A self-described “MAGA former dancer” is now main all issues dance on the Kennedy Heart as ticket gross sales are reportedly spiraling to excessive lows.
Former Washington Ballet dancer Stephen Nakagawa (who till not too long ago gave himself the “MAGA former dancer” tag on his Instagram bio) was not too long ago named as the brand new director of dance programming by Richard Grenell, the Trump-appointed president of the Kennedy Heart. His appointment got here after your complete employees of the famend performing arts establishment’s dance division was unceremoniously fired by Grenell final month.
Regardless that the 2025-26 dance program was contracted earlier than Trump took over as board chair of the Kennedy Heart, the executive shakeup has led to dramatically slumping ticket gross sales, in line with the Washingtonian. Germany’s Stuttgart Ballet is scheduled to carry out on the Opera Home subsequent month, which is at the moment between 4 and 19 % bought. Exhibits afterward in October for the Los Angeles troupe BodyTraffic on the smaller Eisenhower are solely at 12 % capability.
Subscription {dollars} are down within the neighborhood of fifty %, whereas longtime Kennedy Heart veterans Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre have taken their performances to downtown Washington D.C.’s Warner Theatre.
Associated Video
“Huge yikes,” stated the Kennedy Heart staffer who provided the numbers to the Washingtonian, including that Grenell and the opposite Trump-approved Kennedy Heart directors don’t appear to be in the least involved concerning the poor ticket gross sales.
This upheaval comes because the Kennedy Heart is pushing Trump’s agenda “to reshape the middle right into a ‘non-woke’ leisure vacation spot.” Nakagawa, the brand new administration’s first programming management appointment, appears to be best for that initiative, as he first popped up on Grenell’s radar after writing a letter complaining about “radical leftist ideologies in ballet.”
Mallory Miller and Malik Burnett, two junior dance directors on the Kennedy Heart who had been amongst these fired by Grenell, say the brand new president is blaming elitist programming for poor ticket gross sales and thinks that the middle must be reserving acts like performers from the TV present So You Suppose You Can Dance.
As such, this yr’s Kennedy Heart Honorees are seemingly extra directed at center America, and embody the anti-elitist likes of the rock band KISS, actor Sylvester Stallone, and nation star George Strait. Actor Tom Cruise, nevertheless, declined to be amongst this yr’s recipients.