Idan Cohen is a passionate Opera Director and Choreographer. He holds a BA in Choreography from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and an MA in Dance- Choreography. Idan was born and raised in Israel, Kibbutz Mizra. The socialist community of Kibbutz had a deep effect on his artistic life and work.
Idan was trained as a classical piano player and was awarded scholarship programs and grants for international master workshops from the age of 8. He went on to receive a scholarship to study theater and fine arts at the Art Colony in Israel’s Negev desert and graduated with honors. At the age of 20, he was admitted to a video-dance project by a Bat-Sheva Dance Company dancer, Lara Bersak. In 1998, he danced for 7 seasons with the world-renowned K.C.D.C (Founder Yehudit Arnon, Artistic Director Rami Beer).
Since 2005, he’s been creating, performing and teaching successfully as an international award-winning director & dance artist.
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Awards:
- 2017 First Place for Orfeo, Beer Sheva Dance Prize, Israel
- 2012 Rozenbloom Award, Tel aviv Municipality, Israel
- 2012 Young Artist Award, Ministry of Culture, Israel
- 2010 Young Artist Award, Ministry of Culture, Israel
- 2008 Young Artist Award, Ministry of Culture, Israel
- 2008 First Performing Prize for My Sweet Little Fur, Solo Tanz Theater Festival, Stuttgart, Germany
- 2008 First Prize for My Sweet Little Fur Video Dance by Ofek Wertman, Kino Lewchyk Experimental Video Festival, Kiev, Ukraine
- 2007 First Place and Encouraging Award for Original Interpretation of Musical Composition, Margarita Arnaudova International Modern Dance Competition, Sofia, Bulgaria
- 2007 Israeli Artists Association (Emi) and Bank Hapoalim Ehud Manor Prize
- 2007 Second Place for A Year in a Fish Life, No Ballet Competition, Ludwigshafen, Germany
I Capuleti e i Montecchi is a brave new Dance-Opera production, based on the same Italian sources as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The overarching goal for this version is to speak of current happenings in today’s world and bring imagery of immigration, extreme urban conditions and the horrors of war within today’s human condition.
Through cultural and political references that create unsettling and provoking images, the Opera raises the question: Can the love between these young souls even stand the chance to cope, hold, and stand in front of the weight of the world?
I Capuleti e i Montecchi
The Production was co-produced as a work in progress at Amherst College, USA, April 2016.
In this Opera, the Capuleti and Montecchi are rival political factions, and not “two households, both alike in dignity,” as described by Shakespeare.
Typical to a Bel Canto Opera of that time, the part of Romeo is written for a mezzo soprano and the part of Juliet for a soprano. Thus, in this opera, both Romeo and Juliet are performed by women.
In creating I Capuleti e i Montecchi as a Dance Opera, award-winning Israeli director and choreographer Idan Cohen, presents the Italian opera as a highly contemporary, relevant and political production that puts the human body at the center of the drama.
Through Cohen’s vision and guidance, the opera singers will push their boundaries as the world of opera fuses with contemporary performance art.
Both singers and dancers will merge and expand their movement vocabulary and performance abilities, with a deep understanding of the music both in its context, history and performance possibilities.
Music: Vincenzo Bellini.
Libretto: Felice Romani
Director and Choreographer: Idan Cohen
Costumes and Set Design: Suzanne Palmer Dougan
Rehearsal Directors: Melannie Berson, Noa Shiloh
Idan Cohen returns to Amherst for Innovative Production – MA Jewish Ledger
Gender Bender
Drawing upon punk and pop culture, choreographer Idan Cohen’s latest work incorporates images that reflect personal and social identities of masculinity, femininity and all that lies between. – Ori J. Lenkinski / Jerusalem Post
Mad Siren
The musical score, which comprises several of Mozart’s solo piano sonatas, might have tempted other choreographers to slavishly mimic its rhythm. But Cohen, a trained classical pianist, knew better. His movement was musical, but in surprising ways, with certain steps amplifying notes that might otherwise not have felt important. – Sarah Halzack / Washington Post
Swan Lake
Several years before Swan Lake was hurled back into the popular culture spotlight with the Oscar-winning film Black Swan, Israeli choreographer Idan Cohen delved into the monumental work to create his own, reinterpreting it for contemporary times. – Gili Malinski/Jerusalem Post
This is an unmistakably 21st-century Swan Lake, but the connections to the popular 18th-century version run deep. – Deborah Friedes Galili/Dance in Israel
Cohen’s 21st-century version emphasizes the story’s shades of gray by exploring the emotions and personal struggles that the characters face rather than focusing on the story itself. It was a raw, gritty, and sometimes violent exploration of the self, rooted in the trio of women’s relentless commitment to the movement. – Evan Namerow/The Brooklyn Rail
This juxtaposition of old and new made Idan Cohen’s Swan Lake perfect for Williamsburg. This enclave of “hipsterdom” stylizes in the now, yet with a clear reverence and celebration of what has come before. Cohen’s Swan Lake was on the same page; his was not an adaptation or even a re-make of the classical Swan Lake. Instead, the important messages and lessons from the old were taken through a transformation into something new and applicable for today. – Heather Desaulniers/Dance Commentary
Israeli choreographer Idan Cohen’s recent production of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet Swan Lake is a decidedly modernistic treatment, sleek and brief in comparison to typical versions, brash in its imagery and more abstract in the flow of the storyline. Despite its artistic distinction, and perhaps because of it, Cohen’s version of Swan Lake has enjoyed enormous success in Israel and Europe. – Smith College/Grecourt Gate News
- 2016 Orfeo Opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck
Between Heaven and Earth Festival, Jerusalem, Israel - 2016 I Capuleti e i Montecchi Opera by Vincenzo Belinni
Amherst College, MA, USA - 2015 Nesting
Cracow Dance Theater, Cracow, Poland - 2015 Male and Female, He Made Them
Dance installation in collaboration with British artist Jacqueline Nichols - 2014 Coppelia
Collaboration with Jerusalem Ballet, Israel - 2014 Private Dancer
T.H.E 2, Singapore - 2014 Because for Edge
The Place, London - 2013 Gender Bender
- 2013 Nesting
Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA - 2012 Songs of A Wayfarer
18 min. solo to Gustav Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer - 2012 Holi
Collaboration with Sapphire Creations, Kolkata, India - 2012 My Sweet Little Fur
Performed by the Scottish Dance Theater, Dundee, Scotland - 2011 Mad Siren
W.A. Mozart supported by Schlos Brolin, Germany - 2011 Because
Silesian Dance Theater, Poland - 2010 Brazil
Collaboration with Maria Kong Dancers Company, Israel - 2009 Swan Lake
P.I. Tchaikovsky supported by Tanzplan Dresden, Germany - 2009 Three Pieced Swan, op.1
Creation for ICOM- DNA (Dance New Amsterdam), New York - 2008 Joy Ride
- 2007 My Sweet Little Fur
Shades in Dance Festival, Suzanne Dellal Dance Center, T.A. - 2007 Half Cup Sesame Seeds
For Arabesque Dance Company, Bulgaria - 2006 A Year in a Fish Life
- 2005 Fishbone in Cup of Tea
Shades in Dance Festival, Suzanne Della Dance Center, T.A, Israel