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According to The New York Times, Prominent dance company Doug Varone and Dancers has canceled its upcoming performances at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts following the institution’s recent renaming to include the name of President Donald Trump.
The company had been scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. The decision adds to a growing number of artists withdrawing appearances from the venue this month.
Doug Varone said the company initially agreed to appear in order to honor two senior dance administrators at the Kennedy Center, Jane Raleigh and Alicia Adams, both of whom have since departed the institution. Following those departures and the renaming decision, the company elected to withdraw from the engagement. Varone cited concerns about the current direction of the organization in explaining the cancellation.
“We can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution,” Varone said.
Other cancellations have followed the renaming decision. The Kennedy Center’s annual Christmas Eve jazz concert was also canceled after the venue was renamed. Chuck Redd, who has hosted the Jazz Jams concert at the Kennedy Center since 2006, said, “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert.”
The board overseeing Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted recently to rename the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center. Donald Trump, who currently serves as chairman of the board, has frequently referred to the institution as the “Trump Kennedy Center.” Trump previously said the decision to rename the venue would rest with the board and made those remarks earlier this month while attending the Kennedy Center Honors.
The Kennedy Center Honors ceremony also recorded its smallest television audience to date this year. The Donald Trump-hosted broadcast averaged an estimated 2.65 million viewers, a significant decline from the 4.1 million viewers reported in 2024. According to The Independent, the CBS broadcast experienced a 35 percent drop in ratings.
Trump was the first sitting president to host the Kennedy Center Honors. It was reported that he opened the ceremony with a 12-minute speech, which CBS edited down to approximately two minutes for broadcast.
BroadwayWorld has also previously reported that ticket sales at the Kennedy Center declined significantly following a leadership transition earlier this year. According to ticketing and spending data cited by The Washington Post, attendance for major productions between early September and mid-October fell to its lowest level since the pandemic. During that six-week period, approximately 43 percent of seats in the Opera House, Concert Hall, and Eisenhower Theater went unsold, compared with higher attendance rates reported in previous seasons.
