past and present

racoco productions remove the boundaries between the visual and performing arts, the audience and the performers, and the real and the imaginary by borrowing from a range of aesthetics from fine to outsider art to create cinematic theatrical experiences in which movement, music, humor, emotion, and texture are inextricably linked. Performers adapt scripts of idiosyncratic movement phrases and coopted traditional forms, transporting audiences through the looking glass to where the ordinary is iconic, the mundane mysterious, and the silly sacred. The body and everyday objects are compared, contrasted, blended, and confused to illustrate the inescapable messiness of existence.

Rachel Cohen is the artistic director of racoco productions. Read her bio [here].

In 2008, racoco productions was awarded a Live Music for Dance grant from the American Music Center to
present an open rehearsal and performances of Like Dirt, a clay-based collaboration with composer Chris
Becker and Boston-based clay artist Patty Rosenblatt, in Long Island City, NY.

In 2007, racoco productions received a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation US Arts International grant to create a
site-specific piece with visual artist Agata Olek at the 18th Annual Contemporary Dance performance
and Conference in Bytom, Poland. In March, racoco productions and Chris Becker received a Creative
Connections grant from Meet the Composer to present open rehearsals and a performance of collaborative
work, with Mr. Becker’s trio performing live and video by clay artist/filmmaker Leighton Edmondson.
In April, The Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, presented racoco productions’ Suite, combining
film noir, salt-water taffy, and jazz trombonist Rafi Malkiel’s original music for his quintet.

In 2006, New York City’s World Financial Center presented racoco productions in the Winter Garden as part of its
Arts & Events program. Ms. Cohen, with Mr. Becker, performed the first incarnation of Thrown as the
culmination of her residency exploring the intersections of movement and clay at Harvard University as the
Clifton Visiting Artist. racoco productions was company-in-residence at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn,
NY, and hosted a monthly showcase, “racoco shows the inside.”

In 2005, racoco productions produced and presented the full-evening If the Shoe Fits, a collaboration with
Mr. Becker and visual artist Agata Olek, at Walkerspace in New York City. John Rockwell, head dance critic
of The New York Times, hailed the production as “a refreshing alternative . . . lavish and fully realized,”
and listed it among his dance highlights of 2005. In June, the company performed in London, England,
at the “My Favorite Dress” benefit for The Rainbow Trust, and at Hip Hip Cabaret at the Bethnal Green
Working Men’s Club. In July, Mr. Becker and Ms. Cohen created Recidivistas 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.

Read more about racoco productions repertory here.