A self-described “MAGA former dancer” is now leading the Kennedy Center’s dance programming, and he’s inherited a series decimated by local boycotts, according to ticket sales data reviewed by Washingtonian.
Stephen Nakagawa, who until earlier this year was a company member at the Washington Ballet, replaces Jane Rabinowitz Raleigh, a veteran local arts administrator who was fired August 21 by Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell.
Although most of the Kennedy Center’s 2025–26 dance programming was contractually locked in before President Trump took over leadership of the center in February, Washington audiences are voting with their feet to skip out. Ticket sales are so poor, the Stuttgart Ballet will be performing for an Opera House between 4 and 19 percent full when the German company comes to Washington early next month. BodyTraffic, the Los Angeles troupe booked for the smaller Eisenhower Theatre October 29 and 30, is at 12 percent capacity.
“Big yikes,” said a current Kennedy Center staffer who supplied the data, adding that Grenell and other Trump-approved administrators at the center seem surprisingly unconcerned.
Mallory Miller and Malik Burnett, two junior dance administrators who had been active in efforts to unionize Kennedy Center employees, described a tense meeting with Grenell where he questioned the center’s lack of oversight for the Washington Ballet, an independent nonprofit that rents performance space at the venue.
Miller and Burnett were placed on unpaid administrative leave, prior to being fired, and Grenell pushed ahead with plans to have a former Washington Ballet dancer lead all dance programming at the Kennedy Center.
Subscription revenue is down by about 50 percent, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, a Kennedy Center fixture, has opted to perform at the Warner Theatre instead.
A spokesperson for the German Embassy said Friday that while the government sometimes supports cultural programming in the US, the Stuttgart Ballet’s Kennedy Center tour has no federal backing, and she did not know whether the company still planned to perform.
All this Sturm und Drang plays as Grenell pushes for a more middle-American Kennedy Center and pursues collaborations with the Museum of the Bible and the Christian Broadcasting Network. Nakagawa first got on his radar early in the new administration by writing a letter complaining about “radical leftist ideologies in ballet,” according to a New York Times story, which Washingtonian was able to confirm.
By July, social-media posts show that Nakagawa and his family had received VIP access to the Kennedy Center’s fireworks-viewing party. The statement Grenell issued on August 25 was full of effusive praise: “Stephen is a celebrated ballerino who has been trained by world-renowned artistic directors and was a company dancer right here in Washington, D.C. with The Washington Ballet.”
Nakagawa joined the Washington Ballet School as a post-high-school trainee in 2015 and spent five years in development programs before former artistic director Julie Kent offered him a senior company position in 2020. A handful of guest teaching gigs at small schools like the Warrenton Ballet Center in Fauquier County round out his résumé.
“It is a tremendous honor to join the Kennedy Center at such a pivotal moment for the performing arts,” Nakagawa said in the press release. “The arts have always been at the heart of my life. I am eager to help inspire and uplift audiences, while ensuring dance continues to thrive as a vibrant and essential part of our culture and community.”
A Kennedy Center spokesperson said interviews with Nakagawa “might be possible” but did not schedule one for Washingtonian. Nakagawa did not respond to a phone message seeking comment.
A screenshot supplied by a former Kennedy Center staffer shows that until very recently, Nakagawa’s Instagram bio identified him as a “MAGA former dancer” and featured elephant, cross, and Star of David emojis. Nakagawa’s own career at the Washington Ballet often found him playing antagonists like Von Rothbart in Swan Lake and Carabosse, the evil drag queen who crashes Aurora’s christening in Sleeping Beauty.
In his letter to Grenell, Nakagawa promised “to return to classical ballet’s purity and timeless beauty.”
While some dancers do retire and lead major dance organizations, it’s typically a leap reserved for stars such as Kent. A Maryland native, she was recruited to lead the Washington Ballet after taking her final bows at American Ballet Theatre. Work-your-way-up paths like Raleigh’s are more common, especially for administrative jobs.
The Kennedy Center’s former dance-programming director was born in DC and grew up dancing in Northern Virginia. She dipped her toes into arts administration while studying dance at William & Mary, booking internships at first at the American Dance Festival and then at the Kennedy Center, which offered her a full-time sales position in 2013. For several years, Raleigh continued dancing for local modern companies such as Gin Dance while working at the Kennedy Center. When former dance director Meg Booth left the Kennedy Center to run Houston’s Society of the Performing Arts, Deborah Rutter, the center’s former president, tapped Raleigh to replace her.
Trés McMichael, one of the first workers let go by the Kennedy Center when Grenell eliminated the social-impact team in March, praised Raleigh’s ability to represent the Kennedy Center as an international venue while also caring deeply for Washington’s own dance community. “She was constantly asking, ‘What are we doing to be in service, not just to the institution but to all dancers?’ ” McMichael said.
Although many employees have left the Kennedy Center since Trump named himself board chair in February, Nakagawa is the administration’s first programming leadership appointment.
The fired dance staff say Grenell blamed elitist programming for poor ticket sales, not a widespread boycott of the Kennedy Center by local dance enthusiasts. He told Miller and Burnett that the center should instead be booking acts like performers from So You Think You Can Dance. Tours connected to television shows do typically stop in the Washington area, but at smaller, suburban venues like the Theater at MGM National Harbor.
Announcing Nakagawa’s appointment on Facebook, the Kennedy Center’s social-media team wrote that he would “help elevate the Kennedy Center’s dancers and productions to the next level,” an odd comment given that the Kennedy Center has not maintained its own dance company since 2017, when Rutter disbanded the Suzanne Farrell Ballet.
In a statement to Washingtonian, the Washington Ballet said it intends to maintain autonomy from the Kennedy Center.
“The Washington Ballet is an independent, non-profit arts organization supported by ticket sales and the generous philanthropy of our donors,” the statement reads. “We are in regular contact with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and production team about our upcoming performances. We have not been approached about anything else.”
