New York City Ballet, one of the nation’s most prestigious dance companies, announced on Friday that it was withdrawing from a six-day stand at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the latest major performing arts organization to cancel a high-profile engagement at the besieged center.
City Ballet announced its decision in an email to its dancers on Friday afternoon. The “Dear Dancers” note, which was signed by the company’s executive director, artistic director and associate artistic director, was terse and offered no explanation for the decision, though it encouraged members of the company to reach out if they had questions.
“We are writing to let you know that the Company will not perform in Washington, D.C., the week of June 1 as previously scheduled,” the email said. “We will now rehearse in New York that week”
Representatives for the Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The decision is the latest blow for the Kennedy Center, which has seen waves of performance cancellations, audience boycotts and staff upheaval, including a major round of layoffs that began this week.
New York City Ballet was late to the parade of cancellations that have followed as Mr. Trump has increasingly wielded influence over the center during his second term.
In the 15 months since he took office, Mr. Trump installed himself as chairman of the Kennedy Center board and filled it with loyalists. The board voted to affix his name to the center in December, a decision that has been challenged in court.
Mr. Trump abruptly announced in February that the center would shut down for a two-year renovation project in July, a decision that caught many people who worked there by surprise and came as attendance was on the decline. This month, Mr. Trump announced that Richard Grenell, a close ally who served as the center’s president for the past year, would be exiting his role.
In February, San Francisco Ballet canceled its performances after facing objections by many of its patrons. New York City Ballet apparently had not faced similar public criticism for pushing ahead with its performances even as other artists pulled out.
New York City Ballet was scheduled to perform four shows and two programs in Washington in the first week of June. The programs were advertised as a celebration of Maria Tallchief, the trailblazing Native American dancer who was an early star of the company; and a mixed bill of works by contemporary choreographers, including Alexei Ratmansky’s “Solitude.”
As of Friday afternoon, the company’s performances had been removed from the center’s website within moments of the company’s decision becoming public.
Major modern and contemporary dance companies, including Martha Graham Dance Company and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, have generally opted not to perform at the Trump-controlled Kennedy Center.
But the ballet world has been more divided.
Cincinnati Ballet performed “The Nutcracker” in November and American Ballet Theater performed Christopher Wheeldon’s “The Winter’s Tale” last month. Not long after, San Francisco Ballet decided to pull out. In withdrawing, companies forgo significant fees they would have received for their performances.
The cancellations at the center also included one of its two classical music anchors, the Washington National Opera. It moved out in January and announced it was seeking an end to its affiliation agreement with the center. But the National Symphony Orchestra continued to perform there. (The orchestra is now looking for venues to play at once the center begins its two year reconstruction.)
Mr. Grenell had sharply criticized artists who canceled shows at the center, saying on social media last year that “boycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome.” When the San Francisco Ballet pulled out, he said, “Professional artists should perform for everyone — not just for people they agree with politically.”
Last year, the director of the dance programming department, who booked the major ballet companies to perform at the center, was fired and replaced with a new leader who wrote a letter to Mr. Grenell noting his support for the Trump administration and complaining about “radical leftist ideologies in ballet.”
Like many artists who have withdrawn from the center, New York City Ballet’s leaders made no explicit political statements in their announcement to their dancers.
Adam Nagourney is the classical music and dance reporter for The Times.
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