The Dance Centre
Bach Dances
Choreographed by Idan Cohen, with Accompaniment by Cellist Elinor Frey
Artists: Created by Idan Cohen, Elinor Frey, cellist; Will Jessup, Alexis Fletcher, Emma Galvin, Lazaro Silva, dancers; Rafaella Rabinovich, costume designer; Victoria Bell, lighting designer
Pre-Performance Chat: 7pm hosted by Sarah Pelzer with Idan Cohen & Elinor Frey. There is no pre-performance chat for the matinee.
Run Time: 60 Minutes, no Interval
Bach Dances is a world premiere contemporary dance production conceived by award-winning choreographer and opera stage director Idan Cohen. A co-production between Ne.Sans Opera and Dance, The Dance Centre and Early Music Vancouver, supported by a Dance Victoria residency, the work reimagines Bach’s first three cello suites as a powerful theatrical experience of live music and contemporary dance. The suites will be performed live by celebrated cellist Elinor Frey, and feature exceptional dancers, evocative costumes, and striking visual imagery.
August 1, 2026 at 1pm & 7:30pm | Scotiabank Dance Centre
This event is sponsored by Vince and Zelie Tan
PROGRAMME
J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750)
Cello Suites 1, 2, & 3 – BWV 1007–1012
Idan Cohen, Director & Choreographer
Idan Cohen is an Israeli-born opera director and choreographer and the Artistic Director of Ne.Sans Opera & Dance, a Vancouver-based company dedicated to exploring the intersection of art-music and contemporary dance. Founded by Cohen in 2017, Ne.Sans serves as a creative platform for interdisciplinary collaboration among singers, dancers, musicians, and visual artists, developing bold works that reimagine the relationship between movement, music, and theatrical storytelling.
Born and raised in Kibbutz Mizra, Israel, Cohen was initially trained as a classical pianist before pursuing studies in theatre, fine arts, and choreography. He holds both a BA and an MFA in choreography from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. At the age of twenty he joined the internationally renowned
Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, where he performed for seven seasons.
Since 2005, Cohen has worked internationally as an award winning choreographer, performer, and stage director, earning recognition for works that blend the expressive potential of the body with the dramatic power of operatic music. His productions frequently place musicians and dancers on equal dramatic footing, creating visually striking and emotionally resonant performance environments.
Through Ne.Sans, Cohen has created and directed interdisciplinary works such as Hourglass (set to the music of Philip Glass performed live by Leslie Dala), Take This Waltz (Celebrating the work of Canadian legend Leonard Cohen), and opera productions including Orfeo ed Euridice at Vancouver Opera and I
Capuleti e i Montecchi at Teatro Massimo, Palermo. His work has been presented internationally and across Canada, contributing to an evolving dialogue between contemporary dance and the operatic stage.
Elinor Frey, Cello
Elinor Frey is a leading Canadian-American cellist, gambist, and researcher. Her albums on the Belgian label Passacaille and Canadian label Analekta – many of which are world premiere recordings – are the fruit of long collaborations with artists such as Suzie LeBlanc, Marc Vanscheeuwijck, and Lorenzo Ghielmi, as well as with composers including Maxime McKinley, Linda Catlin Smith, Christian Mason, and Lisa Streich. Elinor’s recording of cello sonatas by Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco received a Diapason d’Or and her critical editions of Dall’Abaco’s cello music is published in collaboration with Walhall Editions. Early Italian Cello Concertos, her album in collaboration with Rosa Barocca orchestra, won the 2023 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year (small ensemble).
Elinor is the artistic director of Accademia de’ Dissonanti, an organization for performance and research, and she has performed throughout the Americas and in Europe in recital and with numerous chamber ensembles and orchestras (Constantinople, Les idées heureuses, Il Gardellino, Tafelmusik, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, etc.). In March 2023, she performed Boccherini and Sammartini concertos with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
Recipient of dozens of grants and prizes supporting performance and research, including the US-Italy Fulbright Fellowship (studying with Paolo Beschi in Como, Italy) and a recent research residency at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, Elinor holds degrees from McGill, Mannes, and Juilliard. She teaches Baroque cello and performance practice at McGill University and the Université de Montréal and is a Visiting Fellow in Music (2020–2023) at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. Frey was awarded Québec’s Opus Prize for “Performer of the Year” in 2021.
