Pentacle

In her dances, Ellen Cornfield creates a scaffolding of architectural movements, framing the beauty of the body and tracking the emotional fluctuations and humanity within the dancer. Juxtaposing radically varying approaches to movement within the same piece, Cornfield’s dance language, ranging from untamed to elegant, weaves a richly textured, invigorating and powerful dance landscape, illuminating the space that the movement inhabits.

The Company has performed worldwide – to audiences in Japan, Poland, Russia, France, Germany, England, Holland, Canada and throughout the United States, in traditional theaters as well as alternative spaces. Choreographer Ellen Cornfield is committed to performances in unexpected environments – museums, plazas, parks, gardens and galleries – providing a surprising and invigorating performance experience while bringing dance to unseasoned and seasoned audiences alike.

Ellen Cornfield moved to New York City to study and perform with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (1974-1982), and toured the world with the company, earning a reputation as one of the foremost Cunningham dancers of her generation. Following her tenure with MCDC, Ellen worked as a guest artist at numerous universities throughout the US and with several small companies, choreographing, teaching, performing, and presenting her work in New York City. She formed Cornfield Dance in 1989 to support these choreographic investigations. 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. New York City and area performances include the Abron’s Art Center NYC, the Stevens Institute in NJ, the Ailey Citigroup Theater, Playhouse 91, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church and the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. Outside of NYC the Company has most notably performed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts Inside/Out Series, and The Yard in Massachusetts. She participated in a two-week residency with the Jose Limon Company at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography in February 2008, hosted at Florida State University, developing material on the Limon dancers. A duet from her recent piece Dance for a Small Room was performed in the Limon Company’s December 2008 Gala at the Joyce Theater, NYC.

Ellen Cornfield is a master teacher, and has taught at many of the world’s major dance institutions, including North Carolina School of the Arts, Harvard Summer Dance Center, SUNY Purchase, Ohio State University, Hofstra University, and the University of California at Berkeley. Internationally she has taught at The Place and the Laban Institute in London, at the Rotterdamse Dansacademie in Holland, as well as for several European companies including Ballet Rambert in London, Companie Emile Dubois in Grenoble, France and for Charlesleroi Danses in Charleroi, Belgium. 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 Foundation, Meet the Composer, Manhattan Community Arts Fund, Harkness Foundation for Dance, American Express Company, and the Sidney Stern Memorial Trust.

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R E P E R T O R Y

Furniture Suite is a company work structured in independent sections that uses furniture, two stools and a small table/desk with a drawer, to both frame the movement and lines of the dancer(s) and to evoke the ongoing inner dialogue and interchange within the dancer, and between dancers. The piece plays across a range of kinesthetic dimensions and character: from elegant dancing to pixie play; from the serious to the light-hearted; from full-throttle dancing to intimate tableaus. Using their physical strength and emotive faces, the dancers beguile and brave their relationship with the furniture and themselves.

Click to see the full touring repertory of Cornfield Dance

W O R K S H O P S

Technique Class

Cornfield’s class presents principals of alignment, breath, rhythm and dynamics that can be tailored to the experience and level of any student. While drawing upon classical ballet and modern forms, her class sustains an overall pacing and movement flow that transcends those forms, transporting the dancers to new energy connections and sensations within their bodies, culminating in full-throttle dance phrases.

Repertory/Creative Workshop

Using phrases from the repertory, and posing movement problems for the students to solve through their own creative input, this workshop will end with an informal performance by the participants of the set and created material.

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C A L E N D A R






JUN 22, 2011		Dixon Place Under Exposed Series New York, NY www.dixonplace.org

JAN 8, 2012		Pentacle’s Gallery Showcase The Theater at Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School 120 West 46th St (bet 6th and 7th Aves) 7:00 – 10:00 pm Cornfield Dance: 9:12 pm

PHOTOS All photos: Steven Schreiber