from Chicago's In/Motion Dance Film Festival. They are currently creating a new work as artists in residence at the 92nd Street Y. This duet, titled Suck It Up, was commissioned by the BlackLight Summit and premieres at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in early February, followed by an NYC premiere at the 92nd Street Y main stage series on February 24. In March they will premiere The One to Stay With, a piece commissioned and performed by BODYTRAFFIC at the Joyce Theatre. In October, they will debut HotHouse, a duet coproduced by Pioneer Works. They are also creating new work for the Martha Graham Dance Company for a spring 2023 Joyce premiere, and have been selected as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” for 2022.

Dance Residency - June 20–July 1, 2022

Love Lifts Us Up 
Zaccho Dance Theatre’s Helen Wicks at Grace Cathedral. Photo courtesy Zaccho Dance Theatre

Love Lifts Us Up
 

Zaccho Dance Theatre’s Love, a state of grace featured a half-dozen aerial artists performing in the cavernous interior of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. Performed in one-hour cycles, the work allowed audience members to move through the space below at will, and to engage with a series of rituals and meditations, designed by artist-theologians Yohana Junkar and Claudío Cavalhaes. Directed and choreographed by Joanna Haigood, the performance installation encouraged attendees to contemplate and celebrate their shared humanity, and the importance love holds across various spiritual practices.

