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Phoenix is brimming with creativity. And every other year, we put the spotlight on 100 of the city’s creative forces. Leading up to the release of this year’s Best of Phoenix issue, we’re profiling 100 more. Welcome to the 2014 edition of 100 Creatives. Up today: 53. Frances Smith Cohen.
“I am what I do,” says Frances Smith Cohen.
The artistic director of Center Dance Ensemble, Herberger Theater Center‘s resident dance company, has been dancing since she was 3 years old. Cohen has spent decades in the Phoenix dance world — and she has the lifetime achievement awards to prove it.
See also: Tempe Artist Bobby Zokaites: 100 Creatives
Among her accolades are a 1994 Arizona Governor’s Outstanding Artist Award, a 2004 Women Who Care Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2010 Childsplay’s Pied Piper Award.
In addition to her work at Center Dance Ensemble, which annually presents her signature piece Snow Queen and where she has debuted new work as part of the program Secrets in March of 2014, Cohen co-directs Dance Theater West, which she co-founded with Susan Silverman (who, full disclosure, is related to New Times‘ managing editor Amy Silverman), and serves as regional director of Arizona Wolf Trap, a program that places performing artists in Head Start classrooms.
She’s gearing up for another season, which will kick off in October with The Bad and The Beautiful and close with American Voices in April 2015.
I’m actually a Tucson native arriving there in 1936 with my family and became a Phoenix resident in 1986 when my husband, Marvin, left the Carter administration (he was Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board) and joined the law firm of Sacks, Tierney.
I make art because I have no choice. I have danced since age 3 and I started choreographing at age 12. For 79 years, dance and my everyday life have been completely entwined. I am what I do.
Give me mature dancers, a large studio space, music that moves me, and a universal truth that needs to be expressed, and the dance appears.
My life is reflected by Marvin’s and my family portraits, (going back to 1860, and through our family events from 1953 to 2014). To be an artist, to tell about life’s passions, the teacher, choreographer, storyteller must experience and be open to all reality. The family grounds the artist as well as his mentors and teachers. My mentors were my first private studio teachers who put me on scholarship when there was no money, my middle school geography teacher who let me choreograph the school musical, my high school teacher who taught me my first modern dance moves and of course the greats, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Ethel Butler, who taught me how to be a professional dancer.
Besides my teachers, I learned by doing. I now tell my students, “You want to learn how to choreograph, then just start choreographing, dive in, your mistakes will lead you to the next step, and if you are honest, your work will have integrity.”
Every work will not be a success — accepted, understood, or applauded, but if in the artist’s eyes, the work is an honest revealing of their “inner landscape” (a Martha Graham reference) then it is a good work.
We have a vibrant dance scene here in Phoenix. Dance artists are constantly working to create new dance companies, find new dance spaces and find their own voices. We need the media to keep up with them — giving them recognition, constructive criticism, and making them feel that what they are doing is important to this community. Modern dance is very underrated and that is a shame because it is truly one of the few American art forms.
Editor’s note: This post has been modified form its original version.
See the 2014 edition of 100 Creatives:
100. Bill Dambrova
99. Niki Blaker
98. Jeff Slim
97. Beth May
96. Doug Bell
95. Daniel Langhans
94. Nanibaa Beck
93. Nicole Royse
92. Ib Andersen
91. Casandra Hernandez
90. Chris Reed
89. Shelby Maticic
88. Olivia Timmons
87. Courtney Price
86. Travis Mills
85. Catrina Kahler
84. Angel Castro
83. Cole Reed
82. Lisa Albinger
81. Larry Madrigal
80. Julieta Felix
79. Lauren Strohacker
78. Levi Christiansen
77. Thomas Porter
76. Carrie Leigh Hobson
75. Cody Carpenter
74. Jon Jenkins
73. Aurelie Flores
72. Michelle Ponce
71. Devin Fleenor
70. Noelle Martinez
69. Bucky Miller
68. Liliana Gomez
67. Jake Friedman
66. Clarita Lulić
65. Randy Murray
64. Mo Neuharth
63. Jeremy Hamman
62. La Muñeca
61. Kevin Goldman
60. Emily Costello
59. Kerstin Dale
58. Vara Ayanna
57. Nathaniel Lewis
56. Ruben Gonzales
55. Lisa Poje
54. Bobby Zokaites
