It was so gratifying to revisit past pieces alongside our new work Chasing Space during our recent studio showing. This clip features a portion of the women’s trio from The Endless Ladder.
Slicing through space ⚔️
…
Some phrases demand total presence, and this is one! A meditation for the standing leg. Loved diving into this solo at the Cornfield Dance studio showing last week.
Excerpt from Ellen Cornfield’s The Endless Ladder (2025).
Solo originally created on Sarah Bukowski
Music by Jerome Begin
We’re so grateful to have had the opportunity to share what we’ve been working on with all of you at our showing last Friday. Thank you for the tremendous support and response!
Our second guest is Nicholas Ruscica, a New York-based dance artist originally from Toronto, Canada. He earned his BFA from CalArts as a President’s Merit Scholar and joined the Limón Dance Company shortly after graduating, performing as a soloist from 2020 to 2024. Nicholas has collaborated with artists such as Aszure Barton, Doug Varone, Kayla Farrish, and Raúl Taméz, performing across North America and Europe in venues including Stadttheater Fürth (Germany), Bellas Artes (Mexico City), and New York City Center. In addition to performing, Nicholas is passionate about teaching. He is currently a faculty member at Ballet Hispánico and the Limón Institute.
We are delighted to have Natalie Clevenger back as a guest artist for our May 1st showing! Natalie is from Mooresville, IN and received her BFA in dance from the University of Arizona in the 2018, where she received the Gertrude Shurr award for excellence in modern dance. Upon graduation, Natalie joined Dance Kaleidoscope in Indianapolis, IN and danced with the company for three seasons. At DK, she was featured in works from guest choreographers Brock Clawson, Kiesha Lalama, Cynthia Pratt and Layla Hazelwood, among works by artistic director David Hochoy. While in Indiana, Natalie was awarded the Robert Beckmann Fellowship to produce a LGBTQ+ focused show, ENIGMA, which premiered August 2022. Natalie joined the Limón Dance Company in the fall of 2022, and has toured internationally and domestically with the company. Outside of Limón, she has been a guest artist with Cornfield Dance, the Indianapolis Symphonic Orchestra, and the Breaking Ground Contemporary Dance Festival, among others.
We are thrilled to introduce new company dancer, Larissa Asebedo! Larissa grew up in Colorado before graduating with honors from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase. She dances and teaches professionally in NYC where she has performed works by Stephen Petronio, Trisha Brown, Merce Cunningham, Kyle Abraham, Karole Armitage, John Heginbotham, and more. Devoted to the body as both instrument and guide, her dancing has been described as “tantalizing” (The Dance Enthusiast) and “angelic” (Dance Cleveland). When not performing, Larissa values time in the studio teaching kids and teens, regularly setting her own choreographic works, and connecting with the next generation of the dance community.
PC: Alex Munro courtesy of the Merce Cunningham Trust
Welcome to the company, Giulia Faria! Originally from Queens, New York, Giulia acquired most of her training at the New York Theatre Ballet School and LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts. She went on to join New York Theatre Ballet as an apprentice in 2015, performing in ballets such as The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and The Alice-in-Wonderland Follies, and in 2018 became a company member. As a member of the company, she performed masterworks by legendary choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, José Limón, Jerome Robbins, Antony Tudor, and Frederick Ashton, as well as contemporary choreographers Pam Tanowitz, Gabrielle Lamb, and Richard Alston. She also performed title roles in the story ballets Cinderella and The Firebird. Since leaving New York Theatre Ballet as a dancer in 2024, she served as Interim Artistic Director of the company for the Fall/Winter 2024 season. Giulia began working with Cornfield Dance in the winter of 2025.
Deniz Erkan Sancak, born and raised in Ankara, Türkiye, began his career as a member of the Turkish National Team for Latin-Ballroom DanceSport before turning to contemporary dance under the mentorship of Binnaz Dorkip. A recipient of the Shipley BTF (Bridge to Türkiye Fund) Impact Scholarship, he relocated to the United States to study at the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College, where he was also awarded the Adopt-a-Dancer Scholarship and graduated with honors in 2022. His performance credits include Ankara State Opera and Ballet, Tatbikat Theatre, PCDC, Wonderbound, The Metropolitan Opera, and Stephen Petronio Company, with guest appearances with Mark Morris Dance Group and Trisha Brown Dance Company. Now based in New York, he collaborates with Yoshiko Chuma, Douglas Dunn, Christopher Williams, Liz Gerring, and Ellen Cornfield. In 2026 he was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch.”
Our beloved Julian Donahue is a choreographer and dancer based in Brooklyn. Julian danced with New York Theatre Ballet from 2018-2024, performing masterworks by Antony Tudor, Merce Cunningham, Jerome Robbins, José Limón and many others. Julian started dancing with Ellen Cornfield in October 2024. Julian also specializes in Baroque, Renaissance, and folk dance forms, performing with New York Baroque Dance Company, Boston Early Music Festival, and at Lincoln Center. In 2025, Julian was awarded a Support for Artists Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to make the piece “All The Flowers Are Behind Us” for NYTB. His choreography has been presented at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Tanglewood, Battery Dance Festival, Judson Church, Hofstra University, and more. Julian’s one man show “With Violets in Her Lap” premiered in April 2025 at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Center. Julian will present and perform “With Violets in Her Lap” on May 14 & May 15, 2026 at Center for Performance Research and a program of experimental dances at Arts on Site June 11-14 2026. Visit juliandonahuedance.com for more information about future performances.
Next in our roster is Mariah Anton-Arters, a New York based freelance dance artist who holds a BFA in contemporary dance from UNC School of the Arts. Mariah frequently works with the Merce Cunningham Trust, and had the immense honor of performing in their centennial event, “Night of 100 Solos…” at BAM. She also works with Liz Gerring Dance, Jody Oberfelder Dance Projects, Dance Heginbotham, Christopher Williams Dance, The Moving Architects, and Skyla Schreter Dance among others. Mariah has been entrusted as designated Dance Captain on many occasions and has also served as Rehearsal Director, setting works at Ailey-Fordham, Hofstra University and the Guggenheim Museum. Mariah is a ballet and certified Cunningham Technique teacher and she aspires to continue her career in dance education for years to come. Mariah has been a company member with Cornfield Dance since 2023 and is excited to be expanding her role as a member of the administrative team and rehearsal assistant.
First up in our company introductions is the incomparable Eve Jacobs. Originally from the Chicago area, Eve is a dance artist based in NYC. She toured internationally with Jessica Lang Dance from 2015-2019, and is currently a member of Cornfield Dance and the Met Opera Ballet. Additional performing credits include events with the Merce Cunningham Trust, and projects with Douglas Dunn + Dancers, Celia Rowlson-Hall, and Washington National Opera. Eve’s choreography has been featured at La Mama Moves! Dance Festival, Estrogenius Festival, in motion-capture at Tribeca Film Festival, and in two commissions for Columbia Ballet Collaborative. She holds a BFA from Juilliard, where she received the Hector Zaraspe Award for Choreography, and an MFA from Hunter College, where her work was recognized with the 2024 Dean’s Award for Graduate Research. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Dance at Hunter College and Marymount Manhattan College, and an authorized teacher of the Merce Cunningham Technique. Eve has been working with Cornfield Dance since 2021.
We are hard at work bringing back some iconic moments from “The Endless Ladder” for our studio showing this May. If you missed the premiere of “The Endless Ladder” last spring now is your chance to see a glimpse, up close!
