Choreographer Ze'eva Cohen grew up in Tel Aviv, which was then a small desert town in Israel. Like most towns, it was built around a square that was a gathering place, serving the residents physically, socially and emotionally.

	Bodiography will present Ze'eva Cohen's "Meditation on the Square." Click photo for larger image. Bodiography: Innovation 2006 Where: Byham Theater, Downtown. When: 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $25-$40, with student tickets available at $15 30 minutes before the show; 412-456-6666.

After extensive travels and visits to many such town centers, Cohen found the inspiration for "Meditation on the Square," to be performed by Bodiography this weekend at the Byham Theater.

For a company that made its mark with rock ballets -- artistic director Maria Caruso's new Stevie Nicks-inspired work, "Timeless," will share the program -- Cohen's piece represents a departure.

Cohen has come to believe that dancers have to go back to their roots. At a recent rehearsal, exotic music fills the Bodiography studio in Squirrel Hill as company members try to shake their usual contemporary flair and delve into the past.

Cohen looks comfortable, not only because of her loose clothing and the red-rimmed glasses that hang on a cord around her neck, but with her heritage. In fact, she is urging the cast to "think casual, relaxed -- as if you're doing nothing. No more dancing anymore -- look spiritually within."

Cohen learned to do that early on in Tel Aviv. While studying the free, improvisational style of Gertrud Kraus, she subliminally tapped into the folklore around her. The technique came later in studies with American dancers Rena Gluck and Anna Sokolow, who pushed Cohen to move to the United States and even bought her a ticket.

While she voraciously sampled all that New York City had to offer -- Juilliard, Pearl Lang, American Dance Theater -- she would eventually make her mark as a dance soloist, with 28 works by the likes of Kei Takei, Rudy Perez, Sokolow and others.

Ze'eva Cohen Click photo for larger image.

In 1969, she accepted an offer to teach at Princeton University. "I didn't have to go commercial or wait tables," she says. Not configured as a department but instead as a "program," it drew teachers such as former Dance Alloy artistic director Mark Taylor and students such as choreographer David Rousseve. Bodiography board member Cathy Rohrer was a student there and suggested the upcoming project to Caruso.

You can immediately see Cohen's innate sense of giving, a product of that academic background. She brought to Pittsburgh the idea of using Antoni Gaudi's exotic organic architecture in Barcelona, Spain. But "Gaudi took a lifetime," she realized. "How can I do it in three weeks?"

She continued to think of Spain as "a meeting place" in medieval times, where a global influx of travelers brought a blend of Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions in the extraordinary mix known as the Golden Age. Spain continues to be the benefactor of those influences.

"The square" is an emblem for Cohen. "It was a kind of crossroads of folklore, nature, religion and sculpture -- there was so much going on." And in such places, "things happen."

So she instructs the Bodiography dancers not just to move "pretty," but to find "ancient memories" that allow them to use dance as "a deep experience that connects with humanity."

Cohen gives them sculptural movement with a flowing, geometrical sensibility. Suddenly, the square begins to take shape -- the sculpture here, the church over there, the smells and sights and sounds -- a square not located along Forbes Avenue, but one that exists only in the dancers' imagery and imagination.