The mission of Cornfield Dance is to support the creation and performance of the choreography of Ellen Cornfield.  The Company is committed to bringing Cornfield’s work to both experienced and uninitiated dance audiences alike, and to this aim has presented her work in traditional and non-traditional spaces worldwide. Working in a collaborative process with her dancers, Cornfield mines the connection between refined dance phrases and robust, everyday gestures, using the developed language to address emotional patterns underlying human behavior. Her aim is to frame the authenticity of the moment, connect audiences to their essential humanity, and enrich and enlarge their life experience.


Cornfield is interested in the poetry and excitement generated by the human body, and in the relationship of movement to the space it inhabits. The flow generated from her movement language enlivens the performing area, and she uses this flow to shape and structure her dances, evoking the physical world around us and the emotional world within us. Interested in the alliance and the tension between full-throttle dancing and pedestrian movements, she utilizes gestures and facial expressions as part of her dance language. Even the most seemingly incidental gesture can be freighted with emotion or purely functional. Similar to the way in which the impressionist and cubist painters redefined traditional ways of seeing, Cornfield dissects the range of emotions that comprise a single moment – a flicker of happiness, a touch of fear, hope, sadness. Through her kinesthetic articulation of our emotions, Cornfield expands our experience of ourselves. Her resulting work, ranging from untamed to elegant, anchors each moment through its connection to the whole.

In addition to their work inside traditional theaters, the Company has performed in a variety of alternative spaces, including locations in museums, plazas, parks, gardens and galleries. Cornfield believes that presenting dance in unexpected environments catches people's attention in new ways, enhancing the connections of community and giving unseasoned and seasoned audiences alike a surprising and invigorating performance experience.



Cornfield Dance has been active in New York City and throughout the world since it’s formation in 1989, with its original performance outdoors at Cooper Union Square. Choreographer Ellen Cornfield’s interest in making her work available to a wide spectrum of audience has been realized in much of the company’s work since that time, performing in alternative spaces - gardens, museums, plazas - as well as inside traditional theater spaces. International venues for her choreography include the International Dance Festival in Bytom, Poland (four times), the C. Munch Theatre, Paris, The Place Theatre in London, the OPEN LOOK Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia, and three venues in Japan over a two-week tour, with performances in Tokyo and Okayama. Venues within New York City include the Abron’s Art Center, the Ailey Citigroup Theater, Playhouse 91, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church and the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival; venues outside of NYC include the Stephens Institute in NJ, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts, and The Yard in Massachusetts.

Support for Cornfield’s work has come from numerous sources. In 2008 she participated with the José Limón Company as part of a two-week MANCC residency hosted at Florida State University, developing material on the Limón dancers. A duet from a recent work was performed in the Limón Company’s December 2008 Gala at the Joyce Theater, NYC. She has received commissions from the 92nd St. Y New Works in Dance Fund, Fete de la Musique, Danspace Project, Buskers Fare, and the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival, among others, and funding from the American Music Center, Pentacle Help Desk, the Asian Cultural Council, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Joyce Mertz Gilmore Fdtn., Meet the Composer, Manhattan Community Arts Fund, Harkness Foundation for Dance, American Express Company, and the Sidney Stern Memorial Trust.