Music and Dance Collaboration THE DAY is Coming to the Kennedy Center

Distinguished artists Maya Beiser, cello, Wendy Whelan, dancer, Lucinda Childs, choreographer, and David Lang, composer, bring their new evening-length music and dance collaboration, The Day, to the Kennedy Center for two nights only, December 6 & 7, in its D.C. premiere.

Composed of two parts-"the day" and "world to come"- The Day is a visual and choreographic response to two solo cello works written for Beiser by Pulitzer prize-winning composer David Lang. The work explores memory, life's journey, resilience, and survival of the soul through the shared language of music and dance, and features Beiser and Whelan onstage for the work's duration performing Lang's music and Childs' choreography.

The first half of the work, "the day", is based on the prequel composition of the same title, written in 2016. For the piece Lang crowd-sourced the narrated text from the Internet, asking individuals to finish the sentence, "I remember the day that..." and collected 300 responses for the work. The text, appearing every six seconds, is arranged like a prism-in alphabetical order-with many conflicting facets of each action described from different vantage points.

Composed first, "world to come" was created during the devastating attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Of this section, Beiser stated, "Rather than being a memorial or requiem, world to come is a kind of prayer-introspective and personal; a meditation on the eternal, post-mortal journey of the soul as it separates from the body."

Renowned avant-garde cellist Maya Beiser, who conceived the piece, has been described by the Boston Globe as "a force of nature" and by Rolling Stone as a "cello rock star." Wendy Whelan, widely considered one of the world's leading dancers, spent 30 years as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet (NYCB) and originated numerous roles in new works by the world's most esteemed choreographers. In 2019, she marked a return to the company when she was appointed associate artistic director of NYCB. A Commandeur in France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and a 2018 Hall of Fame inductee at the National Museum of Dance, Lucinda Childs has created more than 50 works, both solo and ensemble. David Lang is one of the most highly esteemed and performed American composers writing today and is the co-founder and co-artistic director of New York's legendary music collective Bang on a Can.

For more information visit: https://www.kennedy-center.org/

Photo Credit: Hayim Heron

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