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IMPRESSIONS: Cornfield Dance in "Scrambled Stages" at Arts on Site
By Catherine Tharin
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Published on July 1, 2025
Cornfield Dance in "Scrambled Stages." Photo: Alexis Silver
Cornfield Dance and The Bang Group present
Scrambled Stages
Choreographer: Ellen Cornfield
Dancers: Mariah Anton Arters, Sarah Cecilia Bukowski, Julian Donahue, Aaron Loux, Deniz Erkan Sancak, Hannah Straney, Timothy Ward (understudy)
Composers: Jerome Begin (Scrambled Legs, 2023 | The Endless Ladder, 2025), Andreas Brade (Small Stages, 2013)
Lighting Designer: Bhagavan Angulo
Sound Operator: Ryan Wolf
Costume Designers: Tops by Andrew Jordan | Shorts by Ellen Cornfield
Venue: Arts on Site
Date: June 19, 2025
Ellen Cornfield, who founded her company, Cornfield Dance in 1989, is a choreographer’s choreographer. She constructs dance phrases in surprising and endlessly inventive ways, prompting fellow dance makers to ‘read’ the construction and consider, “I hadn’t thought of that!”
Cornfield’s work unfolds like a jigsaw puzzle, with pieces interlocking from left to right, right to left, center to edge, and top to bottom. Blocks of imagery assemble into a larger picture. Like a mosaic that is completed tesserae by tesserae, or a detective story revealing itself clue by clue, the viewer, until it comes together, is kept in suspense.
Cornfield’s bold physicality stems from her years dancing with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, from 1974 to 1982. Her choreography reflects the Cunningham lineage yet remains distinctly her own — whether in a sweeping gesture that ruffles the space or a delicate action that lingers in stillness.
David Parker, who presented this June choreographic series at Arts on Site with Jeff Kazin and The Bang Group, recalled that Cornfield was one of his favorite teachers at the Cunningham studio. Watching her work now, it’s easy to see why. “She is a choreographer,” he said, emphasizing her gift for constructing and teaching phrases that are both challenging and thrilling.
Scrambled Stages is a reimagining and interweaving of three previously performed works — Small Stages, Scrambled Legs, and The Endless Ladder — to create an entirely new dance. The approach echoes Cunningham’s famous “Events,” in which he reconstructed past dances by extracting and juxtaposing segments from different works. Like Cunningham, who emphasized movement for its own sake rather than expressing narrative, Cornfield trusts the choreography to speak through form and rhythm. As Cunningham once said, “We present something. We do something. And then any kind of interpretation is left to anybody looking at it in the audience.” The program notes explain that Small Stages unfolds, as it originally did, within three 6’ x 6’ blue-taped squares arranged on a diagonal. In contrast, Scrambled Legs and The Endless Ladder expand into the full space.
Each dancer projected a distinct individuality. Mariah Anton Arters and Julian Donohue stood out for their expressive faces and recognizable human tics. At spaced intervals, Donohue smiled enigmatically like the Mona Lisa, smoothed his hair behind one ear, nodded with quiet agreement, and occasionally beckoned with the smallest tilt of his head. Arters faced the audience with a wide grin, hands peaked beneath her chin like a photographer’s studio portrait, or she turned to beam over her shoulder while tossing off a playful hip shake.
Aaron Loux and Deniz Erkan Sancak — both mustachioed, compact, and closely matched in height — were near mirror images. Their gorgeously pliable spines and spring-loaded directional shifts recalled the light-footed landings of a cat. They moved with alert, animalistic presence, as if their ears were pricked for cues. Their brief duet was a memorable highlight. Sarah Cecilia Bukowski and Hannah Straney, both tall and long-limbed, served as counterparts. Bukowski shifted between Cunningham-esque shardlike uprightness and low, prowling curves. Straney was warm yet cool, self-possessed and rounded, as if there was a concentric circle forcefield around her body.
Dancers entered and exited in dizzying rushes, forming ever-evolving configurations. (I wondered if the shifting solos, duets, and trios were influenced by the challenging schedules of freelance dancers.) Andreas Brade’s recorded score included spoken word, and accompanied Donohue’s opening solo: “Where? Here? Yes. Over there, no?” — just before he steps into a square and jumps skyward in a picture-perfect X. A kaleidoscope of movement signals to the audience: we’re in for a ride.
Fists punch the air while running in place to Jerome Begin's distinctive beat and techie high-pitch sound. Deep pliés contrast with large jetés that cover the small space. The fingers count, run over an ear or up a leg as if shaving, wriggle down the sides of the body as if smoothing clothing, scrutinize fingernails, or form the hands into O’s over both eyes like binoculars. Unison trios and duets are observed by dancers who lounge in the stage right and upstage windows changing positions to slink on the casements. A recorded cough, clearing of the throat, and a laugh remind us of a human presence, interspersed with static thrumming and birdlike trills put through a synthesizer. The exposed brick and lack of curtains or sets lends an air of orthogonal urbanity, along with the bright, Mondrian inspired color-block costume tops and shorts hugging the dancers’ sleek bodies. One beautiful movement has Donahue clasping Straney’s forearm as they both plié before he pulls her hard and one leg flies behind and around her as if an afterthought. Repeated several times, the duet revolves in a circle before the dancers depart.
The final short dance (a new addition) for all six dancers, took place in the center square. Despite the limited space, dancers did not hold back when they hopped or leapt into a new spot or lunged and sliced between one another. Summarizing the dynamism of the cityscape, Scrambled Stages expresses right-angled buildings, curved arches, honking horns, cars cutting one another off, transportation grids and cobblestones, and the simultaneous chaotic wackiness yet structured efficiency that keeps the city in which we live, metaphorically moving (like the dance), day and night.