Love Lifts Us Up
 

A Study of Surrender
January 10, 2022
An interview with Zaccho Dance Theatre artists Veronica Blair, Ciarra D’Onofrio, Suzanne Gallo, Saharla Vetsch, and Helen Wicks
Zaccho Dance Theatre is a Bay Area site-specific aerial dance company directed by Joanna Haigood that has been making work on culturally significant subject matter since 1980. In February, the company will premier Love, a state of grace at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Here, Zaccho Dance Theatre artists Veronica Blair, Ciarra D’Onofrio, Suzanne Gallo, Saharla Vetsch, and Helen Wicks share how the piece is a spiritual study of surrender, as well as how the apparatuses they dance on augment the meditative quality of the work.
Love, a state of grace will premiere on February 11, 12, 17, and 18 at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. For more info, visit zacchograce.brownpapertickets.com.
Can you each share a little about your dance history and how you came to perform with Zaccho Dance Theatre?
Veronica: I’m an aerialist and I perform mainly in circus companies, theme parks, and most recently cruise ships. I also work with Troupe Vertigo in Los Angeles, which is a mix of dance, circus, and theater. I love aerial work and am always look for ways to challenge myself. Zaccho provides a place for me to do so. I began working with Zaccho in 2016 at the San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival where I did an aerial straps number, which includes lots of tricks. I performed the piece to spoken word, which transformed it. From there, I cultivated a piece that addressed trauma with suitcases on the aerial silks. Working with Zaccho, I’ve been challenged as an athlete and as an artist. I’m glad to have Zaccho be my home.
Helen: I have been seeking flights and finding acrobatics since I was three. My training in my youth was in artistic gymnastics where I trained on the US national team as a pre-teen. From there I moved into dance and the joy and expression of movement. I majored in Dance at Bard College. I was influenced by Bill T Jones, Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, and other major modern dance choreographers. I met Joanna Haigood in a serendipitous way at Camp Winnarainbow, a circus camp in Laytonville. I have been working with her since 2014, finding intersections of identity, race, apparatus-based inventions, and music. I have much love and gratitude to Joanna and the community she brings together. I also run my own company, Helen Wicks Works, that is circus-informed aerial dance combining contemporary dance and acrobatics.
Saharla: I came into the arts through theater and musical theater. I found dance in high school and went on to major in Dance in college. Movement alone was more interesting than a play or musical with just a little dance. I’ve always been a physical and robust mover interested in the physical boundaries of the body and how they can be pushed. I only started doing aerial dance recently in the past few months. I feel invigorated; it feels like starting to dance all over again because the work is so different. The way I orient my body and think about space has drastically changed from dancing on the floor. I’m finding joy in the effort.
Ciarra: I took my first aerial class when I was five at the Bolinas Community Center. I met Joanna as another Bolinas community member some years later. I did modern dance, contemporary, and jazz as I grew up. I did theater as a kid, but as soon as I found dance, I knew it was where it was at. I transitioned to circus and aerial through Camp Winnarainbow, where I still go every summer to teach. It’s been a huge part of my development as an aerialist. I’m drawn to Joanna’s work at Zaccho because it uses art as personal discovery, community building, and storytelling. It’s such a beautiful way to express myself and explore critical ideas. I’ve been teaching at Zaccho for four years. This is my first show with Zaccho, and I worked with Joanna on the research for the show.
Suzanne: I found dance as a small child and it centered me, as it centers me to this day. I have deep roots in dance, though now I have been doing vertical dance longer than I danced on the ground. I have a long history of ballet in my life and I danced with a lot of ballet companies – Ballet Met, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet West, San Francisco Opera, Lines – and then I started exploring pickup work. I did some work with ODC and other local artists. A friend of mine, Mary Carbonara, introduced me to Amelia Rudolph, who was the founder of BANDALOOP, another aerial dance company. Amelia was looking for some dancers. At the time, climbing gym culture was about to take off. With the development of climbing gear, suddenly the movement possibilities changed. You could move your arms without holding the rope.
I’ve done quite a bit of work with BANDALOOP. Now I’m the youth program director. I also work with Destiny Arts teen program. I met Joanna back in the day through a friend. During the time, I was beginning to explore my own work. What we have in our toolkit informs everything we do on the ground and in the air. I started as a terrestrial dancer and have studied many different disciplines. They all live inside of me.
Can you share more about Zaccho’s upcoming performance, Love, a state of grace? What does the piece mean to each of you?
Ciarra: The piece was originally about the history of violence in sacred spaces. Most of our research focused on bombings and shootings in churches, synagogues, and mosques. Through conversations with Joanna, my understanding is that a lot of what was coming up in the research was the responses to the violence and the community healing that happens after. Joanna was focused on this theme of love. COVID happened, and that shifted the work. Throughout the pandemic, the piece began to focus more on how love gets us through difficult times.
Veronica: I feel the piece as a “come to Jesus” moment. What would be the process of choosing to believe in something bigger than ourselves? I’m not necessarily referring to religion, but the act of choosing to surrender to nature and a higher sense of self and of being connected with others. There are elements of surrender in the piece: this big beautiful swing we use, a 100-foot tall ladder that reminds me of Jacob’s Ladder, a quieting meditation area we call tensegrity which will be a plexiglass platform that people can walk under and where our movements above are as if we’re creating a mandala. So there are many different elements of the show and they speak to me in a way that expresses the ultimate surrender, letting go of frivolous thoughts and processes that are ingrained and that we live under.
Helen: For me, this work is about the relationship between discipline, love, and the role of surrender. I let go of my religious upbringing because of my physical practice; the discipline of my physical practice took over. I was conscious of that, but it became clearer during the residency we had last January. Through the practice of acrobatics and dance, I surrendered to the need for air, process, and ongoing training. I physically feel surrender when I dance on the 70-foot swing in the piece. In terms of love and spirituality, surrender is present. It’s something I practice accessing while flying on the swing.
Suzanne: Love occupies big spaces and has many interpretations. On that swing, there is definitely surrender. I concur with Helen that dance is my spiritual practice. There’s no separation. I am my most pure in moments of dance.
Saharla: While practicing on the ladder, I’ve been thinking of it as a labor of love. Working with this new object in this new way is very complex, but in its purest form it is a labor of love.
What has been the choreographic process?
Helen: The performance was originally supposed to be in August 2020, and then it was rescheduled for January 2021, which didn’t happen either, but we were able to rehearse in Grace Cathedral that month as a residency, pre-vaccines but masked up. We rotated between the different stations – the swing, the ladder, and tensegrity – getting comfortable with the height and the totality of the space. It was a big test for the riggers. They are working real magic making this piece possible.
Suzanne: Sometimes they played the organ during the residency, and it made the rehearsals very spiritual. Because we’re inside a cathedral, the organ music permeates the whole body.
Veronica: The show will feature organ music. Audience members will experience the vibrations hollowing the space and clearing the mind. For me, the music encourages humility and not getting into technicalities.
Ciarra: Rehearsing in the cathedral was unlike anything I’d done before. The calm and quite while playing on the ladder and looking up at an enormous stain glass rose was awe-inspiring. It was unavoidable that it would be a spiritual experience for myself and others.
My understanding is that Love, a state of grace is partly a response to the pandemic and social uprisings of the past two years. Has aerial dance as a field had a reckoning in terms of awareness about race and gender like other areas of the dance world?
Veronica: In general, the Bay Area has been pretty inclusive. I got my start here as an aerialist. I’ve studied in France, Florida, and South Africa when I was with the circus, but in terms of my development as an artist and finding my voice in the medium, a lot of that has happened in San Francisco. Nationally within the circus community, there has been an awakening, sometimes rude, to the point that people are now actively looking to hire BIPOC performers. I’ve been having a lot of conversations with producers and directors about how things have been in the past and the direction they would like to move their company or studio. I do find myself playing more of the protagonist and main character roles, whereas two or three years ago that would never happen. You do see more people of African descent playing lead roles in media and entertainment. A radical awaking is happening with regards to representation, and the circus community is experiencing a shift in thought. I think five to 10 years from now it will be quite different.
Helen: In my experience, Joanna has been making work about race, culture, and gender, and asking hard questions from a historical perspective as long as I’ve known her. Joanna’s ongoing work to connect Bayview/Hunters Point community and youth to aerial arts at Zaccho is incredible and inspiring.
What do you hope audiences take aware from Love, a state of grace?
Veronica: I hope that people take away a bit of hope. Not hope in a generic way but hope in humanity by seeing our bodies articulate this beautiful cathedral space. When we work on ourselves and raise our vibration, that affects others, even people we don’t know. I hope people feel hope within themselves and within others.
Saharla: I hope people experience empathy. Empathy creates understanding. I hope people feel a generosity of spirit.
Suzanne: Doing site responding work, the whole proscenium stage is gone. We’re sharing time and space with the audience, which has a greater depth. Love is infinitesimal and encompasses many things. Sometimes it’s vulnerable and hurts to love deeply. Surrendering to that love is what I hope people take away.
Helen: To the pain that exists with love, resilience is something I hope audiences can access or feel in some way, especially going on years of this pandemic.
Ciarra: My hope is that people get a taste of that surrender we’re feeling. With the choir and organs as well as the interaction of sharing the space, the audience is part of the spiritual experience. Especially after this pandemic when we’ve been so separated, I hope people feel connection and a sense of community. What is so powerful is that the audience will be moving throughout the space during the show. This installation style performance invites the audience members to become part of the performance, ritual, and spiritual experience that we are all creating together. This coming together as a collective and community to build a space of healing and love is especially powerful after two years of social isolation.
Any other thoughts:
Veronica: We need art, and we need people to experience art. People need to be engaged and energized by the prospect of live performance. It is kinetic. It is the oldest way, from storytelling around a fire, to instrumentation, dance, and acting, it is how we connect to people in large groups. It’s a healing modality; we can use it to heal people and share inspiration. However it’s received, it’s much needed now.
 

