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Modern Dance in London
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17203 |
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THE ARTS
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| Issue
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2 / 1990 |
2,452 Words |
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Kathrine Sorley Walker
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All over Britain interest in contemporary dance has been built up by small local groups and a set of lively young "dance animateurs" who introduce it into community and educational activities. This development can be traced directly to America. In the sixties-those "swinging" years when Britain exported the Beatles and fashions of Carnaby Street and the King's Road to an eager world - the dance influences came eastward across the Atlantic. Robert Cohan, a New Yorker trained by Martha Graham, was appointed first director of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and the historic Ballet Rambert metamorphosed-through Norman Morrice (who had studied in New York on a ford Foundation Fellowship) and with the enthusiastic support of the remarkable Dame Marie Rambert-into the contemporary group now known as the Rambert Dance Company. From these two ventures most of today's talents and accomplishments have emerged.
Over the last twenty years, Cohan became a vital and highly respected factor in the development of modern dance in his adopted country. He has run his own group as well as appearing in musicals on stage and television in America, and has choreographed both in the United States and for the Batsheva company in Israel. He has proved to be the perfect choice for the newly formed London Contemporary Dance Theatre. A gifted creator of dance works with outstanding theater sense, he is also capable of producing dancers and choreographers of distinction.
Prolific Output
The company's repertory owes much to Cohan's prolific choreographic invention. Inevitably, there have been highs and lows in his output, but many memorable productions have marked his career. He has never been short of stimulating ideas, and his flair for the composition of dramatic movement has been apparent from the start, when he created a splendidly tense acrobatic struggle on Jacob's ladder to the sky in Hunter of angels. Stages is an enormously ambitious full-evening work about a hero and his experiences. Strongly welded and often exhilarating, it uses a triple-level set with ramps and is divided into two parts, Reality and Dream. Reality is macabre and nightmarish, while Dream incorporates Walter Mitty-ish fantasies that are sardonic and amusing. In both, the dance style is vigorous and acrobatic.
Waterless Method of Swimming Instruction, on the other hand, is a polished and sophisticated comedy couched in coolly aquatic terms, conjuring up ingenious impressions of breaststroke, backstroke, or butterfly and suggesting mermaid tails by turned-out feet. Nympheas to Debussy is an enchanting work, developed with a delectable ease and ingenuity that reflects Monet's shimmering water lily world.
A series of Cohan's deeply felt devotional works including Stabat Mater and Songs, Lamentations and Praises, was performed at a Jerusalem International seminar on the Bible in Dance in 1979. Something very different, but of the utmost value in helping audiences to appreciate modern dance, is Class, which does for the Graham technique what Harald Lander's Etudes does for classical ballet -introduces exercises and classwork in a mountingly exciting manner and allows dancers to display virtuoso attack.
In spite of his own creativity, Cohan has chosen never to dominate the London Contemporary Dance Theatre. During his incumbency, a wide range of new work has been
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