Department of Dance Chair and Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Barnard College of Columbia University, Mary Cochran has performed and taught on every continent except Antarctica. A soloist with Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1984-1996, Ms. Cochran is renowned as “an interpreter of Paul Taylor’s work who absorbs technique into her bones,” “blithe spirit, weaver of magic, quintessential muse,” and “a star, indeed.” She continues her association with Paul Taylor to this day having completed 19 restagings of his masterworks and as Director of the Paul Taylor School’s Summer and Winter Intensives. Her first appearance as the character Valeska was in 2003 at Joe’s Pub. The performance elicited the following favorable review from critic Tobi Tobias - “My favorite number … choreographed by the resourceful Sara Hook and astutely performed by Mary Cochran.” Her own dance/monologue Pitiful Vignette received its New York premiere on the LIT series in Soho in 2003. In July 2004 her newest work Concrete Jungle’s Hawaiian Shirt premiered in Texas. Critic Wayne Lee Gay described the solo as “a constant juxtaposition of anguish and grace.” In February of 2005 a review in the New York Times of Cochran’s performance of Hook’s Patriot Act Up described Cochran as “a compulsively parading and possibly deranged majorette.” Cochran continues to be a special guest artist with Sara Hook Dances and with David Parker and The Bang Group with which she appeared in December 2004 for a long run at Dance Theater Workshop. Cochran has taught at numerous colleges and conservatories including Mills College, the Juilliard School, University of Michigan, Harvard University, and the North Carolina School of the Arts. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee in May of 2005.