Hot Picks of the Week: Enjoy concerts galore across the District and beyond! January & February 2022

metroweekly.com:

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATERThe acclaimed modern dance company, founded more than 60 years ago, has been an integral part of programming at the Kennedy Center from the very start, performing at the arts complex’s formal opening ceremony in 1971.

This year, the company returns to celebrate the center’s 50th anniversary with a week-long run of performances in the Opera House.Per tradition, every performance ends with Revelations, the signature masterpiece Ailey created in tribute to his African-American heritage, drawing inspiration from childhood memories of growing up in the Black church in Texas as well as from the writings of James Baldwin and Langston Hughes.

Across four mixed-repertory programs, the seven-performance run will also feature five other pieces created by the gay cultural giant, who died in 1989 as a result of AIDS-related complications: Cry, a 16-minute solo, dedicated to “all Black women everywhere — especially our mothers,” that Ailey premiered exactly 50 years ago; Blues Suite, the revelrous ensemble ballet, set in the rural Texas of Ailey’s upbringing, that served as the company’s debut in 1958; and Reflections in D, plus excerpts from The River and Pas de Duke, three works celebrating the musical genius of composer Duke Ellington.UPCOMING CONCERTS TO LOVEKacey Musgraves, the coolest, classiest, and queer-friendliest young diva in all of country music will heat things up and get fans in the mood at the start of February with a stop at Capital One Arena (601 F St.