Robert Cohan

Born in New York, Cohan studied dance in Martha Graham’s studio, and in 1946 he joined her company as a soloist. In 1957 he left the company to start his own, and in 1962 he returned to the Martha Graham Company and became its co-director, together with Bertram Ross. In 1967, Robin Howard invited him to become the first artistic director of the Foundation for Contemporary Dance in London and the artistic director of The Place, a school for contemporary dance, also in London. Cohan also established the London Contemporary Dance Theatre (LCDT) company, which he went on to manage for the next 20 years and to which he contributed many choreographies throughout the 1970s and ‘80s. Since 1989, he has been working independently and creating choreographies for the Scottish Ballet and other companies in Germany, Italy and Israel, including Batsheva and Bat-Dor.

During his years in London and New York, Cohan collaborated with Batsheva, staged his works with its dancers and even created original choreographies for it, including Luna Park / An Excursion, Celebrants, A Rehearsal of Evil (1964); Tent of Visions (1965); Eclipse, Cell (1974); Hunter of Angels, Nymphaeas (1980); Forest (1981); Diary (1982); Common Prayer (1983); Chaconne, Danzon Cubano (1985). Cohan also designed costumes and lighting for some of his works for the company. In 1980-1990, he was Batsheva’s artistic consultant.

Cohan taught in the Martha Graham School, Juilliard, Harvard, Radcliffe, and the University of Rochester, York University in Toronto and various colleges in the UK, Canada and New Zealand.

In 1975, his company won the Evening Standard Award for the Most Outstanding Achievement in Ballet and in 1978 a similar award from the Society of West End Theatre (now the Laurence Olivier Award). More recently, he was awarded the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement at the 2012 Critics’ Circle national Dance Awards.

In 1988, Cohan was awarded an honorary CBE in recognition of his outstanding contribution to dance in the UK. In addition, he received several honorary doctorates including from the Universities of Kent, Exeter, Middlesex and Winchester.