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 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
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
Learn how the next generation of Baltimore’s artists and leaders are harnessing the power of creativity to tell their stories. As part of the day’s activities, attendees can create their own museum memes, buttons, and custom banners, learn how to screen print with Jubilee Arts: Youth in Business, and make a personalized zine with Baltimore Youth Arts. Special guests include the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore Ceasefire, and Open Works. Performances include screenings with Wide Angle Youth Media, musical ensembles with two Arts Every Day schools, and the Lethal Ladies of Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women step team.
The day’s festivities include Behind the Façade, a program of original monologues by Baltimore School for the Arts theater students. Performed in 1 West Mount Vernon Place, this performance brings to life the range of people, enslaved and free, who made Mount Vernon their home in the years before and after the Civil War.
Presented in collaboration with Arts Every Day. Special thanks to MECU of Baltimore and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts.
WHERE:
Walters Art Museum
600 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
WHEN:
Saturday, April 27, 2019
11 a.m.–4 p.m.
Friday, May 10, 2019, 5:30-8 p.m.
Embark on a magical adventure as you enjoy a selection of award-winning, family-friendly short films featuring all sorts of fun and fanciful stories.
Downtown DC’s newest pop up arts market launches as Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (RRB/ITC) hosts Capital Arts Collective. The series kicks off on June 20 and continues through September every third Thursday of the month from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. Locals and passersby can shop and explore a curated selection of items by the area’s most talented creatives, including everything from jewelry, paintings, candles, custom designed items, home goods, and more.
Capital Arts Collective aims to celebrate and support the local art scene. The RRB/ITC is excited to welcome homegrown artisans to Wilson Plaza; with plenty of seating and eateries it’s the perfect place for art enthusiasts of all ages, to grab lunch, browse and shop from the best creators in the DMV area. Capital Arts Collective is a program of RRB/ITC and is sponsored by TCMA (A Drew Company).
View this summer’s artists: https://itcdc.com/capital-
What: Capital Arts Collective (#CapitalArtsCollective)
When: June 20, July 18, August 15, & September 19, from 10 am- 2 pm.
Where: Wilson Plaza at Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Metro: Federal Triangle Station
Who: Free and open to the public
The Del Ray Business Association will host its 6th Annual Well Ray Festival on Saturday, June 22nd in the heart of Del Ray. The free, family-friendly event will take on Mt. Vernon Avenue in the Del Ray section of Alexandria, a neighborhood just outside of Washington, D.C. “where Main Street still exists,” and will be a celebration of the health and wellness lifestyle movement. This year, the City of Alexandria was recognized as one of the top healthiest in America by the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, an annual ranking that provides a revealing snapshot of how health is influenced by where we live, learn, work and play (link).
Over 75 health and lifestyle inspired vendors will provide a variety of activities to allow festival-goers the opportunity to explore, heal, taste and move in achieving a healthy life. Wellness and holistic health practitioners will offer services ranging from therapeutic treatments such as massages to acupuncture, physical therapy and nutritional counseling, health screenings, meditation, and more.
Festival attendees can bring their own mat and be prepared to move during free yoga, pilates, CrossFit, spin, barre, and dance classes on the streets led by local fitness instructors. There are also a variety of kid fit fun activities for the whole family to enjoy such as dance lessons, martial arts, parkour and HITT training. Pet lovers can bring their furry friends for pet-friendly fitness activities such as training tips and obstacle work. The festival each year draws thousands from across the region who want to explore the latest and greatest the world of health and wellness has to offer. The event is sponsored and presented by The Jen Walker Team (Platinum Sponsor), Core Wellness and Physical Therapy, and the Chiro Group (Gold Sponsors). The full event schedule and participating vendors are located at WellRayDelRay.com.
EVENT DETAILS
What: Well Ray – Health & Wellness Festival
When: Saturday, June 22, 2019
Where: Mt. Vernon Ave in the heart of Del Ray
Presented by: Del Ray Business Association
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Website: https://www.wellraydelray.com/
Cost: Free
Weather Plan: Rain or shine
Solstice Saturday Festival at the National Museum of the American Indian
Saturday, June 22; 3–9:30 p.m.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in DC celebrates the first Saturday of summer—Solstice Saturday— beginning with an afternoon of Andean music, dance, and family friendly activities celebrating the Great Inka Road. At 7 p.m., the celebration becomes the Solstice Illuminated Dance Party, taking place on the museum’s Welcome Plaza. There will be a DJ, refreshments, fun, and food, with all galleries open throughout the evening.
3–7 p.m.—Solstice Saturday: Celebrate the Sun!
With the exhibition The Great Inka Road as the theme, the museum celebrates Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun, with Andean music and dance. The festivity opens with traditional Bolivian dancing by Tradiciones Bolivianas, Pujllay Cliza, Fraternidad Tinkus Chochabamba, and Expresion Cultural Sikuris K’hantati Los Andes share traditional dances of Bolivia. RAYMI will be playing Andean music.
Make your own Andean fan based on the chakana, a symbol evoking the four cardinal directions, and add luminescent embellishments to show off later in the evening. Get inspired by the solar and lunar imagery throughout the museum and decorate your own canvas bag to take home.
Indigenous peoples of the Andes in South America believed that gold represented the sun. Visitors can create their own foil pendant featuring your choice of a llama, sun, or jaguar design at the imagiNATIONS Activity Center.
Meet Ande, the museum’s resident, life-size, plush toy Llama. Learn how to dress a fashionable llama for a stroll along the Inka road.
7–9:30 p.m.—Solstice Illuminated Dance Party
Grab a glow stick and dance to DJ Dola on the Welcome Plaza. Enjoy food and drinks—including anticuchos de carne, lomo saltado, chicken empanadas, chips and guacamole, arroz con leche and churros con chocolate—from local vendors Peruvian Brothers and the museum’s Mitsitam Café. Bears Shaved Ice will be serving shaved ice in a variety of flavors!
Be sure to visit the Museum’s membership table with your member card to receive a special gift (or join that evening). Cool off with a walk through the indoor galleries, which also will be open through the night.
When the sun goes down, bring your luminescent fan and join a “comparsa Iluminada”—an illuminated procession— and join Tradiciones Bolivianas, Raymi, Fraternidad Tinkus Chochabamba, Expresion Cultural Sikuris K’hantati Los Andes, and Pujllay Cliza in the procession from the festivities to an outdoor gathering on the Welcome Plaza.
Tuesday, July 2, 2019, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Celebrate the Second of July, the day the Continental Congress voted for American independence, with music of the founding era. David and Ginger Hildebrand of the Colonial Music Institute perform eighteenth-century songs—including ballads, marches and French-inspired songs—in costume with period instruments.
Free
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