past and present
racoco productions are fantastic excavations of ordinary things. Creating theatrical experiences rooted in the visual arts, burlesque, clown and mask work, and borrowing from a range of aesthetics from fine to outsider art, Racoco uses idiosyncratic movement and traditional forms to transport audiences to places where the ordinary is iconic, the mundane mysterious, and the silly sacred. The body and everyday objects are used in contrast to illuminate poignant metaphors about people and their experiences of the world we live within. >
Rachel Cohen is the artistic director of racoco productions. Read her bio here.
In 2005, racoco productions produced and presented the full-evening production, If the Shoe Fits, in collaboration with composer Chris Becker and visual artist Agata Oleksiak, at Walkerspace in New York City. In June, the company performed in London, England, at the My Favorite Dress benefit for The Rainbow Trust, and Hip Hip Cabaret at the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. In July, Mr. Becker and Ms. Cohen created Recidivistas, a site-specific piece for Chashama's 2005 Oasis Festival in midtown Manhattan.
In 2004, Rachel Cohen, Ms. Oleksiak, and Mr. Becker created Looks Good On Paper, commissioned by Christine Jowers/Moving Arts Projects. Ms. Cohen collaborated with playwright Mac Wellman and poet Bruce Andrews in Talk Talk Walk Walk, a festival of poetry and dance collaborations.
In 2003, racoco productions held its first official season with the self-produced full-evening How Many Licks, at Williamsburg Art Nexus in Brooklyn. How Many Licks featured costumes by Ms. Oleksiak and the recorded music of the Yorkshire Classic Brass and contemporary British composer Barry Russell. The company also performed excerpts of How Many Licks as part of the 2003 Surrealist Fashion Show at the WAH Center in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The company and Ms. Oleksiak were commissioned to create a moving installation for New York City's Village Halloween Parade by Pop Sustainability, an organization promoting global awareness; Mr. Becker composed the music. Cinewomen NY's Pioneer Screening Series presented the company's short film Flight of Fancy, with costumes by Mindy Nelson, at New York's Pioneer Theater.
In 2002, for Dancenow Downtown the company performed a site-specific tribute to Esther Williams in Manhattan's empty Carmine Pool, to an original score by composer John Stone. For Music and Dance Collaborations at The Construction Company, the company created and performed All the Much I Have Not Went with composer Rafi Malkiel and a live jazz quartet to Mr. Malkiel's original score. The company, in collaboration with Ms. Oleksiak, also performed with Mr. Malkiel and pianist Shoko Nagai at the Williamsburg Dance Festival, and as part of "Entertaining Science", a program exploring the connections of science and art led by Nobel-prize-winning chemist and poet Roald Hoffmann at the Cornelia Street Cafe. Ms. Cohen co-produced an evening's concert, Cross-Pollination, with choreographers Sally Schuiling and Maia Ramnath at The Merce Cunningham Studio Theater.
racoco productions have also been presented at Mary Anthony Dance Theater; The Ensemble Studio Theater, Hunter College, Pier 66, and Rawspace in New York City, the Kemp Playhouse in Virginia Beach, and at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.
The company’s cabaret offshoot, racoco + the it girls, appears regularly at NY hotspots Galapagos Art Space and The Slipper Room.
Read more about racoco productions repertory here.
photo: Leighton Edmondson
