Photo: Yolande Yorke-Edgell
Contemporary dance pioneer Robert Cohan CBE has recently lead a new pilot project for choreographers and composers alike, mentoring artists at different stages of their career. Together with long-standing musical collaborator Elenor Alberga, the legendary Cohan conceived the Cohan Collective along with international dance company Yorke Dance Project. Cohan wanted to give the six artists the opportunity to learn from their legacies in creating intuitive choreography and accompaniment hand-in-hand. The two-week residency culminated in a sharing at The Place on 5 September.
Cohan and Alberga have been passing on their indispensable knowledge to the artists to continue their legacy of creating contemporary dance and music. Cohan asked: “How do we make dances better? How do we continue to refine and challenge our methods? How can we encourage more fully-realised and deeply-considered dance-making from ourselves and our colleagues?” and from these questions rose the Cohan Collective, the two-week intensive choreographic residency, supported by Middlesex University.
The Cohan Collective’s mission is to further develop the depth and quality of choreographers’ and composers’ work and working methods. The choreographers mentored were Jonathan Goddard, Phil Sanger and Charlotte Edmonds, alongside composers, Rolf Hind, Donna McKevitt and Andy Kyte. All were able to cross-collaborate and learn from one another working with professional and graduate dancers, widening the pool of reciprocal learning.
Giving these artists the opportunity to absorb so much information in working with the choreographers and composers on a daily basis is ultimately unique; they were exposed to different ways of working in addition to questioning their own practice. A particular aim of the Cohan Collective is to push the artists out of their comfort zones, looking to bring back the prominent relationship between music and dance in choreography.
The Cohan Collective also involved daily class in Cohan technique taught by Anne Donnelly and ballet class taught by Paul Liburd. Both have worked extensively with Cohan and Alberga during their time with London Contemporary Dance Theatre and throughout their subsequent careers.