Yolande Yorke-Edgell
Yolande’s professional career began as a dancer with Extemporary Dance Theatre. She then danced with Rambert Dance Company before moving to Los Angeles to join the Lewitzky Dance Company, dancing many leading roles and being appointed a master teacher. After the Lewitzky Company disbanded, she formed her own repertory dance company Yorke Dance Project which presented works by UK and LA based artists. Upon returning to the UK, she performed in Adam Cooper’s production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses before joining the Richard Alston Dance Company.
In 2009 Yorke Dance Project was re-established in the UK and continues to present works by world renowned UK and US choreographers. Yolande has also created works for companies in both the US and UK as well as for TV and theatre productions.
In 2013 she began her intensive collaboration with Sir Robert Cohan, reviving his solo work, Canciones del Alma for Yorke Dance Project’s Figure Ground programme. She was later mentored by Cohan on several works she choreographed for the company. Together, Cohan and YDP created seven individual productions which played to packed houses both in London on tour and in California.
In 2015, Yolande, along with Cohan and his long-time collaborator Eleanor Alberga, founded the Cohan Collective which brings together composers, choreographers, musicians, filmmakers and dancers to look deeply into the process of making music, dance and film to develop the depth and quality of their work and working methods. Yolande has co-directed each residency and is honoured to continue developing Cohan Collective programmes, including 2020’s Cohan Collective for Film and in 2021, the Cohan Collective in partnership with the Martha Graham Dance Company and Joffrey Ballet.
In 2018 Yolande began collaborating with filmmaker David Stewart starting with a documentary on Robert Cohan’s life which is currently being developed. Since then they have filmed seven of the solos from Afternoon Conversations with Dancers as a series called Portraits which premiered at the Barbican Cinema in October. These films have gone on to win multiple awards at film festivals around the world. In 2022 they created the award winning film of Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet, Sea of Troubles. Both Portraits and Sea of Troubles then went on to become a double bill entitled Dance Revolutionaries that screened in over 80 cinemas nationwide in 2024.
Yolande received a nomination for a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for her performance of Martha Graham’s iconic 1930 solo, Lamentation , which was part of her final season as a dancer with the company. Currently Yolande is collaborating on a film book on the teachings of Robert Cohan due to be released in 2026 as well as continuing to direct and choreograph for Yorke Dance Project.