dirac Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Robert Cohan has died at age 95. The Daily Telegraph Quote He was a New Yorker who had been one of Martha Graham’s finest partners in her complex, mythic works, and his cautious acceptance of an invitation to root her powerful dance ideas in Britain, emerging in the London Contemporary Dance Theatre (LCDT) and School, made him one of the three most important figures in British dance history, alongside Dame Ninette de Valois and Dame Marie Rambert. The New York Times The Guardian Quote Cohan, who has died aged 95, was a dancer, choreographer and artistic director, but most importantly and enduringly, an adored teacher. He drilled movement deep into dancers’ bodies, but they came to him for the psychology and the philosophy of dance along with the steps. Not just what you do, but why. Soul and spirit were part of his teaching. For him, dancing was about awareness, intention, sympathy; showing the secrets of movement, he told me once. The Guardian Link to comment
dirac Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 Obituary from The Times: Quote Robert Cohan was dancing in Martha Graham’s 1954 London season, her first in the British capital, when he met Robin Howard, a wealthy balletomane who had lost both legs in the war. Howard, a grandson of the former prime minister Stanley Baldwin, was bowled over by Graham’s expressive style of choreography — a style with which she had already transformed the modern dance scene in the US — and he dreamt of importing her techniques to Britain. Link to comment
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