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Curriculum IV: Spin and Spin! Turn! Turn! Turn! rehearsals. Pictured: Wyeth Walker, Justin Rainey, Phillip Strom, Barrington Hinds, Rosa Allegra Woolf, Hannah Seiden, Babou Sanneh, Ryan Charles-Marc, Mak Thornquest, Babou Sanneh, 2026. Photo by Cole Witter, courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council<\/p>\n
On September 12, 2001, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) planned to present a dance performance from choreographer and National Medal of Arts recipient Bill T. Jones. The site was specific: a special stage constructed between the Twin Towers, where LMCC also housed two of its artist residencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, that performance would never take place\u2014the day before it was set to open, the events of 9\/11 shattered the country and left lower Manhattan devastated, forever changing the neighborhood LMCC was established to serve.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the immediate aftermath, LMCC provided assistance to artists and the broader arts community. It also established the River to River Festival in 2002 to help draw people back to lower Manhattan while creating space for healing, joy, and reflection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe festival has always been a celebration of what is possible when artistic creativity, cultural institutions, civic bodies, and corporate entities come together in mutual support, and we recognize the importance of this ecosystem to the health, vibrancy and future of our city,\u201d the LMCC website states.<\/p>\n
In 2002 at the inaugural River to River Festival and again in 2022, LMCC invited Jones back to present iterations of\u00a0that original piece performed in Battery Park. For the 25th anniversary of 9\/11, LMCC saw another opportunity to use the performance as a point of departure.<\/p>\n
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Composer Samora Pinderhughes and choreographer Bill T. Jones, 2026. Photo by Monique Carboni, courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council<\/p>\n
With support from a $60,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant, LMCC has commissioned Jones and composer Samora Pinderhughes to reimagine the piece to be performed near the Ground Zero campus timed with the 9\/11 anniversary. The resulting work, Curriculum IV: Spin and Spin! Turn! Turn! Turn!,<\/p>\n
\u00a0will also conclude LMCC\u2019s 2026 River to River Festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn’t here for 9\/11, but I have a deep sense of what this city has gone through and what lower Manhattan has gone through,\u201d said Moe Yousuf, LMCC\u2019s chief executive officer and artistic director. \u201cRevisiting this every year is an act of resilience. It’s the 25th anniversary, and there is an opportunity for further reflection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, lower Manhattan has been revitalized. It is once again a thriving financial center, with lush parks and what Yousuf describes as an \u201cundefined cultural district\u201d\u2014one that continues to evolve through investment and partnerships, including LMCC\u2019s collaborations with Battery Park City Authority and Jones\u2019 New York Live Arts on this performance.<\/p>\n
The Curriculum IV\u00a0performance will take place at Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park, on the southwest tip of Manhattan, just blocks from the Ground Zero site and in view of the Statue of Liberty. The location is intentional\u2014close to the hallowed grounds where the Twin Towers fell, and a public space that can host intentional audiences as well as passersby.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just as the city looks different than it did 25 years ago, Yousuf knew that a commission revisiting the original performance could not look the same. Jones\u2019 new work responds not only to what happened then, but also to how the world has changed since.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The 2001 performance] could never ever be the thing it was [supposed to be] because it’s so specific to that location and to those people and to who he was as an artist at that moment,\u201d Yousuf said.<\/p>\n
Art has often helped people come together and process trauma in times of crisis. Creative arts therapies are used by service members and veterans recovering from traumatic brain injuries sustained in the line of duty and communities who have experienced profound loss, such as Uvalde, Texas. and the arts have supported recovery in communities affected by natural disasters, including western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene.<\/p>\n
Yousuf believes art is particularly valuable when responding to such events.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone asked me what an artist does, I think they create order out of disorder,\u201d he said. \u201cTo me, that doesn’t mean any chronology\u2014 it doesn’t mean coherent\u2014but it means really looking at a bunch of different things and putting them in an order that means something to someone. Then they take that work, they show it to someone, and they say, does this mean something to you?\u201d<\/p>\n
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