In Reply to: You can find crazy people everywhere posted by mh on September 04, 2025 at 08:31:53
A self-described “MAGA former dancer” is now leading the Kennedy Center’s dance programming, and he’s inherited a series decimated by local boycotts, according to ticket sales data reviewed by Washingtonian.
Stephen Nakagawa, who until earlier this year was a company member at the Washington Ballet, replaces Jane Rabinowitz Raleigh, a veteran local arts administrator who was fired August 21 by Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell.
Although most of the Kennedy Center’s 2025–26 dance programming was contractually locked in before President Trump took over leadership of the center in February, Washington audiences are voting with their feet to skip out. Ticket sales are so poor, the Stuttgart Ballet will be performing for an Opera House between 4 and 19 percent full when the German company comes to Washington early next month. BodyTraffic, the Los Angeles troupe booked for the smaller Eisenhower Theatre October 29 and 30, is at 12 percent capacity.
“Big yikes,” said a current Kennedy Center staffer who supplied the data, adding that Grenell and other Trump-approved administrators at the center seem surprisingly unconcerned.