Events/Things To Do

Step Afrika! launches its 25th anniversary at the Music Center at Strathmore with a retrospective of the Company’s best-loved works on Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 5 p.m. The performance continues Strathmore’s rich collaboration with Step Afrika!, started in 2014, to celebrate step by showcasing some of the art form’s best performers annually on its hallmark Music Center stage. The performance includes selected works from Step Afrika!’s history, including Wade,Passing 25, and Nxt/Stp: Hip Hop. The wide range of work demonstrates the versatility of step, connecting it to hip hop, African American spirituals, and South African traditional and contemporary dance forms. Dem Raider Boyz Step Squad of Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Prince George’s County will open the show; the troupe achieved national notoriety on NBC’s reality-competition show World of Dance in 2018. For more information call (301) 581-5100 or visitwww.strathmore.org.

Step Afrika! was founded in 1994 as the first professional company dedicated to the tradition of stepping. It now ranks as one of the top African American dance companies in the United States. The Company blends percussive dance styles practiced by historically African American fraternities and sororities, African traditional dance, and influences from a variety of other dance and art forms. Performances traditionally integrate song, storytelling, humor, and audience participation.

In 2019, Step Afrika! will launch its first tour in Ukraine and will return to South Africa in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the historic election of President Nelson Mandela. Step Afrika! has performed at the White House for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, headlining their Presidential Black History Month Reception, and is also featured prominently at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in the world’s first stepping interactive—a video installation where patrons can learn the basics of step straight from Step Afrika! instructors. They also brought a step showcase to New York’s famed theater district for the first time, with a three-week, sold-out engagement at the New Victory Theater.

The National Symphony Orchestra continues its Star Wars series this season with Return of the Jedi, in three performances on Tuesday, January 22, 2019 at 7 p.m. and Wednesday and Thursday, January 23 and 24, 2019 at 8 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. NSO Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke leads the Orchestra in John Williams’s memorable score to accompany the film as it’s shown on the big screen above the Orchestra.

Acclaimed Broadway actress and Grammy Award^®–winning singer Brandy joins the NSO for her first ever collaboration with an orchestra. Brandy and the NSO, led by Steven Reineke, will explore the unlikely connections between R&B and symphony as she revisits personal favorites from across her own career and from artists and works that have inspired her. Two performances take place: Friday and Saturday, January 25 and 26, 2019 at 8 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

The NSO concludes its Star Wars live score series with The Force Awakens(February 21–23, 2019). Other 2018–2019 NSO Pops performances include An Evening with Leslie Odom, Jr. (May 1–3, 2019) and 50 Years Over the Rainbow: A Judy Garland Celebration (June 28–29, 2019).

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets (Star Wars: $34–$149; Brandy: $39–$139) are available at the Kennedy Center Box Office, online at kennedy-center.org, and via phone through Instant Charge, (202) 467-4700; toll-free at (800) 444-1324. For all other ticket-related customer service inquires, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540.

The American Pops Orchestra will present An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly, a madcap retelling of the classic children’s story. Acclaimed singer, actress and comedian Hilary Morrow is sure to dazzle as the Old Lady whose appetite for strange objects transforms her quiet afternoon into a wildly spectacular tale! Don’t miss this classic story with a new interpretation written by APO’s most beloved and charming playwright, Broadway’s Claybourne Elder (currently starring in Torch Song on Broadway).

Tickets start at $17 and are available at http://bit.ly/OldLadyAPO.

WHEN:            Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019

11:00 a.m.— Noon

WHERE:         Arena Stage

Molly Smith Study

1101 6th St., SW

Washington, D.C.

APO, led by Maestro Luke Frazier, disrupts the status quo of traditional pops programming by bringing original, cutting edge productions focused on quality, fun and community engagement for the entire family

Renée Fleming VOICES: Nellie McKay

The always-unpredictable singer-songwriter Nellie McKay is impossible to categorize, from doing Brecht on Broadway to tributes to the likes of Doris Day and Joan Rivers. Part cabaret, part sparkly pop, her music is as tuneful and clever as the best of the Great American Songbook.

Tickets: $25–35

Washington Performing Arts presents Leon Fleisher & Friends: A 90th Birthday Celebration

Join us as we fête pianist and pedagogue Leon Fleisher on the occasion of his 90th birthday, where he will perform solo and duo works, featuring pianists Katherine Jacobson and Fleisher’s protégé, Jonathan Biss. The evening includes surprise guests who will share their birthday greetings with the master, and a Q&A with Washington Post chief classical music critic Anne Midgette. The program features selections by Bach, Kirchner, Schubert, Ravel, and Dvořák.

Tickets: $65

NEA Jazz Master Archie Shepp’s All-Star Tribute to John Coltrane featuring Jason Moran

In this momentous concert, Shepp celebrates the boundless impact and talent of his friend and mentor. He’s joined by pianist and Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran and other contemporary greats, including Amir ElSaffar, Darryl Hall, and Nasheet Waits

Tickets: $20–59

PJ Morton

Grammy Award^®–winning singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist PJ Morton brings his brand of love and soul to the Kennedy Center for one night only. Known for his work with Maroon 5 and as music director for Solange’s A Seat at the Table, Morton and his band perform hits from his critically acclaimed album Gumbo and his soul-stirring discography.

Tickets: $49–69

She A Gem

In this play by Josh Wilder, Krystin, Jaleesa, and Amber form a double-dutch team to compete in the neighborhood pageant. If they win, they will receive a special prize: their futures told by the local psychic. Will they become a “gem,” a special leader who cares for the neighborhood?

Tickets: $20