Violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain, center, and dancers in “Prologue” on September 11 at Lincoln Center, which has been closed since March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo by Sara Krulwich
“On Friday morning, … dancers—28 of them, in costumes of draping white fabric—processed onto [Lincoln Center] plaza as the violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain played a distortion of the national anthem on his electric instrument,” writes Joshua Barone in Friday’s (9/11) New York Times. “This was the premiere of ‘Prologue,’ an adaptation of Buglisi Dance Theater’s ‘Table of Silence’ … presented at Lincoln Center every Sept. 11 morning since the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks [as] a solemn, ritualistic call for peace through choreography…. Friday’s event … was … available only as a livestream online [due to the pandemic]…. Mr. Roumain … composed the score and performed it live; and Marc Bamuthi Joseph … wrote the lyrical poem ‘Awakening’ for the work and read it for a recording played over speakers on the plaza. Terese Capucilli, the Martha Graham dancer and teacher, reprised her role as … the ritual’s leader…. ‘Prologue’ [was followed by] a moment of quiet at 8:46 a.m., the time when an American Airlines plane was flown into the World Trade Center … At the premiere’s close, Ms. Capucilli … exited slowly…. ‘It’s a beautiful energy that radiates from the plaza no matter what year it is,’ she said.”
