Curriculum II explores the historical and persistent connection between race and technology and the pursuit of what is human. There is nudity and adult content/language. The visual installation includes hanged, whitewashed Black dolls and nooses. There is a physical reference to a Hitler salute. Attendees who may be sensitive to these elements, please take note. The performance utilizes strobe-like video and lighting effects.
Thank you for joining us this evening.
Co-Founder & Artistic Director
Bill T. Jones
Associate Artistic Director
Janet Wong
The Company
Barrington Hinds, Jada Jenai, Shane Larson, s. lumbert, Danielle Marshall, Marie Lloyd Paspe, Jacoby Pruitt, Nayaa Opong, Philip Strom, and Huiwang Zhang
Conceived and Directed by
Bill T. Jones
Choreography by
Bill T. Jones with Janet Wong and the Company
Lighting Design by
Robert Wierzel*
Video Design by
Janet Wong
Sound Design by
David van Tieghem*
Installation and Costume Design by
Liz Prince
Additional Soundscape Work by
Shane Larson
Scenic Installation by
Bill T Jones, Liz Prince, and Robert Wierzel
*Denotes Member of the United Scenic Arts Union (USA)
Text adapted from:
Louis Chude-Sokei The Sound of Culture: Diaspora and Black Technopoetics
Mark O’Connell ‘Uncanny Planet’ New York Review of Books
William Shakespeare The Tempest
The Bible Genesis 1:28-31
Musical excerpts from:
Jonathan King: Everyone’s Gone to the Moon
Bessie Jones: Oh Death
Morton Feldman: Only
Nina Simone: Human Touch
Daniel Decatur Emmett: Dixie
Daniel Bernard Roumain: Estella, J & M
Ivory Coast: Chant D'homme Accompagné D'Une Cloche (Funeral Chant)
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers: Beulah Land
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers: Buzzard Lope
Trevor Morris: Mano e Mano
Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold: Prelude
Programming & Production Staff
Kyle Maude, Producing Director
Hannah Emerson Jernigan, Producer
Serena Wong, Lighting Supervisor
Megan Dechaine, Production Stage Manager
Shay Watson, Sound Supervisor
Alexander Roberts, Technical Director
James Bennett, Audio/Video Manager
Curriculum II is commissioned and produced by New York Live Arts with commissioning support from PEAK Performances at Montclair State University in Montclair, NJ, and the American Dance Festival. Curriculum II premiered with PEAK Performances in June 2022. Created with support from the Made in Wickenburg Residency Program at the Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts in Wickenburg, Arizona with funding from the R.H. Johnson Foundation and The Welk Foundation.
The creation of new work by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is made possible in part by the company’s Partners in Creation: Anonymous (2), Anne Delaney, Zoe Eskin, Eleanor Friedman, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Suzanne Karpas, Ellen Poss, Jane Bovingdon Semel, in memory of Linda G. Shapiro, Slobodan Randjelović & Jon Stryker.
Support for New York Live Arts is provided by the Arnhold Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ed Bradley Family Foundation, The Brant Foundation, Inc., Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Dance/NYC, Ford Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Marta Heflin Foundation, Alex Katz Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Alice Lawrence Foundation, Mellon Foundation, National Performance Network, New England Foundation for the Arts, One World Fund, The Poss Family Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, The Semel Charitable Foundation, Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Tides Foundation.
Public support for New York Live Arts is from Humanities New York, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council Representative Erik Bottcher, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Over the past 40 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 40 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 and Janet Wong is the Associate Artistic Director.
The repertory of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company is widely varied in its subject matter, visual imagery, and stylistic approach to movement, voice, and stagecraft and includes musically driven works as well as works using a variety of texts. Some of its most celebrated creations are evening length works including Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land (1990, Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music); Still/Here (1994, Biennale de la Danse in Lyon, France); We Set Out Early… Visibility Was Poor (1996, Hancher Auditorium, Iowa City, IA); You Walk? (2000, European Capital of Culture 2000, Bologna, Italy); Blind Date (2006, Peak Performances at Montclair State University); Chapel/Chapter (2006, Harlem Stage Gatehouse); Fondly Do We Hope… Fervently Do We Pray (2009, Ravinia Festival, Highland Park, IL); Another Evening: Venice/Arsenale(2010, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy); Story/Time (2012, Peak Performances); A Rite (2013, Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill); and Deep Blue Sea (2021, Park Avenue Armory).
NEW YORK LIVE ARTS
Home of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company (BTJ/AZ), Live Arts is a commissioning and presenting center of diverse artists notable for their conceptual rigor, formal experimentation, and active engagement with the sociocultural currents of our time. Artists at all stages of their careers are supported through residencies, commissions, and artist services. BTJ/AZ, founded in 1982 by Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948-1988), is recognized as an innovative force, having performed in over 200 cities and 40 countries. We at New York Live Arts acknowledge and offer deep gratitude to Lenapehoking, where our theater sits—the land and waters of the Lenape homeland.
ADF is grateful for the generous donation of plants provided by Redmill Landscape & Nursery.
