THE TABLE OF SILENCE PROJECT 9/11

The Table of Silence Project 9/11 is a public, multi-cultural call for peace, realized through a transcendent performance ritual for 150+ dancers, musicians and vocalists that celebrates community, humanity and the healing power of art. Conceived and choreographed by Jacqulyn Buglisi in response to the shattering tragedy of 9/11, the ritual is performed annually on the Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center and streamed live around the world on the early morning of September 11th. The ritual honors not only those lives lost on 9/11, but over time has become an annual rite of remembrance and renewal through its evolution and its profound call to action for peace.

​At first light, more than 150 dancers, draped in flowing diaphanous white, emerge onto the plaza to the ancient call of the conch shell. Hidden in the pocket of each dancer’s surplice is a handmade sacred sculpture plate created by Italian visual artist Rossella Vasta, personifying the banquet table that unites humanity. Through twelve ritualistic gestures, in repetitions of ten, the dancers form concentric circles around the Revson Fountain, whose water becomes a living symbol of purity and the continuity of the life cycle, to create a Peace Labyrinth. This sacred space is transformed by the transcendent energy of the living Mandala, linking dancers and viewers to the healing rituals of the natural world. The soundscape—the plaintive cries, the breath of the flute, the heartbeat of the drums connecting humanity—carries us toward a spiritual awakening at 8:46 a.m., when the dancers raise their arms skyward in a shared invocation of peace, transforming the universe from suffering to joy.