I have been attending performances at the KC for over 30 years and have subscribed to the ballet series for over 2 decades. The performances are often superb, but the overall experience has degraded to the point where after this season I will no longer attend anything here. Abolishing programs so that everyone brings in a live cell phone ensures that every performance is interrupted at least once by a cell phone ringing. This past Saturday we paid over $43 for two very small cups of very low quality wine. It has always been a rip off, but now it has reached the point of complete absurdity. The audience is mostly dressed like bums or clowns and some people feel compelled to comment loudly on the performances as if the rest of care what they think. There are many wonderful things to see and do in DC - leave the KC of your list. If you want a comparatively civilized experience go to a ball game.

This is by far the worst Nutcracker performance I've ever seen in my life, & I'm 62 years old. The dance company is made up of elementary school children & some teenagers & a couple of teachers who stand in the background in costumes. All the dances are performed by children with very few exceptions. The children's performance is what you'd expect to see in a school recital where the kids know a couple of ballet steps, then just keep running around the stage. None of the usual major solos or duets dances were performed & the wonderful music was played in vain. Dancers who performed grownup dancers performed the same exact few steps & their dancing looked more like a warmup routine than a choreographed dance. The Kennedy Center should have noted on the brochure that Ballet West is mostly children. Had I known that before hand, I would never have taken my friends visiting from Denmark to watch it, specially on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It was a colossal waste of money.