Selma Jeanne Cohen (September 18, 1920 – December 23, 2005) was a dance historian, editor, and teacher who devoted her career to advocating dance as an art worthy of the same scholarly respect traditionally awarded to painting, music, and literature. She edited the six-volume International Encyclopedia of Dance, completed in 1998.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, she was a dance critic for the New York Times and the Saturday Review. She also wrote and edited several books and taught at many colleges, including the University of Chicago. She died of Alzheimer’s disease in Greenwich Village, New York on December 23, 2005, aged 85.
Cohen was the niece of Benjamin V. Cohen, a key figure in the administrations of United States Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.[1]
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The Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) established the Selma Jeanne Cohen Award for exemplary student dance scholarship in her honor in 1995.
The Selma Jeanne Cohen Fund for International Scholarship at the Fulbright Association provides an honorarium, round-trip travel funds, and expenses for a dance scholar to give a major presentation on dance scholarship at the Association's annual conference.[4]