Steven Cohen
Trained in contemporary dance and classical ballet – Pretoria Technicon, South Africa, 1987-1990. From 1992 until 1998 choreographer and dancer ELU worked mostly on his own, developing an individual and specific choreographic vocabulary. He produced several solo pieces and showed on dance festivals in South Africa.
Steven Cohen and ELU met in 1997 while both working on a collective project at the Old Fort Prison in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Steven Cohen is a visual artist and performance artist with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology and applied-artworks in many national and corporate collections in South Africa. The artists,one english-speaking Jew, one afrikaans-speaking Pagan, are known for their solo and duo works, presented at Dance Festivals, in Art Galleries and often as unexpected and uninvited Public Interventions.
“The gay white couple Steven Cohen and Elu have broken societal and political taboos in South Africa,with their radical queer performance art. In their projects,which are as anarchic as they are baroque,Steven
Cohen and Elu play with the masks of oppression and desire and report on an unknown post-apartheid South Africa” – catalogue: In Transit, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin June 2002.
The pair has shown in Madagascar, Paris, Canada and Berlin; between them, they have received numerous commissions and awards,including the prestigious FNB VITA National Art Prize in 1998.
Elu and Steven Cohen were invited by choreogapher Régine Chopinot for a one year choreographic research residency, at Ballet Atlantique/Régine Chopinot, La Rochelle, France, from June 2002.
Source : Steven Cohen’s website
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Last update : October 2012