2015 Kennedy Center Spring Gala

For the 2015 Spring Gala, It Don’t Mean a Thing… A Celebration of Swing, the Kennedy Center pays tribute to America’s swing era of the 1930s and 40s–a time when Big Band jazz served as a pulse for American culture. Young adults crowded dance clubs across the country to take their turn doing the Jitterbug and Lindy Hop to the music of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and smooth vocals of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nat King Cole. An all-star cast–including multiple Tony and Grammy Award winner Audra McDonald, Broadway and television sensation Megan Hilty, Grammy winner and Golden Globe nominee Terence Blanchard, and 14-time Grammy winner Paquito D’Rivera and The Puppini Sisters–joins the Paul Taylor Dance Company and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, under the direction of renowned Grammy-winning jazz producer John Clayton. The famed dance company, under the direction of Kennedy Center Honoree and Emmy Award winner Paul Taylor, spotlights swing dance.