Lisa Fagan ’11 Returns to Bard for a January Residency
Lisa Fagan ’11. Photo by Erika Nelson

Lisa Fagan ’11 Returns to Bard for a January Residency

Lisa Fagan ’11 and a group of seven multidisciplinary artists began working on a new piece in 2019 called Give it a Go while her collaborator, composer/vocalist Catherine Brookman, and she were artists in residence at Target Margin Theater in Brooklyn, NY. While that work was cut short by the pandemic, it now lives on in a new, untitled form, in development at Bard.

Read More

Hear from Our Students

What is it like to study dance at Bard College? Hear from Leslie, Jude, and Sakinah in a discussion moderated by Maria Simpson, professor of dance and director of the Dance Program. They discuss the intimacy of the program, the close relationships with faculty and teaching artists, and the ability to explore interdisciplinary studies.

“I genuinely think that I would not be as prepared as I feel to go into the dance industry if I had not come to Bard.”
—Sakinah

 

 

Announcing: Bard College Dance Program Partners with Jacob's Pillow.
Dance Magazine Lists Bard College asFeatured Dance School

Dance Magazine Lists Bard College as
Featured Dance School

“A Perfect Pairing”

“Located just a few hours north of New York City in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Bard College offers a dance major that places equal emphasis on technique and composition. The program simultaneously encourages dance as an intellectual pursuit and helps students forge connections with working artists through partnerships with dance organizations. In the past, Bard has teamed up with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and the Trisha Brown Dance Company. Its current partnership with American Dance Festival brings in ADF teaching artists to lead intensive technique courses throughout the year.” —Dance Magazine, May 2019

Read Article (PDF)

Quicklinks

  • The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
  • Theater & Performance Program
  • Bard News & Events
Bard College
30 Campus Road
PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York 12504-5000
Phone: 845-758-6822
Admission E-mail: [email protected]
©2023 Bard College
Follow Us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Follow Us on Instagram
You Tube
Information For:
Prospective Students
Current Employees
Alumni/ae 
Families
Quick Links
Employment
Travel to Bard
Site Search
Support Bard
COVID-19 Info

Discover Bard

Division of the Arts
Fisher Center LAB
Theater and Performance Program