THTR 254
Ninotchka Bennahum
2.1
45 reviews

45
2.1
DANC36W . 3 Months Ago

Please do not take this professor. Very horrible organization and formatting. I repeat. Do not take. Had to drop the class.

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DANC36 . 5 Months Ago

Great Professor who's nice and caring. 50% of grade from weekly writing assignments, 25% participation and 25% online final. Take this class for GE you will not regret. The online final is hard with a "can't go back to previous question after you submit" but we have 3 hours and it's open book. She also add five extra points to final overall grade.

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DANC36 . 1 Year, 1 Month Ago

Prof seems nice however Dance36 is just super disorganized it seems as a class. Like it kinda does follow the history of dance but also not really. The final was incredibly specific and a total time crunch

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DANCE36 . 1 Year, 5 Months Ago

Professor Bennahum is great, she's willing to answer any questions you have with open arms. There's a lot of extra credit material. The only thing that was graded was forum questions due every week which makes up 50% of your grade, final that was 25% and section attendance that is 25%. Dont tell the reviews stop you from taking this course :)

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DANC36 . 2 Years Ago

Lectures were very dense and her slides had a lot of words, kind of in random order too. Expected to attend performances downtown, transportation provided but you have to pay for your ticket. Questions on final about them. Only 1 test which was the final, open note/book & online. Weekly discussion posts 200-400 words. Fairly easy class.

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DANC36 . 2 Years Ago

Her lecture style has a lot of information and is not clearly organized. You are basically scrambling to write everything down as she blows through lecture. She also tested us on dance performances that we were supposed to see, no matter if you were able to see it or not. Take a different art credit if you can.

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DANC36 . 2 Years Ago

Weekly digital forum posting require lots of reading and research. Going to lecture is very helpful though also very boring. If you are taking this class for credit ... don't. Take dance 45 or music 15 instead. Final is very difficult, you will need to go to all the performances, lectures, and read every single article she gives out.

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DANC36 . 2 Years Ago

Don't get me wrong, she is a super sweet and passionate person. She is so unorganized that the content is very hard to follow because she is so erratic. She expects an unrealistic amount of memorization, lecture, and reading heavy. Her final consisted of random specific information that had no relationship to the understanding of the class.

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DANCE36 . 3 Years Ago

Took her class during COVID and it was just overall very disorganized. The TAs were helpful but I found myself not absorbing any of the content. Final was all multiple choice and only 15% of our grade though.

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DANC36 . 4 Years Ago

I may be biased because I am currently having to take this online (due to covid-19), but honestly despite having to take this class online, this professor is really really difficult but WHAT WAS THE REASON? She is so unorganized to the point where I don't want to look onto Gauchospace. Demands an unrealistic level of understanding of material...

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DANC36 . 4 Years Ago

Probably the worst professor I've had so far at UCSB, and I don't say that lightly. Assigns a ridiculous amount of readings. Has little to no organization ability. And she struggles to make the information engaging. She is clearly very intelligent and an expert on what she teaches, however her class left me feeling like I put in more effort than hr

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DANCE36 . 5 Years Ago

A terrible professor. Lectures were really boring and unnecessarily detailed. Written midterm/mc final; 2 papers. SO DISORGANIZED. Like the reading wouldn't even be up online and the syllabus would conflict w/ Gauchospace. The class isn't that hard, but for god's sake just save yourself and do an easy GE for your F req like Dance 45.

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DANC36 . 5 Years Ago

If you're taking DANCE36 for GE, it's a good choice. PNP is easy, but getting an A is super hard. Her lectures are extremely tedious. The subject itself is not quite interesting to me, making the class more of a torture. Tons of PDF readings assigned. The two required books are useless.

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DANCE45 . 5 Years Ago

This professor is not only forgetful and unorganized but steals ideas from her students without crediting them and is very condescending.

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DANCE36 . 6 Years Ago

Awful professor. And its not my fault because Im a good student who does my work but she is genuinely a terrible professor. She does give interesting lectures and shes a nice person but she makes the class so hard. So much reading, mandatory performances, mandatory attendance, harshly graded esssays, I could go on and on. UGH

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DANCE36 . 6 Years Ago

The prof changed her grading style this quarter. There is now 2 papers, 3 dance performances, 1 free response midterm, and a multiple choice final. Miss more than 2 days of lecture or section and your grade is reduced by 5%. A lot of information to learn. Iclicker needed. This dance, GE course (book, iclicker, dances) has cost me $130+.

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DANCE36 . 6 Years Ago

I dont recommend this class. Professor Bennahum is a passionate lecturer and a sweet, well-meaning lady but this class is so hard, especially for a GE. There is a ridiculous amount of reading and video-watching, and if you dont have a dance background you will be in the dark. Harsh attendance policy too.

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DANC36W . 7 Years Ago

I emailed Bennahum for help on a paper and she was very rude and condescending in her response. Her lectures don't always make sense and sometimes she only says the insignificant details and doesn't link everything back together. One of my least favorite professors by far.

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DANCE36 . 7 Years Ago

Nina was very unorganized and her grading criteria was very unclear. She had passion for dance, but she could not teach. Whenever she would give grading guidelines, she would verbally add on more impractical guidelines that just confused the students. The only thing I liked about this course was that there was no final.

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DANCE48496 . 7 Years Ago

Unfortunately, due to Professor Bennahum's unorganized, white-feminist viewpoint, I had a really hard time finding any kind of interest in this class. Her lectures - and herself - are all over the place with no clear objective . Her white femininity impeded her from explaining the social IMPLICATIONS issued by the white ladies we learned about...

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DANCE36 . 8 Years Ago

This class has a ridiculous amount of required reading and video-watching. There is a two paragraph discussion response due every Thursday and papers due every two weeks. There are multiple "live sessions" that you can attend and as questions in to get extra credit. Professor Bennahum is very sweet but the workload for this class is huge for summer

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DANC36 . 8 Years Ago

Super easy class. There is no final- just a midterm later in the quarter and super easy papers throughout the quarter that are pretty broad and not hard to meet required length for. I got an A in the class and didn't buy the books. Lectures are mandatory because she takes roll.

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DANC36W . 9 Years Ago

There are 4 papers due every Saturday between 2-5 pages depending and a 50 question multiple choice final. You also have to write 2 long paragraphs every Thursday and Sunday which are more annoying than hard. The grading criteria isn't very clear and there is a lot of material to go over so I wouldn't say it's an easy A but it's definetly managable

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DANCE36 . 9 Years Ago

I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS CLASS TO ANYONE. I did not like this professor AT ALL. She is very spacey, unorganized, and all over the place. Definitely does not give students a chance and instead expects everyone to be an expert in dance. Lots of papers that are graded very toughly. Horrible class.

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