The inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Health & Fitness Expo (with half and full marathon) is coming to Washington DC on March 15-17, 2012.

Are you running Rock ‘n’ Roll Washington DC? Here’s your chance to run with a Biggest Loser and make every mile count!

Team Future is the Kids Fit Foundation’s fundraising and training program. Whether you are ready for the challenge of a half marathon or want to take on your first 5k, you can make every mile count by joining Team Future. The Kids Fit Foundation is dedicated to raising funds and awareness for quality youth programs that incorporate health, fitness and wellness. Join the fight for healthy children today!

For more information on this event, visit www.teamfuture.com

Dancing in Light

Margaret Jenkins has been creating dances out of San Francisco for almost forty years now, and her company has toured the country extensively since the late 1970s. Her latest composition, Light Moves, which draws heavily on lighting effects and projected figures, premiered in November, and the company will perform it for only the second time this Friday and Saturday at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland. Both nights’ shows are at 8 p.m., and tickets are $35 for adults, $30 for seniors and UMD alumni, and $9 for anyone with a valid student ID (not just UMD students) and those under 18.

Funny Movies and Funny People

Many studies have shown that laughter truly is a social phenomenon, so even though it’s possible these days to watch funny videos at home on YouTube, there’s still something infinitely more satisfying about getting together to do it in a group. This Friday and Saturday, the Riot Act Comedy Theater provides the chance to do just that with DC Shorts Laughs: The Films. Friday’s shows are at 7 and 9:30 p.m., and Saturday’s are at 5, 7:30, and 10 p.m. Each show features totally different short comedy films punctuated by standup comics.

High Fashion, Cheap!

Every year the boutique stores in Alexandria stock up with all the latest fashions, and every year good stuff remains unsold, even after post-Christmas discounts. That’s when the real deep discounts kick in: at the Alexandria Boutique Warehouse Sale, this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the George Washington Masonic Memorial. Get there early before all the best frocks are gone.

And the Most Versatile Artist Is…

Trying to undo centuries of specialization, the DC Arts Center asked area artists to produce work in a competition across ten different media: textiles/fiber; painting; drawing; printmaking; photography; collage; sound; video; conceptual art; and sculpture. The four semifinalists have been hard at it for six months and have had their creations on display since mid-January; this Sunday at 5 p.m. a winner will finally be crowned in a medal ceremony. Attendance is free.

The National Cherry Blosssom Festival orginizers have released the following information:

“The National Cherry Blossom Festival unveiled key initiatives and programming that will comprise the unprecedented five week 2012 Centennial Celebration, March 20 – April 27, in honor of the 100 year anniversary of the gift of trees from Tokyo to Washington, DC. The gift of trees is now the nation’s greatest springtime celebration, and the Festival will expand from 16 days to a five week event paying tribute to 100 years of blossoms with prestigious arts and culture, key environmental initiatives, and more community spirit than ever before.

Signature events will be elevated and new activities and programs put forth in honor of the once-in-a-lifetime occasion. The Festival unveiled the “City in Bloom,” a campaign to visually unite the region for over one million expected attendees. Through the Festival’s City in Bloom “toolkit,” area businesses, organizations, and individuals are encouraged to utilize special pink and blossom lighting, blossom decals, oversize banners, and more, showing their spirit for the Centennial and gift of trees.

World-renowned artist Peter Max has created the official artwork of the 2012 Centennial Celebration. His original iconic piece captures the spirit of the Festival, and will be sold as a commemorative poster and on other limited merchandise. Many additional commemorative initiatives are underway. Cherry Blossoms: The Official Book of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, will be published in partnership with National Geographic in February 2012. The United States Postal Service has created a Cherry Blossom Centennial Forever stamp that will be issued in March 2012.

The Festival will plant over 1,000 cherry trees with Casey Trees and the University of the District of Columbia, continuing the circle of giving. With Arbor Day Foundation, the Festival will hold a contest to determine “America’s Favorite Cherry Tree.” Youth Education initiatives will continue and be expanded, educating and inspiring the next generation of Festival-goers. In 2012, the girl scouts also celebrate their 100-year anniversary, and will participate in a special patch program to learn about the trees and their cultural significance.

Rare and renowned art and culture will be at the forefront of offerings. The National Gallery of Art will exhibit Colorful Realm of Living Beings, a 30-scroll set of paintings, never before seen in its entirety outside Japan. The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery will have two exhibits featuring the masterworks of Hokusai and rare Buddhist paintings. National Geographic Museum will have a special exhibit on the Samurai’s influence on Japanese history and culture. S&R Foundation will have a Cherry Blossom Concert Series, with award-winning, world-class Japanese artists featured at the Kennedy Center.

Signature events that help make up the 2012 calendar include

• the Opening Ceremony on Sunday, March 25, 2012 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, a ticketed but free starstudded show seating 6,000 people;
• Family Days on Saturday and Sunday, March 24-25, 2012;
• the Blossom Kite Festival on Saturday, March 31, 2012;
• the Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival on Saturday, April 7, 2012;
• and the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade followed by the Sakura Matsuri – Japanese Street Festival on Saturday, April 14, 2012.

