Cornfield Dance Invite The Bang Group for a Live Outdoor Performance, June 6

Cornfield Dance, led by Artistic Director Ellen Cornfield, will be joined by guest artists from The Bang Group, led by David Parker, to present a joint day of free, public dance in the open air of a New York City block. With the material moving up and down the public city block, audiences will be encouraged to watch the dances from any viewpoint and move around freely. Two 1/2 hour performances at 2 PM and 3:30 PM.

The program will feature the premiere of Cornfield's new work Spaced Out, a playful, socially distanced dance tailored to animate the New York City block East 11th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. The rhythmic phrases in the dance layered together create a visual counterpoint, charging the piece with energy and momentum as the dancers travel up and down the block, their formations constantly changing. The dancers will at times cavort on and cartwheel over a moveable set of eight red chairs, as well as step and dance around numerous colorful rubber squares. The theme of interpersonal distancing is explored throughout the piece. The musical score by composer Andreas Brade wraps the dance in luscious sounds - a woven aural tapestry including a lone line of cello and the chirps of birds and insects. Originally commissioned by the Georgia Museum of Art, created entirely over Zoom on dance students at the University of Georgia and performed outdoors on their campus in October 2020, this work, restaged on Cornfield's company, has been a grand experiment in what is possible when the normal slips into the inconceivable.

Excerpts of Cornfield's repertory work Small Stages will appear in the performance event as well. Sporting a robust movement vocabulary from everyday movements and facial expressions to rigorous dance sequences, this piece was created for performance on a 6' X 6" stage. The Small Stages material will be performed at the beginning and end of each performance, simultaneously presented with solos choreographed by David Parker and performed by members of his company The Bang Group.

The performances will be preceded by a free, outdoor Cunningham based technique class for any dancers in the NYC community, taught by former Cunningham dancer Andrea Weber. Each of the two performances will also be followed by a brief Q&A with Ellen Cornfield, composer Andreas Brade, and the company dancers.

Learn more at www.cornfielddance.org/news.