Martha Graham Dance Company cancels performance at Kennedy Center.
The troupe, the oldest theater company in the United States, is scheduled to perform at the venue in April as part of its centennial national tour.
“Martha Graham Dance Company regrets that it will not be able to perform at the Kennedy Center in April,” the company said in a statement Friday. “We hope to perform at the center in the future.”
The Martha Graham Dance Company gave no reason for withdrawing from the Kennedy Center performance. /Danny Lawson – PA Photos/PA Photos via Getty Images
The company did not provide a reason for the cancellation, but it joins a growing list of performers canceling shows at the Kennedy Center after Donald Trump added his name to the building.
On December 19, Trump bypassed Congress and asked a construction team to add his name to the Kennedy Center. Trump’s hand-picked Kennedy Center board approved the decision, although the building’s official renaming will require congressional approval.
Trump bypassed Congress and had his name engraved on the Kennedy Center. / Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
Critics point out that the building’s new name, the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” implies that the building honors the 79-year-old president who is still alive.
Since the controversial unofficial name change, bands including Grammy-winning bluegrass player Bela Fleck, Mexican-born songwriter Sonia de los Santos and the Washington National Opera have canceled performances at the Kennedy Center.
The Martha Graham Dance Company has been operating since 1926 and has ties to the Trump family. In 2005, First Lady Melania Trump was appointed honorary president of the troupe.
The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since artists began withdrawing from the Kennedy Center, the center’s president, Richard Grenell, has made many comments about the exits. After the Washington National Opera abandoned its agreement with the Kennedy Center on Jan. 10, he dismissed the company as a financial disaster for the Kennedy Center.
Grenell accused the bluegrass legend of pandering to the “woke mob” after Bela Fleck quit performing.
Grenell also criticized The Daily Beast in January, writing that it had “become more aggressive and vitriolic” under CEO Ben Sherwood.
Richard Grenell slams
Since the start of Trump’s second administration, the Kennedy Center has been working to eradicate “wokeness” from its dance lineups.
In August, it appointed dancer Stephen Nakagawa as its new director of dance and programming. Nakagawa got the job after writing a letter to Grenell in which he expressed concerns about the “woke culture” in theater companies like the Washington Ballet. He also expressed his desire to “end the dominance of left-wing ideology in the arts and return to the purity and timeless beauty of classical ballet.”
Kennedy Center director Richard Grenell (left) reportedly tried to get the Kennedy Center to host more dance performances
The Kennedy Center has historically hosted major touring companies such as the American Ballet Theater and the New York City Ballet. It also presents contemporary works by contemporary ballet choreographers such as Jamison Curcio and Shanice Mason. The center hosted two I have a secret to tell you…On August 22, the Kennedy Center website described it as “an invitation to discover, reconstruct, and practice living in community with Black women and femmes.”
Grenell’s vision for dance at the Kennedy Center was different. The New York Times reported in August that Grenell pressured the now-fired dance programmer to launch a program at the Kennedy Center similar to the Fox competition show So you think you can dance? Before he hired Nakagawa.