Free cultural performances will take place throughout the five weeks at both the Jefferson Memorial stage and Sylvan Theater on the Washington Monument Grounds. Visit nationalcherryblossomfestival.org for more information.

To make the grand commemoration possible, the Festival thanks the Centennial Host Committee, a group that has provided significant financial contributions and will provide high level guidance. The committee is led by co-chair Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd., who joined the Festival two years ago with the shared vision of making the Centennial Celebration a reality.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival is Washington, DC’s and the nation’s greatest springtime celebration. The 2012 Festival, March 20 – April 27, includes 5 spectacular weeks of events featuring diverse and creative programming promoting traditional and contemporary arts and culture, natural beauty, and community spirit. The 2012 Festival commemorates the 100th anniversary of the gift of the cherry blossom trees and the enduring friendship between the United States and Japan.”

So, have you booked your hotel yet?

February 1 – 29

In observance of Black History Month, February 1 through 29, Mount Vernon interpreters highlight at the slave quarters the lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated the plantation home of George and Martha Washington. The refurbished slave quarters building is now open. Reproduction clothing, tools, furniture, cookware, ceramics, toys, and personal accessories outfit the space to emphasize the living conditions and experiences of enslaved people as skilled craftsmen, house slaves, and laborers on the Mansion House Farm.

Throughout the month, a 12 p.m. daily Slave Life at Mount Vernon tour explores the lives and contributions of the slaves who lived at Mount Vernon. A wreathlaying and presentation occurs daily at the slave memorial site throughout the month of February at 1 p.m. Black History Month activities are included in regular Estate admission: adults, $15.00; children ages 6-11, $7.00; and children under 5 are admitted free.

The Original that Spawned All the Samples

Other than James Brown and George Clinton, perhaps no musician has been sampled more often in modern hip-hop than jazz/soul vibraphonist Roy Ayers, best known for his highly regarded 1973 soundtrack to Coffy and his 1980 collaboration with Fela Kuti Music of Many Colors. This weekend is your chance to see the original as he does eight shows at the jazz supper club Blues Alley, Thursday through Sunday at 8 and 10 p.m. Tickets are $40.

Brrrr! Seriously, BRRRRRR!

Some of us apparently think it’s a good idea to jump into frigid water in the middle of the winter. If you’re in that crowd, the big event is this weekend: the 16th Annual MSP Polar Bear Plunge, where you get to freeze your tootsies off jumping into the Chesapeake at Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis, MD. Even kids can dunk themselves (in a kiddie pool sprinkled with a few ice cubes). To participate you must raise $50 in pledges for the Maryland Special Olympics. Visit the Plunge website to download pledge forms and for important information about satellite parking and shuttle buses, because far from being a fringe activity, jumping into bone-chilling water turns out to be incredibly popular.

The Master Draws

From his beginnings as a realist painter in the mid-1890s, through his Blue Period and Rose Period and finally into the invention of Cubism and Surrealism, Pablo Picasso continually reinvented himself and profoundly changed the history of art. Now you can trace that development over the course of thirty years of Picasso’s drawings in a new show opening this Sunday in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art, Picasso’s Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition. The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is free.

Also This Weekend

The Washington Auto Show
Washington Convention Center
January 27th, 2012 – February 5th, 2012

Chinese New Year Parade
Washington, DC – Chinatown
January 29, 2012
2:00 pm start time
6th & I St. NW to 6th & H St. NW

Joanne Griffith, editor of the new book Redefining Black Power: Reflections on the State of Black America, discusses “The Meaning of Black Power in the Age of Obama” with SNCC activists Courtland Cox, who served as Director of the Minority Business Development Agency under President Clinton, and Freddie Greene Biddle. Co-sponsored by City Lights, The Pacifica Foundation, SNCC, WPFW, Busboys and Poets and Teaching for Change.

When:
Thursday, February 16th
6:30-8pm

Where:
Busboys and Poets
2021 14th St (at V.)
NW DC 20009
(202) 387 – POET

For more information, visit their web site, or email events@busboysandpoets.com.

The Warner Theatre
513 13th Street NW
Washington, DC 20004

Warner Theatre tickets

The Warner Theatre has the following performances scheduled from now through April:

Fela!
Thursday January 26th – Sunday January 29th, 2012

Demetri Martin
Friday February 3rd, 2012

The Persian Stars
Saturday February 11th, 2012

Peter Frampton
Sunday February 19th, 2012

Jim Gaffigan
Thursday February 23,  – Saturday February 25th, 2012

Ms. Lauryn Hill
Wednesday February 29th, 2012

Monty Python’s Spamalot
Tuesday March 13th – Sunday March 18th, 2012

Mythbusters Live
Saturday March 24th, 2012

Noel Gallagher
Wednesday March 28th, 2012

Savion Glover
Friday March 30th – Saturday March 31, 2012

The Fresh Beat Band
Sunday April 1st, 2012

Incognito
Tuesday April 3rd, 2012

Creed
Tuesday April 24th, 2012

Rodrigo Y Gabriela & C.U.B.A.
Wednesday April 25th, 2012

Human Nature
Friday April 27th, 2012

Marcel Khalife
Saturday April 28th, 2012

Go to our tickets page to reserve tickets for any of these performances.

