The Washington Ballet is marking its 50th anniversary with a show that puts pointe shoes next to a live go-go band, debuting a world-premiere piece that fuses classical ballet with the percussion-heavy sound D.C. officially calls its own. The program, titled Go-Go 50, runs October 30 through November 1 at the historic Warner Theatre in downtown D.C., and it pairs choreographer Chanel DaSilva's new work with three other pieces spanning the company's half-century history.
DaSilva's piece, called An Artist's Prayer, features live music from D.C. go-go band Black Alley and caps three years she spent immersing herself in go-go music before choreographing the work, according to WTOP News. The outlet reports that Artistic Director Edwaard Liang, now in his third season leading the company, selected DaSilva for the celebration and said the project came together through what he called synchronicity. Go-go has carried official status in the District since February 2020, when Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the Go-Go Official Music of the District of Columbia Designation Act after a unanimous D.C. Council vote, legislation introduced by Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie.
A Choreographer's Pandemic-Era Discovery
DaSilva first heard go-go music throughout D.C. during a pandemic-era stay in the city and fell in love with it, per WTOP's reporting. She has said the genre's drums felt similar to music she grew up with while also sounding entirely different to her ear. DaSilva chose Black Alley for the collaboration, and the station notes the band is pushing go-go music forward rather than simply preserving its past.
Black Alley, born in Southeast D.C., performs a style the group calls Hood Rock — a fusion of go-go percussion, rock guitars, trap rhythms and soul vocals led by singer Kacey Williams, according to the DC Public Library. The band and the ballet company aren't strangers to sharing a stage: both performed at the Mayor's Arts Awards gala in downtown Washington in September 2025.
Part of a Larger City Investment in Go-Go
The Go-Go 50 program lands amid a broader, multi-year push by D.C. leadership to weave go-go culture into civic and high-arts institutions. The District has invested $6 million in municipal funding since 2021 toward go-go artists, events, education and cultural preservation programs, Hoodline previously reported in its coverage of the city's creative scene. DaSilva has said she hopes the production invites people unfamiliar with either ballet or go-go to embrace both art forms together, per WTOP.
Go-go isn't the only thread tying the program to history. The Washington Ballet will also present Configurations by Choo San Goh, the company's first resident choreographer, who served in that role and as associate artistic director from 1976 until his death in 1987, creating 14 original ballets that helped build the company's international reputation. Rounding out the four-work program are Liang's The Art of War, set to a score by Michael Torke, and Trey McIntyre's Blue Until June, which features vocals by Etta James.
From Mary Day's Chamber Company to a 50th Season
The Washington Ballet traces its roots to 1976, when native Washingtonian Mary Day founded it as a professional 17-dancer chamber company, operating out of the same Wisconsin Avenue home that housed The Washington School of Ballet, which she had co-founded in 1944. The school has operated since the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt and now trains more than 1,000 enrolled students each year at its Northwest campus studios on Wisconsin Avenue, plus an additional 350 students at its Southeast campus at the Town Hall Education, Arts and Recreation Center, per WTOP. Liang has said the school's mission and vision are to remain part of the community, and that the company's audience — built from school parents, students and family members — has grown over the five decades.
Liang himself brings an unusual personal history to the anniversary. Appointed in October 2023 before formally taking artistic leadership in 2024, he is the first Asian American to serve as artistic director of a U.S. ballet company of this scale, according to The Violin Channel. He began his own ballet journey in Northern California at age 5, telling WTOP that his parents gave him a magnifying glass and ballet became his punishment after he accidentally set his ballet-school lobby on fire. DaSilva's path started just as young — she told her grandmother at age 3 that she wanted to be a ballerina and has gone on to choreograph works in London, New York and Chicago, according to the same WTOP report.
The Washington Ballet had been conceiving the Go-Go 50 idea for roughly two years before its debut, per WTOP, framing the show as both a look back at the company's history and an embrace of where dance in D.C. is headed. With Configurations situating the program alongside Choo San Goh's founding-era legacy and An Artist's Prayer pointing toward DaSilva's go-go-infused future, the company is positioning its 50th season as a bridge between the two. Performances run October 30 through November 1 at the Warner Theatre, a venue that also hosts the company's annual, D.C.-themed Nutcracker each winter.
