Director of the Geneva company for 19 years, Philippe Cohen had just retired at the beginning of the summer. He died at age 69.
“An enthusiastic, generous and warm man”
After leading the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève for 19 years, Philippe Cohen took leave of the institution and a well-deserved retirement last June before being taken away by illness only a few weeks later. “Philippe Cohen died on July 18, 2022 at the age of 69, in the south of France surrounded by his family, following having bravely fought cancer declared two years ago”, announced Tuesday the Grand Théâtre, saluting “an enthusiastic, generous and warm man, who has contributed tirelessly to the influence of ballet, dance and more broadly of the Geneva institution beyond the borders”.
When he retired on June 30, Aviel Cahn, the general manager of the Grand Théâtre, praised Philippe Cohen’s “open-mindedness”, “curiosity” and “deeply human approach”.
Testimonials
“He was a remarkable personality, a talent scout like there are few”, testified once more the choreographer Abou Lagraa who created Wahada at the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2019. “He was my dance father first. I joined the Lyon Conservatory of which he was director in 1990 thanks to him. He insisted that I be taken when I did not have sufficient technique because he was sure, he said, that I was going to become a great performer. He was frank, even implacable at times, but he was at the service of dance and artists. »
“For many years, I saw this figure of an elegant and refined man in the corridors of the Grand Théâtre de Genève”, writes the journalist Jacques Schmitt in Res Musica. “During the press conferences (…), the calm with which he exposed the programs to come might have made one think that he had a vision of his art without passion. This false impression was only the expression of a man of exceptional class, a man aware of the importance of dance, a man who had an immoderate love of beauty. A quest for beauty from which he spread the Ballet du Grand Théâtre with the constancy of people who know. »
“I will remember his beaming and happy face when he told me how happy he was to see “Atys” by Rameau staged on his initiative with the major contribution of dance. “Sixteen years I’ve been waiting for this! » he threw at me in a surge of youthful and irrepressible enthusiasm, so far from the measured man he offered to see (…). Philippe Cohen went off to other skies, filled with the beauty he loved and shared with the public of the Grand Théâtre de Genève for nineteen years. »
Visual: Facade of the Grand Théâtre de Genève © Wikicommons
Cloe Bouquet
