Edwaard Liang Charts The Washington Ballet's 50th Season

The Washington Ballet opens its 50th-anniversary season on October 30 with the Go-Go 50 program at the Warner Theatre — a four-work bill that artistic director Edwaard Liang says marks the moment when "the company is now poised to dream."

Liang made history in 2023 as the first person of color appointed artistic director of TWB. He arrived with little time to celebrate. While finishing his tenure at BalletMet, he immersed himself in the culture of a company that operates, unusually, without a single home theater.

The context is difficult. The Kennedy Center's main building — a longtime regular venue for TWB — is slated to stay closed for the next two years amid legal disputes with the Trump administration. Earlier this year, TWB moved its production of Cinderella to the National Theatre, citing the need for a larger space. Before Liang's tenure, the company fought rising debt and declining ticket sales. "It was no secret within our industry that TWB was really suffering financially," he told Pointe.

What does the anniversary program contain?

Go-Go 50 pairs the past with the future:

• Configurations by Choo San Goh, TWB's first resident choreographer, whom Liang calls "an artist that really set TWB on the world stage"
• Three further works speaking to the identity forged by founder Mary Day
• A world premiere, Chanel DaSilva's An Artist's Prayer, set to live music by the local go-go band Black Alley

The go-go theme is deliberate. Go-go music, born in Washington, DC, marks its own 50th anniversary this year. Black Alley will perform onstage while dancers move into the auditorium. "Go-go music is very interactive, especially the call-outs," Liang said. "I want this to change the perspective on what an experience coming to see ballet or the arts can be like."

What is the company's role in the capital?

Liang frames TWB's mission in two directions: the local community and the corridors of power. "Not only are we here to touch, move, and inspire our local community, we're also able to touch world leaders," he said. He cites his 2018 collaboration with Roberto Bolle for the World Economic Forum in Davos, where leaders open the symposium with an arts event on the theory that inspired leaders make inspired choices.

He is blunt about the structural challenge. "While most ballet companies have some sort of home base or home theater, we span multiple theaters," he said. Securing theater dates and matching programs to venues remains, in his words, one of the biggest difficulties of the job. The company also wants audiences to understand it is independent — not produced by the Kennedy Center.

What comes next?

Founded in 1976 by Mary Day — who trained ABT's Kevin McKenzie and Dance Theatre of Harlem's Virginia Johnson — TWB grew from a showcase for The Washington School of Ballet into an internationally known company led over the years by Septime Webre and Julie Kent.

Liang's plan is a "real blend of classical to contemporary works," new choreographic partnerships, and expanded performances involving the fast-growing Washington School of Ballet.

His own Dracula premieres in February 2027, his first ballet choreographed on TWB as artistic director. It uses sets and costumes originally built for Houston Ballet and Texas Ballet Theater, with the blessing of the late Ben Stevenson, their former artistic director. Liang's version follows Dracula's early years in Romania. "We really needed a full-length title that could capture the imagination," he said.

His closing claim is the boldest in the interview: the next 50 years, he believes, is where "TWB will find its golden era." The anniversary season — go-go premieres, a touring-scale Dracula and no home theater — will be the first test of that prediction.