CURRICULUM IV: SPIN AND SPIN! TURN! TURN! TURN! to Premiere at River To River Festival

LMCC will present, in partnership with New York Live Arts and Battery Park City Authority, Curriculum IV: Spin and Spin! Turn! Turn! Turn!, a world premiere work from Bill T. Jones, September 10, 12, and 13 at 7:30pm in Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park. One of the world's most celebrated choreographers, Jones creates an expansive new performance, commissioned by LMCC in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of September 11. Curriculum IV: Spin and Spin! Turn! Turn! Turn! blends striking choreography and a live original score by acclaimed composer and multidisciplinary artist Samora Pinderhughes to powerfully weave together reflections on loss, love, freedom, and resilience.

The monumental concluding event in LMCC's 25th Annual River To River Festival, the summer public arts festival celebrating artistic and creative diversity, Curriculum IV: Spin and Spin! Turn! Turn! Turn! is offered free to audiences outdoors on the waterfront, beneath the dramatic downtown Manhattan skyline, in Robert F. Wagner Park in Battery Park City (20 Battery Place).

The visionary two-time Tony winner, National Medal of the Arts and Kennedy Center Honoree, and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow returns to Lower Manhattan with this performance bringing together an extraordinary 18-person ensemble of ten members of the historic, 44-year-old Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and eight musicians alongside Pinderhughes, deemed by The New York Times “one of the most affecting singer-songwriters today—in any genre.”

This piece responds to a Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company performance produced by LMCC that was originally scheduled to premiere on September 12, 2001, on a stage set between the Twin Towers. On the 25th anniversary of that suspended moment—and reflecting so much of what has unfolded since—this premiere brings dance back to Lower Manhattan, shaped by resilience and the passage of time.

Bill T. Jones's Curriculum series originated in reference to a quote from Cameroonian historian and political theorist Achille Mbembe in a 2018 interview, in which he proposed an archive-expanding “planetary curriculum.” Taking inspiration from this idea, Jones has now created three (and with this, his fourth) Curriculum works colliding formal exploration with urgent contemporary questions. The multi-work pursuit takes a protean approach to asking, as Jones describes, “What does a contemporary progressive person have to know to live and work efficiently and morally in the world today?”

Jones and Pinderhughes' collaboration forges an intergenerational bridge as both artists search within themselves and their respective creative interests to meditate on loss, and their distinct responses to the 25-year aftermath of 9/11 and other cataclysms spiralling into our era of loss of freedom, speech, movement, and justice. Together, the two built a playlist, at the heart of which is the ancient teaching embedded in Nina Simone's warmly gutting rendition of “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season),” Pete Seeger's twist on the Book of Ecclesiastes. The work's setting in public space likewise opens it into a reflection not only of two artists' considerations of our past and present, but that of everyone there looking out from the park “at the aspirational symbol of America,” as Jones describes—the Statue of Liberty.

Jones said, “To respond to this moment in the past when the world stopped, l am looking for a portrait of the external and the internal world of individuals like myself living in contemporary New York trying to be a responsive participant in the world right now. This is the curriculum I'm studying — what does it sound like? What does it move like? I would like to say that the piece wants to be bigger than the bodies that will be my company, that it will be a reflection of what's seen in the families, speaking every language in the globe, out there by the water looking out at the Statue.”

Samora Pinderhughes said, “I'm beyond honored to have the opportunity to be in collaboration with Bill and the company on this brand-new work, which I believe will be deeply moving to those who experience it with us."

The commission, for LMCC, likewise resonates with the organization's trajectory from tragedy to being a responsive force, revitalizing the arts in Downtown New York in its aftermath. Following the destruction of its home on the 92nd floor of World Trade Center 1—and with it, the death of artist-in-residence Michael Richards—LMCC took a multi-pronged approach to Lower Manhattan's cultural recovery, launching numerous programs and distributing millions in funds to artists and organizations. In 2002, it became one of the founders of the River To River Festival. Since LMCC took over as the lead organizer of the Festival in 2011, it has become the centerpiece of LMCC's programming and a vital articulation of its vision as a champion for independent artists and a force behind the cultural vibrancy and arts-driven resiliency of Manhattan.

LMCC CEO & Artistic Director Moe Yousuf said, “In the years since the original LMCC commission went unrealized in the wake of September 11, Bill's artistic practice has continued to explore  resilience and our shared humanity. The River To River  Festival itself was born from that same moment in our city's history. As we reflected on how to commemorate the festival's origins and the 25th anniversary of September 11, we recognized an extraordinary opportunity to bring these histories into conversation. Rather than revisiting the past, we saw an opportunity to invite Bill to create an entirely new work that speaks to this moment and to the enduring role artists play in helping us understand, remember, and imagine together.”

"Wagner Park is designed to be a place where people can experience public art and community against the Hudson River backdrop," said Craig Hudon, Vice President of Programming, Battery Park City Authority. "We're excited to host this performance as part of the LMCC's annual River To River Festival, bringing togetherness and creativity to our waterfront while honoring the resilience of Lower Manhattan in the wake of 9/11– as well the strength and spirit that have defined New York City over the past 25 years."

The 25th Annual River To River Festival began with my tongue is a blade, the durational movement practice from Sweat Variant (Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born), co-presented with Governors Island Arts, followed by CATCH 5th of July Weekend Spectacular!, hosted by Carmelita Tropicana and showcasing downtown luminaries and emerging artists alike. It continues, before Curriculum IV: Spin and Spin! Turn! Turn! Turn!, with Leslie Wayne's new exhibition of large-scale landscape paintings and multimedia works, The Unintended Blues, July 24-September 27; and a concert from five-time Grammy Award-winning bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding and dancer, theatermaker, and filmmaker Kayla Farrish, in the first public sharing of their creative collaboration, presented by LMCC in partnership with Battery Park City Authority, August 8.

The performances are free. Seating is first come, first served. Reservations are not required but encouraged and can be made at lmcc.website/spinandspin.

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