Rachel Cohen

Rachel Cohen has been choreographing and performing in New York City since 1997. She created racoco productions in 2003. In 2008, Ms. Cohen was invited give a presentation on her work with dance and clay at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Museum School. She also performed in a two-day workshop exploring the intersection of dance and clay with dancer Christine Dakin and potter and writer Paulus Berensohn at Harvard University. In 2007, Ms. Cohen was a resident artist at New Mexico’s Santa Fe Arts Institute, with clay artist Patty Rosenblatt. In 2007 the two were joint resident artists at the Sanskriti Foundation in New Delhi, India, with kathak dancer Navina Jafa. In 2006, Ms. Cohen was Harvard University’s Clifton Visiting Artist; she created and performed the installation Thrown with sculptor Tom Howell and composer Chris Becker. She also performed with neon/light artists Kenny Greenberg and Clare Brew, author/neuroscientist Oliver Sacks, and Nobel-prize-winning chemist Roald Hoffmann at NYC’s Cornelia Street Café. In 2005, she choreographed and performed in Morningwood and Capitol Records’ rock music video “Jetsetter.” In 2004, Ms. Cohen performed with choreographer Karl Anderson, playwright Mac Wellman, and poet Bruce Andrews in Sally Silvers’ “Talk Talk Walk Walk,” festival. In 1999, Ms. Cohen’s solo Time On My Hands was chosen to tour with American Dance Guild Presents.

Ms. Cohen graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Performance as Communication, a
self-designed major; she studied dance with Claire Mallardi. In 1989-90 she lived in Jerusalem, Israel,
attending the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance. In 1993-4 she apprenticed with dancer/choreographer Clara Gibson Maxwell in Paris, France. Ms. Cohen has studied action theater with Ruth Zaporah and Cassie Terman; ballet with Patricia Cross and Carolyn Lord; modern dance with Mary Anthony and Bertram Ross; jazz with Joanne Conroy and Olga Baigas; tap with Heather Cornell and Stephanie Larriere; mask and clown with Mario Gonzales, Rafael Bianciotto, and Ariane Anthony; Meisner technique with Wendy Ward; and poekoelan, an Indonesian martial art, with Sam and Karen Duffy. She has performed with Olek, Julie Atlas Muz, SHUA Group, Ariane Anthony + Company, Mary Anthony Dance Theater, Christopher Caines Dancers, Le Minh Tam, and Theodora Skipitares, among others, and on television on The Montel Show. Ms. Cohen has also taught workshops for children, teens, and adults in New York City; Plattsburgh, New York; Harvard University Dance Program, and Toulouse, France.

photo: Robert Polkosnik