On the And, Honouring the Legacy of Sir Robert Cohan ★★★★★

It is no exaggeration to say that the American dancer, choreographer and teacher Robert Cohan (1925–2021) changed the course of dance in the UK. A member of the pioneering Martha Graham Dance Company, in1967 Cohan was invited to come to the UK to found a brand-new company, bringing with him the kind of modernity that simply did not exist here.

Cohan assembled a troupe of sorts for a short season, but realised a school was needed to form future dancers in ‘English contemporary dance.’ The following year he became founding artistic director of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and The Place School.

The Place was, therefore, the appropriate setting for a belated homage to Robert Cohan, Covid having prevented a memorial at the time of his death, aged 96, in January 2021.

The bill for On the And assembled live and film performance of his work, interspersed with clips of interviews Cohan gave at various points in his life, which provided fascinating insights into his approach to choreographing and teaching, his beliefs and his gentle sense of humour.

On teaching: ‘Teach only what you know… teach with love… teach everything you know.’

On the effect of dance performances on audiences: ‘they must be cathartic experiences… people must be taken out of themselves… but they must also be entertained.’

On choreography: ‘Choose the right music and you’re halfway there.’

The performances clearly illustrated the evolution of Cohan’s own choreography. The programme opened with his 1975 Stabat Mater, danced to Vivaldi’s composition by students of the Royal Swedish Ballet School.

It’s a lyrical, moving piece, very much in the style of Martha Graham, built around the figure of the suffering Mary, a deeply expressive Eileen Jönsson clad in a simple deep blue shift. After an initial solo, she was joined by seven women who shared in her grief and attempted to console her.

Flowing movement arising from deep pliés and forming long arabesques created harmonious lines; stretched arms that suddenly folded into the torso evoked stabbings of pain.

Extracts from two works created four decades later for Yorke Dance Project showed a different Cohan: in Lingua Franca (2014) to Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor four dancers perform individually, yet never lose sight of each other, their movements edgier, a question hovering in the air.

Yorke Dance Project in Lingua Franca, Photo: Pari Naderi
In Communion, the word chosen by Cohan to describe dancers’ feelings towards their art, a single dancer, Dane Hurst, moved like a controlled whirlwind to a score by Nils Frahm.

Excerpts from Cohan’s 1977 Forest, an intense, almost mystical work to music by Brian Hodgson, were shown on archive film danced by a couple from the Martha Graham Dance Company and then London Contemporary Dance Theatre.

The programme ended with an excerpt from Class (1975) performed by students of the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, of which Cohan was a patron. It’s an exhilarating work, using the exercises of dancers’ daily class to build an irresistible crescendo of movement, which the 20 young dancers in shiny, figure-hugging bodystockings performed with great verve.

Cohan’s work was recognised in his lifetime with a raft of awards and a knighthood; now the newly formed Sir Robert Cohan Dance Legacy CIC will work towards ensuring his legacy is perpetuated.