Join us for the world premiere of a new work from visionary artist Bill T. Jones [and Samora Pinderhughes].

Curriculum IV: Spin and Spin! Turn! Turn! Turn! responds to a performance commissioned by LMCC (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council) and originally scheduled to premiere on September 12, 2001 on the plaza of the Twin Towers. The work commemorates the 25th anniversary of that suspended moment—and all that has unfolded since.

Bill T. Jones and collaborator composer Samora Pinderhughes forge an intergenerational bridge where 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.

Featuring dancers from Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and live musicians, Spin and Spin! Turn! Turn! Turn! 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 created three previous 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?”

Free | August 10, 12, 13, 7:30pm | Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park | Let us know you’re attending! RSVP here.

Commissioned by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and presented in partnership with New York Live Arts and Battery Park City Authority as part of the 2026 River To River Festival.

PLEASE NOTE: No assigned seating, first come, first served in the amphitheater seating. Lawn chairs and blankets are permitted on the Wagner lawn. Patrons may be asked to make room to allow for more guests. Food and beverage will be available for purchase, picnics are allowed.

Bill T. Jones (Artistic Director/Co-Founder/Choreographer: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company; Artistic Director: New York Live Arts)  is a multi-talented artist, choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer. He was the Associate Artist of the 2020 Holland Festival and recipient of the 2014 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award; the 2013 National Medal of Arts; the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors; a 2010 Tony Award for Best Choreography of the critically acclaimed Fela!; a 2007 Tony Award, 2007 Obie Award, and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Callaway Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening; the 2010 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award; 2007 USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship; 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven; 2005 Wexner Prize; the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement; 2005 Harlem Renaissance Award; 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize; and a 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award. In 2010, Jones was recognized as Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, and in 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Jones “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.” Jones was nominated for the 2022 Tony Awards for his work on Paradise Square. Jones choreographed and performed worldwide with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in 1982. He has created more than 140 works for his company. Jones is Artistic Director of New York Live Arts, an internationally recognized destination for performance, artist services, and live gathering.

Samora Pinderhughes is a multidisciplinary artist, composer, pianist/vocalist and filmmaker known for striking vulnerability and carefully crafted, radically honest art. He is also known for using his art to examine sociopolitical issues and fight for change. 

Pinderhughes is the first-ever Art for Justice + Soros Justice Fellow and a recipient of Chamber Music America’s 2020 Visionary Award. He has also been designated as a Creative Capital awardee, a United States Artists Fellow, and a Sundance Composers Lab fellow. He was the 2025 MoMA Adobe Creative Resident and was awarded the “Spark of Change” Award from APAP in 2026. 

Over the past 44 years, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company has shaped the evolution of contemporary dance through the creation and performance of over 140 works. Founded as a multicultural dance company in 1982, the company was born of an 11-year artistic collaboration between Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. Today, the company is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the modern dance world. The company has performed its ever-enlarging repertoire worldwide in over 200 cities in 30 countries on every major continent. In 2011, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company merged with Dance Theater Workshop to form New York Live Arts of which Bill T. Jones is the Artistic Director.

The creation of new work by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is made possible in part by the company’s Partners in Creation: Anne Delaney, Zoe Eskin, Eleanor Friedman, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Suzanne Karpas, Ellen M. Poss, Jane Bovingdon Semel, Rachel Shapiro in memory of Linda G. Shapiro, and Slobodan Randjelović & Jon Stryker.

Funding for the River To River Festival is provided by The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Howard Gilman Foundation, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and The Robert Lehman Foundation. River To River is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional funding for the Bill T. Jones project is provided by Battery Park City Authority, The National Endowment for the Arts, and Harkness Foundation for Dance.