racoco in the Press Republican

	March 14, 2005
	Plattsburgh native taking major steps in the dance world
	Cohen crafting her own fairy tale
	By ROBIN CAUDELL, Staff Writer

	NEW YORK - With two favorable reviews in The New York Times in 20 days, dancer/choreographer Rachel Cohen's cachet has risen in artistic circles. So has that of Racoco's (Rachel Cohen and Company). "We had a couple of phone calls from people who want to find out more about the company," said Rachel, who was born in Plattsburgh. "Now, I need to send out videos and copies of the reviews. It will definitely help people take us more seriously." Critic John Rockwell's dance reviews of Cohen's "If the Shoe Fits" appeared in the Feb. 15 and March 6 editions of The New York Times. Rockwell called the work "a refreshing alternative" and a "beguiling puzzlement." "If the Shoe Fits" premièred at the Walkerspace in TriBeCa. Frustrated with waiting for outside backing to mount the production, Cohen drew on some savings and rented the small, black-box theater herself for two weeks. "The first week was kind of a rocky going," she said. "Everything jelled the night before he (Rockwell) came. He came to a good show." Cohen's collection of antique vacuum cleaners was the catalyst for the Cinderella-esque production. A terrible housekeeper, she wanted to put her non-Martha Stewartness in the context of art. "I thought Cinderella was a good structure." Metropolitan Opera Ballet's Michelle Vargo portrayed Cinderella in Cohen's work, which includes the two requisite stepsisters, a displaced bean-stalk Jack and a fairy godmother who rides vacuum cleaners. "It was a mixture of people who have dance and clown skills working together," Cohen said. "I knew I wanted to make dough. I like a physical, visceral element. I do like bringing in sculpture and doing mundane activities. When you put them onstage, they become something very dramatic." With its cooking-cleaning twist, "If the Shoe Fits" pays homage to Cohen's love of old Hollywood movies. She was assisted in her vision by Chris Becker (composer), Agata Olek (costumes and sets), Simon Harding (lighting) and Maria de los Angeles (makeup). "I got this really great group of people together." Fairy-tale imagery melds with a coming-of-age story that explores how innocence is broken down by reality and how one tries to retain vestiges of that ideal world. "Once you start the rehearsal process, it becomes what it wants," Cohen said. "I decided not to question it and let it go. I didn't want to try too hard to put logic on top of what is happening. It's already unusual in a way." The 80-minute piece is really messy, from a physical standpoint, but Cohen's father, Dr. Mark Cohen, has watched her make messes, big and small, since she was a girl. She dubs him Racoco's manager. "This is professional stuff," said Mark, who is a distinguished teaching professor of anthropology at Plattsburgh State. "I've been watching it grow. I didn't realize it had grown to this point." He saw the show twice with Vargo dancing as the principal, and later Rachel. "She's known what she wanted to do forever," Mark said. "When I asked her if she was going to graduate school, she said, 'I'm going to dance.' What about law school? 'I'm going to dance.' "She lives in Brooklyn and dances and choreographs with every moment she can squeeze out. She loves it. It's her life." Rachel got her dance foundation in Plattsburgh at Debbie Guibord's dance school, where she and her sister, Leslie, trained. Their mother, Linda Townsend, was a dancer, too. "I knew I really loved to do it," Rachel said. "I kept going back and forth. I kind of stuck with it, and it ended up taking over my life." Locally, she also studied with Patricia Cross, Joanne Conroy and Olga Baigas. In 1991, she graduated as valedictorian of her class at Plattsburgh High School. She attended Harvard, her father's alma mater, where she majored in the arts and dance. She studied abroad in Paris. In college, Rachel met her mentor, Claire Mallardi. "Her influence made me pursue it, move to New York and make a go of it there. Claire expanded my mind to what dance could include." Rachel's productions include clown, mask, mimes, acrobatics, puppetry, acting and poekoelan, an Indonesian martial art. "It has a lot of dance-like elements to it," Rachel said. "I thought it would be a good support for dance technique. I combine all these things and try to make something new."