Selma Jeanne Cohen received her A.B. and Ph.D. in English literature at the University of Chicago and received her dance training with the choreographer and teacher Eugene Loring. Cohen was the founding editor of the quarterly Dance Perspectives, and her publications included the International Encyclopedia of Dance, The Modern Dance: Seven Statements of Belief, and And Next Week: Swan Lake. She taught dance at the University of California, Riverside, the University of Chicago, and Sarah Lawrence College.