ABSTRACT
The documentary film A Dancer’s World (1957) not only demonstrates the extent to which Martha Graham had codified her technique by the mid-1950s. It also serves as a record of the individual and collective talents of her company at that time. Of the men featured in the film, Robert Cohan is clearly the most lithe, both in terms of physique and in the way that he executes the various classroom exercises. A decade later, when he became responsible for the development of the Graham technique at the London School of Contemporary Dance (LSCD) and London Contemporary Dance Theatre (LCDT), these physical traits became particularly important. Although it was perhaps inevitable that the technique would change when transplanted into a new context, the distinct strain that Cohan developed-one in which the Graham contraction was less percussive and less overtly emotive, and movements in general appeared less anchored to the floor-was shaped as much through his classes and choreography as from the fact that it was forged on different bodies and temperaments.
