The Martha Graham Dance Company said on Friday that it would not perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts this spring as part of the troupe’s centennial tour across the United States.
“The Martha Graham Dance Company regrets that we are unable to perform at the Kennedy Center in April,” it said in a statement. “We hope to perform at the center in the future.”
The troupe, which is based in New York and is the oldest in the United States, is celebrating its centennial with a tour that includes stops in Chicago; Sarasota, Fla.; and Chapel Hill, N.C. It had been scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington four times from April 2 to 4.
The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Martha Graham Dance Company is the latest group or artist to withdraw from Kennedy Center events. Béla Fleck, an 18-time Grammy Award winner, pulled out from performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, and jazz musicians canceled Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve concerts at the center.
The Washington National Opera, which had performed at the center since 1971, announced last week that it would permanently move out. The opera said on Friday that it would perform “Treemonisha” and “The Crucible” in March at George Washington University.
Michaela Towfighi is a Times arts and culture reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early career journalists.
The post Martha Graham Dance Company Won’t Celebrate Centennial at Kennedy Center appeared first on New York Times.
