 In 2005, he was appointed a "Messenger of Peace" by UNESCO and "Dancer of the Year" by "The New York Times"; he won a Bessie Award in 2013.In 2014, he won the "Best Male Dancer" award of the international Prix Benois de la Danse, along with the Positano Prize in Italy.In a 2004 profile in "The New Yorker", critic Joan Acocella called Cornejo "the most technically accomplished male ballet dancer in the United States" even though, she noted, he is unusually short for a male principal.