The Wasp in the Window

 “The Wasp in the Window” was conceived during a 2021 summer residency in Rockport, MA. Basking in the peaceful, bucolic surroundings, Cornfield’s euphoria was punctured by the frantic buzzing of a wasp trapped inside the closed window of her cabin. This moment focused her awareness that our lives are replete with contradictions, that we live with the ever-present possibility of “getting stung” even when all else is “normal,” or even sublime. 
 
The dance’s movement language serves to physicalize these contradictions, revealing feelings that collide and bump into one another, accumulating and dominating and moving from one extreme to another in a moment’s eye. Cornfield’s technical movement language mixed with evocative gestural sequences establishes a richly textured palate of material. The dance moves from the sacred and sublime to the aggressive, conflicted, and stung…and back. 
 
The score, by long-time collaborator Andreas Brade, incorporates sounds of the Cape Ann environs, lapping waves and wind in the trees, mixed with electronic tonalities, underscoring the contrasts present in the dance. The costumes, by Karen Young, shimmer and flow, with wasp-like dark colors partnered with gossamer material.