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 1936. 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 the choreographic advisor at the YARD on Martha's Vineyard - one of the nation's first residential retreats for young choreographers [www.DanceTheYard.org], 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. Major works Although Schonberg is well known in the dance world, many people might not be aware of her and her achievements because she mostly worked behind the scenes as an educator. Also, due to her injury at a young age she did not appear in many works other than Heretic and Primitive Mysteries. She did however hold an annual choreography workshop at Jacob's Pillow where she showcased some of her original choreography. Teaching methodologies Although Schonberg admired Isadora Duncan and other founding members of the modern era, she favored movement that required more discipline and had a heavier feel. She was trained in Graham technique but did not associate herself with one specific style of modern dance. As a choreographer and teacher, she made her dancers explore the ideas of gravity, space, time and rhythm. She would also give her dancers complex problems which they would have to solve through movement; she believed that this kind of teaching method bred creative and open-minded movers. Schonberg used different teaching methodologies throughout her career as a dance educator. She paralleled her pedagogical styles closely with that of Martha Hill, her primary dance teacher. She believed however that her approach to dance and choreograph education really stemmed from her "sustained interaction with her students". She claims that most of what [she] learned about teaching [her] students taught [her]". Legacy The "Bessie" – the