Australia Dancing - Cook, Ray (1934

Cook, Ray (1934 - )

Seselja, Loui: Portrait of Ray Cook, 2003

Brisbane-born, Ray Cook took his first dance classes in Townsville where he studied with a number of teachers, including Ann Roberts. He also took classes in Brisbane with Charles Lisner and in Melbourne with Martin Rubinstein and Xenia Borovansky at the Borovansky Ballet school. In Melbourne he also worked with Margaret Scott and Laurel Martyn and performed with Martyn's Ballet Guild in the 1950s, including in the televised production of Voyageur.

While with Ballet Guild Cook attended a lecture given my Meg Denton and was inspired to take up notation, which he did by correspondence for the next several years. He continued to dance in Australia, joining the Borovansky Ballet for a season in 1959-1960, and then performing in musicals including a production of The Student Prince and the Australian production of West Side Story. Cook left Australia on a scholarship to study notation in New York and has been a resident of the United States since 1961.

In New York Cook studied notation and took the exams of the Dance Notation Bureau. He also took classes with a range of teachers and choreographers including Margaret Craske, Antony Tudor and Louis Horst, and danced with Anna Sokolow, Jose Limon, American Dance Theatre, Valerie Bettis and Lotte Goslar. He appeared on television, in summer stock, and as guest artist with many college groups before becoming a full-time notator. His work in the United States included fifteen years on the faculty of Vassar College. In the 1970s Cook returned briefly to Australia as ballet master for Australian Dance Theatre under Elizabeth Dalman.

Cook has notated the dances of a range of choreographers including Doris Humphrey, Anna Sokolow, Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, and Lin Hwai-min as well as small selection of works by Australian choreographers.

Bibliography:

A notated example of Balanchine's Raymonda Variations by Ray Cook is included in Nancy Reynolds, 'Raymonda Variations', Dance Notation Journal, Vol 6 (New York: Dance Notation Bureau, 1989), pp. 49-50.

Research Materials

Notated score | Oral history | All

Other resources

Find more about Cook, Ray in:

Internet - Google
Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia