The Kennedy Center has been struggling to fill seats ever since Donald Trump and his group of sycophants took over the venue earlier this year and dance is among one of the areas hardest hit.
Last week, the center hired Stephen Nakagawa, a self-described “MAGA former dancer,” as its new director of dance programming. He replaced veteran local arts administrator Jane Rabinowitz Raleigh.
Nakagawa reportedly landed the job after writing a letter complaining about “radical leftist ideologies in ballet,” according to the New York Times.
Ticket sales, which were already low, are expected to crater even further as another MAGA sycophant takes over a top job and locals boycott the center.
According to the Washingtonian, several dance performances that were already locked in before Trump’s hostile takeover of the Kennedy Center are now less than 20% capacity sold and others have moved upcoming performances from the center.
The center’s opera house will be between 4% and 19% capacity when the German group, the Stuttgart Ballet, perform there early next month. A spokesperson for the German Embassy said it is unclear whether the company still plans to perform at the center.
Meanwhile, the Eisenhower Theater is only at 12 percent capacity for BodyTraffic, a Los Angeles troupe, performances in October.
Another dance troupe, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a Kennedy Center fixture, has pulled out of their performance at the center this year and opted to perform at the Warner Theater instead.
A source at the Kennedy Center told the Washingtonian that subscription revenue is also down nearly 50 percent.
“Big yikes,” the source said, adding that Grenell and other MAGA administrators at the center seem surprisingly unconcerned by the horrible numbers.
