Toe shoes
Washingtonians are about to get a weekend full of Mikhail Baryshnikov, as the legendary dancer is coming to the prison-turned-arts-center at Lorton, Va., for two fundraisers.
Baryshnikov will perform at a $2,500-per-person black-tie gala Friday, then again at a $100-per-head reception Saturday. Both events are expected to draw a capacity crowd of 300 people, said Sherran Denkler, a spokeswoman for the Workhouse Arts Center, which is still under construction at the former D.C. prison.
| Getty Images |
Accompanying the 59-year-old Baryshnikov will be world-famous dancers Aszure Barton and Pedja Muzijevic.
Baryshnikov, it turns out, is a longtime friend of David Beckett, a lawyer who sits on the center’s board of directors and got Baryshnikov to visit this past May.
The famous dancer “liked what he saw,” said Denkler, who added that the mission of the center and Baryshnikov’s own dance foundation in New York “is basically the same.”
Baryshnikov invited Beckett and board chairman John Ariail to New York for a performance during the summer, and this weekend’s events will benefit both organizations.
Under federal law, the District of Columbia transferred its former prison at Lorton to Fairfax County in 2002, whereby the county chose to transform it into a center for the arts.
Of the 30 buildings comprising the prison’s former workhouse, Denkler says four will be complete by the end of the year, with six more by next summer. The $150 million project will ultimately include 40 residences for artists and two restaurants, she said.