Seventy Landscapes from America’s Portraitist

Annie Liebovitz is best known for her exquisitely staged portraits of American pop icons like John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Linda Ronstadt, Demi Moore, and Fleetwood Mac. For the last two years, however, she has been shooting landscapes, and the result is 70 new photographs displayed in a new show for the Smithsonian American Art Museum. All the works on display will be acquired by the museum for its permanent collection. The show opens Friday. The museum is open from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, and admission is free.

Three Ballets from a Legendary Troupe

The 200-year-old Mariinsky Ballet Company (perhaps more widely known as the Kirov, its name under Soviet rule) is responsible for some of the greatest ballet artists ever to emerge from Russia, including such eternal stars as Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky. This week at the Kennedy Center, from Tuesday through Sunday, its dancers will perform three works choreographed for the company by Mikhail Fokine in 1909 and 1910: Frédéric Chopin’s Chopiniana, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, and Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with 1:30 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday, and tickets run from $29 to $150.

Four Plays Opening Everywhere

This weekend sees four new productions raising their curtains at once, so theater lovers have plenty to choose from. On Tuesday, the Shakespeare Theater Company will debut the farcical Two Gentlemen of Verona, which will run until March 4. Shows are at the Lansburgh Theater at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday and at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m., and tickets cost from $39 to $95. (Discount tickets are also available for select performances.)

Also on Tuesday the Kennedy Center is opening La Cage aux Folles, a revival of the 1983 musical that spawned the movie The Birdcage. Shows are at 7:30 Tuesday through Sunday, with 1:30 p.m. matinees on the weekend, and tickets are $65 to $130. The production will run until February 12.

On Friday, the Arena Stage launches Red, the 2010 Tony winner for Best Play, an examination of Mark Rothko at a moment of artistic and personal crisis. This weekend’s shows are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, though after this weekend, until March 4, there will also be shows Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tickets are $40.

Finally, this Saturday the Keegan Theater premieres Neil Simon’s sharp look inside the TV writer’s room Laughter on the 23rd Floor. This weekend’s shows are 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, and a Thursday through Sunday schedule in coming weeks, until the play closes February 18. Tickets are $30 or $35.

The 19th Annual NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo is this weekend at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC. This annual event is your chance to learn about your health, and have some fun! There are activities, health screenings, demos, giveaways, celebrity appearances, and much more! Check out NBC4′s web site for all of the details.

What:
NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo

Where:
Walter E. Washington Convention Center
Halls B & C
901 Mount Vernon Place NW
Washington, D.C.

When:
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
9am-5pm each day

Admission:
Free!

Yum!

This is Restaurant Week in metropolitan Washington, the perfect time to get out and sample new food. Over 200 restaurants are participating this year, with three-course prix-fixe lunches at $20.12 per person and dinners at $35.12 per person. The Restaurant Week website lists all establishments involved, with links to the menu options for most of them and easy online reservations through OpenTable for nearly all.

Or, for a high art dining experience—and a decidedly more expensive one—you could check out Food Meets Art: Recipes Inspired by Alice B. Toklas at Artisphere in Arlington, VA. Pop-up anti-restaurateur Carole Wagner Greenwood of Orange Arrow will be offering a meal that follows not only the recipes used by Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein at their famous Paris salon, but also Toklas’ very specific instructions for food presentation and consumption. The event starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are $150.

Vroom!

Like bikes? Really like bikes? Well, hundreds of the latest sportbikes, dirt bikes, cruisers, scooters, custom bikes, ATVs, and more will be on display when the Progressive International Motorcycle Show takes over the Washington Convention Center. Alongside bikes by Honda, Harley Davidson, Triumph, and the like, you can get up-close looks at some of the world’s most adored luxury bikes from makers like Aprilia, Beta, and Ducati. There’s also tons of gear to buy, a stunt show by the Smage Brothers, and the chance to digitally personalize your very own Kawasaki. The show is open from 4 to 9 p.m. on Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. A one-day ticket is free for children under 5, $6 for kids ages 6 to 11, $13 for adults if purchased in advance, or $15 at the door. Three-day passes are also available, $10 for kids 6 to 11, $30 for adults.

Funk!

Bootsy Collins is a living funk legend: he played with James Brown in the 1960s, Parliament/Funkadelic in the 1970s, and even Deee-Lite in the 1990s. He is perhaps the greatest funk bassist of all time, he’s certainly the greatest wearer of star-shaped sunglasses of all time, and he’s playing the State Theater in Falls Church, VA this Friday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $40 for anyone over 18 ready to shake some booty.