Advertisement

The Living Cultural Heritage of Robert Cohan

  • Paul R. W. JacksonEmail author
Chapter
First Online:
  • 172 Downloads

Abstract

In 2013 Robert Cohan, founder Artistic Director of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and Co-Artistic Director of The Martha Graham Dance Company returned to the UK from many years living in France. Since then he has been much in demand as choreographer and teacher. With the Yorke Dance Project he has restaged his 1979 solo Canciones del Alma, and created a new work Lingua Franca which had as its starting point a section of his 1984 work Agora. In addition, in 2015 for Liam Riddick of the Richard Alston Dance Company he created a new solo entitled Sigh. This chapter explores his approach to translation, transformation and transmission in these works alongside a restaging of Forest (1976). The chapter frames Cohan’s work in the context of Living Cultural Heritage as posited by Iacono and Brown (2016).

Keywords

Robert Cohan London Contemporary Dance Theatre Transmission Translation Transformation Forest Canciones delAlma Lingua Franca Sigh Cultural Heritage Contemporary Dance 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Bibliography

  1. Batson, Glenna. 2009. Somatic Studies. From https://www.iadms.org/page/248. Accessed 2 Sept 2016.
  2. Benjamin, Walter . 1992a. The Task of the Translator. In Illuminations, 70–82. London, UK: Fontana Press.Google Scholar
  3. Benjamin, Walter . 1992b. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In Illuminations, 211–245. London, UK: Fontana Press.Google Scholar
  4. Benton, Tim (ed.). 2010. Understanding Heritage and Memory. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
  5. Bodo, Simona. 2012. Museums as Intercultural Spaces. In Museums, Equality and Social Justice (Museum Meanings), ed. Richard Sandell, and Eithne Nightingale, 181–191. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  6. Burt, Ramsay. 2014. Memory, Repetition and Critical Intervention. Performance Research: A Journal of The Performing Arts 8:2, online, 34–41. Accessed 2 Sept 2015.Google Scholar
  7. Butterworth, Jo. 2012. Dance Studies—The Basics. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  8. Claid, Emilyn. 2006. Yes? No! Maybe… Seductive Ambiguity in Dance. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  9. Collins English Dictionary. n.d. Definition of Intangible. Available at http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/intangible. Accessed 7 July 2016.
  10. Connerton, Paul. 1989. How Societies Remember. Cambridge: University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Crisp, Clement. 1977. Review for London Contemporary Dance Theatre. The Financial Times, April 17.Google Scholar
  12. Elderkin, Rachel. 2015. Cohan at 90. http://downstagecentre.com/the-dsc-team/rachel-elderkin/cohan-at-90-the-gala/. Accessed 2 Sept 2015.
  13. Goodwin, Noel. 1977. Review for London Contemporary Dance Theatre. Daily Express, April 6.Google Scholar
  14. Harrison, Rodney, and John Schofield. 2010. After Modernity, Archaeological Approaches to the Contemporary Past. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  15. Jackson, Paul R.W. 2013. The Last Guru; Robert Cohan’s Life in Dance from Martha Graham to London Contemporary Dance Theatre. London: Dance Books.Google Scholar
  17. Kennedy, James. 1977. Review for London Contemporary Dance Theatre. The Guardian, April 17.Google Scholar
  18. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. 2004. Intangible Heritage as Metacultural Production. Museum International 56 (1–2): 52–64. doi: 10.1111/j.1350-0775.2004.00458.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Lepecki, André. 2015. The Body as Archive: Will to Re-enact and the Afterlives of Dances. Dance Research Journal 42/2. Accessed 2 Sept 2015.Google Scholar
  20. Liber, Vera. 2015. Robert Cohan at 90. http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/robert-cohan-at-the-place-londo-11365. Accessed 2 Sept 2015.
  21. McCormick, David. 2013. Canciones del Alma (film). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2M9rPZnJ7Y. Accessed 2 Sept 2015.
  22. Mackrell, Judith. 2015. Robert Cohan at 90. http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/mar/27/robert-cohan-at-90-review. Accessed 2 Sept 2015.
  23. Main, Lesley. 1995. Preserved and Illuminated. Dance Theatre Journal 12 (2): 14–15.Google Scholar
  24. Main, Lesley. 2017. The Transmission-Translation-Transformation of Doris Humphrey’s Two Ecstatic Themes (1931). In Transmissions in Dance: Contemporary Staging Practices, ed. Lesley Main. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
  25. Norman, Neil. 2015. Robert Cohan at 90. https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2015/robert-cohan-90/. Accessed 2 Sept 2015.
  26. Oxford Dictionaries. n.d. Definition of Intangible. Available at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/intangible. Accessed 6 June 2016.
  27. Parry, Jan. 2015. Robert Cohan at 90. http://dancetabs.com/2015/03/robert-cohan-at-90-gala-evening-at-the-place-london/. Accessed 2 Sept 2015.
  28. Phelan, Peggy. 1993. Unmarked. The Politics of Performance. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Pietrobruno, Sheenagh. 2014. Between Narrative and Lists: Performing Digital Intangible Heritage Through Global Media. International Journal of Heritage Studies 20, Nos 7–8, 742–759.  10.1080/13527258..2013.807398.
  30. Preston-Dunlop, Valerie, and Ana Sanchez-Colberg. 2002. Dance and the Performative: A Choreological Perspective-Laban and Beyond . London: Verve.Google Scholar
  31. Roy, Sanjoy. 2010. Step by Step Guide to Dance: Robert Cohan. http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/may/18/dance-robert-cohan. Accessed 2 Sept 2015.
  32. Ruggles, D.Fairchild, and Helaine Silverman. 2009. Intangible Heritage Embodied. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
  33. Schmitt, Thomas M. 2008. The UNESCO Concept of Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: Its Background and Marrakchi Roots. International Journal of Heritage Studies 14 (2): 95–111. doi: 10.1080/13527250701844019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Smith, Laurajane. 2006. Uses of Heritage. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  35. Smith, Laurajane, and Natsuko Akagawa. 2008. Intangible Heritage–Introduction. In Intangible Heritage, ed. Laurajane Smith and Natsuko Akagawa, 1–9. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
  36. Stravinsky, Igor, and Robert Craft. 1981. Expositions and Developments. Berkeley, USA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
  37. Sweeney, Stewart. 2015. Robert Cohan at 90. http://www.criticaldance.org/2015/04/04/robert-cohan-at-90/. Accessed 2 Sept 2015.
  38. Thomas, Helen. 2003. The Body, Dance and Cultural Theory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. UNESCO. 1972. Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Available at http://whc.unesco.org/archive/conventionen.pdf. Accessed 6 July 2016.
  40. UNESCO. 2003. Text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Available at http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/convention. Accessed 6 July 2016.
  41. UNESCO. 2014. Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Register of Best Safeguarding Practices. Available at http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00559. Accessed 9 July 2016.
  42. UNESCO. (n. d.). General Introduction to The Standard-Setting Instruments of UNESCO. Available at http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=23772&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. Accessed 8 Aug 2016.
  43. Watts, Graham. 2015. Robert Cohan gala. http://londondance.com/articles/reviews/robert-cohan-at-90-gala-performance-the-place/. Accessed 2 Sept 2015.
  44. Williams, Peter. 1967. Contemporary Breakout. Dance and Dancers, December 1967, 20–22.Google Scholar
  45. Zhang, Zhiping. 2007. Cultural Resurrection in Beijing. Review, 2.Google Scholar

Interviews/Communications

  1. Robert Cohan—Interview. June 27, 2015.Google Scholar
  2. Laurel Dalley-Smith—Email Communication. July 14, 2015.Google Scholar
  3. Anne Donnelly—Interview. August 26, 2016.Google Scholar
  4. Jonathan Goddard—Email Communication. July 17, 2015.Google Scholar
  5. Liam Riddick—Email Communication. July 10, 2015.Google Scholar
  6. Moshe Romano—Letter to Anne Donnelly. February 2009.Google Scholar
  7. Yolande Yorke-Edgell—Email Communication. July 11, 2015.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Winchester UniversityWinchesterUK

Personalised recommendations

Cite chapter

Buy options