Bessie Schönberg: How to Look at Dance

Bessie Schönberg

Bessie Schönberg (December 27, 1906 - May 14, 1997) was a pioneering dance educator whose greatest influence was through the generations of choreographers for whom she served as mentor.  Her students included Lucinda Childs, Elizabeth Keen, Meredith Monk, Carolyn Adams, and many other important artists such as novelist Allan Gurganus.  The only classes in dance composition that Jerome Robbins ever took were taught by Bessie Schönberg.

Born and raised in Germany, Schönberg immigrated to the U.S. in 1925 and began to study dance with Martha Hill. She performed with the Martha Graham Company, dancing in the original casts of such important works as Heretic and Primitive Rhythms until 1931 when a knee injury forced a premature retirement from the stage.  She was integrally involved in the early years of the Bennington School of the Dance, and received a degree from Bennington College in 1935.  She began teaching at Sarah Lawrence College the following year, soon taking over the chairmanship of the dance department and maintaining that position until her retirement in 1975.

Schönberg's retirement years were busy ones, as she continued to teach composition workshops at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, The Juilliard School, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Dance Theatre Workshop.  She led annual workshops at The Yard, where she also served as artistic advisor.  She began teaching at Jacob's Pillow in 1980, and she remained an important part of the Pillow faculty until her death.

In addition to three theaters that bear her name, the New York Dance and Performance Awards were named in her honor, and she received a special Bessie Award for lifetime achievement in 1988.  She was awarded the New York State Governor's Arts Award in 1989, Dance/USA's Ernie Award in 1994, and was the first recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts' special Master Teacher/Mentor Fellowship in 1993.  She was the subject of an insightful film documentary by D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, and her papers are collected in two extensive archives at Sarah Lawrence College and at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.