Kovich, Robert 1951-1991

Robert Kovich was a dancer and choreographer, originally with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. In the 1980s, Kovich performed, choreographed, and taught dance, mainly in New York and France.

Robert Kovich was born in California on January 17, 1950. He studied dance with Isa Partsch Bergsohn at the University of California-Santa Barbara from 1968 to 1971, and then with Judith Dunn and Martha Wittman at Bennington College in Vermont from 1970 to 1972, where he received a bachelor's degree. Kovich was a dance fellow at the Judith Dunn/Bill Dixon Dance Company from 1971 to 1972, and in 1973, he joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in New York as a dancer and teacher. In 1981, Kovich left Merce Cunningham and moved to France to work as a choreographer and teacher. From 1981 through 1984, supported by the French Ministry of Culture, Kovich choreographed Loupe for the Maison de la Danse in Lyon, Tarantula (with Tarantella) for the Festival at Arles, and Scanner/Rhapsody at the Pompidou Center. Kovich also presented dances in New York during this time and worked as a choreographer and teacher for various dance companies and festivals in the United States, Europe and Israel. Throughout the 1980s, Kovich created dances that explored the traditional roles of musician and dancer, collaborating with such musicians as John King, Rhys Chatham and Linda Benglis. He produced a variety of works at dance workshops, festivals and centers in the New York area, North Carolina, Minnesota and other locations. Awarded grants and fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts among others, Kovich received the Metropolitan Life Foundation/American Dance Festival Young Choreographers Award in 1986. He was a member of the Societé des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques. Kovich died of cancer at the age of 40 on April 23, 1991 in Manhattan. In his obituary, the New York Times noted that Kovich was known as a "demanding but gentle master teacher" and a dancer with "an ironic wit, great physical deftness and precision and a sense of vivid coloration."

From the description of Robert Kovich papers, 1958-1990 (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 243664666