Bessie Schonberg - Biography

Biography

Schonberg, who is known to many dancers simply as "Bessie", grew up in Dresden, Germany. Rose Elizabeth, her mother, was an American opera singer and as a result, she and her two sisters grew up surrounded by the arts. While in Germany, she began lessons in Delcroze, a style of rhythmic gymnastics. She fell in love with Delcroze and to her father’s dismay became distracted from her studies. Her father soon ended her lessons and explained to her that dance was "a profession suitable only for the lower class".

When Schonberg emigrated to Eugene, Oregon in 1925, she began her dance studies once again at the University of Oregon where she majored in the fine arts. It was here where she enrolled in her first dance course. Lillian Stupp, her first dance teacher, left the University of Oregon in 1927 and was replaced with Martha Hill. Hill, knowledgeable and highly experienced in dance, gave Schonberg the direction and skills she had been yearning for. Hill introduced her to the world of dance in New York City and to one of the best known modern dancers of all time, Martha Graham. After studying with Hill for two years, Schonberg decided to discontinue her studies and pursue her dance career in New York City.

Schonberg arrived in NYC at a pivotal time for modern dance in the United States. A new generation of modern dancers such as Graham, Schonberg, Doris Humphrey, and Helen Tamiris helped solidify modern dance in the 1920s. These second generation modern dancers yearned to create expressive movement free of the confines of traditional ballet. Schonberg and Graham collaborated for two years and she performed in some of Graham's best known works, including Heretic and Primitive Mysteries.

In 1931 however, a knee injury forced Schonberg to stop performing. This small obstacle did not prevent her from continuing to influence the world of dance. She turned to teaching and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Bennington College in 1933. In 1938 she became the director of theater and dance at Sarah Lawrence College and stayed there until 1975. At Sarah Lawrence she created one of the first dance departments in American higher education. Sarah Lawrence’s dance department served as a model from which other college dance departments grew. She also served as artistic advisor at Martha’s Vineyard artists’ colony, taught at the Juilliard School, and conducted workshops at Dance Theater Workshop and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Bessie Schonberg continued to teach in New York until her death in 1997. On the day of her death she was scheduled to teach a class at Juilliard.