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Dance for a Small Room - (stage version 55')* Premiere:June 20, 2008 - Abrons Art Center NYC Choreography:Ellen Cornfield (with the dancers) Music:Koven J. Smith Costumes:Renee Kurz Lighting:Carol Mullins Dancers:Hope Davis, Lindsay Fisher, Jonathan Fredrickson, Ellie Kusner, Megan Krauszer, Ryan Mason, Caitlin Scranton, Emily Stone This work, originally created as an evening length work for eight, sprang from Ellen Cornfield’s challenge to create a large dance that could be performed in a small area. Playing across a range of movement dimensions and scenarios—from serious to light-hearted and from full-throttle dancing to intimate tableaus—this work uses the metaphor of a small room to describe our states of mind in reaction to a new 21st Century world, one in which we are more interdependant than ever before, with shrinking available space and resources and a diminishing sense of safety. * NOTE: This dance can be rearranged for different numbers of performers and varying performance length, and thrives on site-specific presentation. |
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Fault Lines - (45') Premiere:May 4th, 2007 - Cunningham Studio, NYC Choreography:Ellen Cornfield (with the dancers) Music:Koven J. Smith Costumes:Renee Kurtz Lighting:Carol Mullins Dancers:Lindsay Fisher, Beau Hancock, Ellie Kusner, Gena Mann, Daniel Puneky, Caitlin Scranton “Fault Lines” creates startling and thrilling new dance terrain, merging the power of full-throttle dancing with the intimate dynamics of human emotions, identifying the isolation of the individual within the context of the social community as it grapples with the madness of war and the relentlessness of self-sabotaging behavior. The piece creates an emotionally resonant landscape, framing the performers’ humanity and triggering the audience’s recognition of themselves. In collaboration with composer Koven J. Smith sought a fusion of the formal with the raw and everyday. Smith’s original score interweaves his musical material with snippets from World War II and 1950’s political speeches and newscasts, events that bear direct reference to our own time. The music has a rhythmic and emotional power, narrative yet nonlinear, with clear political overtones. |
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Fusion Response - (5') Premiere:November 2005 - Peridance NYC Choreography:Ellen Cornfield Music:Silence Costumes:Ellen Cornfield Dancers:Hope Davis, Martin Davis, Mandy Kirschner The title of this work, Fusion Response, is borrowed from the term optometrists use to describe the brain’s ability to make one unified visual image out of what the two eyes see separately. In this new piece, Cornfield weaves our everyday movements (a nodding head, a shaking finger) into a vocabulary of lush and sophisticated dance phrases, juxtaposing the ordinary with the extraordinary, creating a resonating narrative within an abstract language, and fusing what our human eye (and heart) and our abstract eye (and heart) see into one vibrant and potently personal visual field. |
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Thread - (15') Premiere:September, 2003 - Cunningham Studio, NYC Choreography:Ellen Cornfield (with the dancers) Music:John King Costumes:Karen Young Dancers:Jeffrey Bauer, Ellen Cornfield, Rashaun Mitchell, Hope Plumb, Cara Regan, Kerry Stichweh, Andrea Weber Thread weaves repeating lines of movement material into new patterns and combinations, a repetition and evolution that pulls the dance forward in a seamless energic swirl of delicate, lushly sensual dancing. “Thread,” working with repeating loops of material, inspired by the DNA spiral code of life, is itself a loop. The elegant, deeply electronic musical score by New York composer John King underscores the contemporary sense of time and location evoked by the dance. The costumes are by Karen Young. |
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Dance for a Small Room - (outdoor version 35') Premiere:6th St & Ave B Community Garden, New York September 7, 2008 Choreography:Ellen Cornfield (with the dancers) Music:Andreas Brade, Welf Dorr, Brahim Fribgane Costumes:Renee Kurz Lighting:Carol Mullins Dancers:Hope Davis, Lindsay Fisher, Jonathan Fredrickson, Megan Krauszer, Ellie Kusner, Ryan Mason, Caitlin Scranton, Emily Stone The global community is increasingly focused on issues related to our mutual sustainability, from complex interdependent economic structures to the preservation and development of natural resources. A vibrant cultural life is an equally important component of sustainability, and to this end Cornfield Dance has embarked on The Sustainability Project, a series of free performances set in alternative spaces throughout New York City. The company’s first event was presented in September, in the historic 6th Street Community Garden in the East Village. The audience of over one hundred included dance viewers and neighborhood locals drawn in by the activities. The charming garden was filled beyond capacity, and at times the dancers had to squeeze between audience members to complete their phrases! CLICK HERE |
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Dance for a Small Room - (improvisation version 10') Premiere:September 16, 2007 NYC Construction Company Choreography:Ellen Cornfield (with the dancers) Music:Koven J. Smith Dancers:Lindsay Fisher, Beau Hancock, Ellie Kusner, Caitlin Scranton |