Wolf Trap: Even before I started working for my current employer (who occasionally gives away box seats), I enjoyed going to Wolf Trap. In the summer, it's great to go with friends and spread a blanket on the lawn to take in a performance. I have experienced Nanci Griffith, the Chieftains, Pat Metheny, and Phillip Glass there, but so far my favorite performances have been The Passion of Joan of Arc (a silent movie with a live chorale) and Pilobolus, an inventive dance troupe: Some of their pieces are funny, but the one I love the most centers around an astronaut who crash-lands and tries to learn the "language" of the strange but beautiful community he finds.
Kathy Rose: Kabuki-Menco Visual Theatre (Hirshorn, part of the DC FilmFest April/May timeframe): Dancers performed with films sometimes projected on them, sometimes on the screen behind them. People left during every break, but I actually really liked two of their pieces. In one, insect-like humanoids perform some sort of alien rite, sometimes walking along tunnels projected on the screen, sometimes surrounded by hundreds of tiny bugs. It was a real work of imagination, and would gone over really big at some sf cons I've attended. I also liked one piece that had just one dancer moving around in this magical garment that was sometimes a smoky brown, sometimes a brilliant gold (later, she held up a shimmery copper cloth and danced behind it), but didn't understand why they didn't cite the Martha Grahame influence, since they made a lot of other citations in their programme. Some of the other pieces had nice bits, but needed a director to say "If they haven't got the point by now they're dead, move ON already!"
Cirque du Soleil: Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton sat about 8 rows in front of me when I attended the next-to-last DC performance of "Allegria" by this Montreal performance troupe. I could have done without the lumpy mutant clowns and the creepy Siamese contortionists, but otherwise I enjoyed the show (tumblers, tightropes, trapezists, etc.). I read they've hired a world-class juggler, so I might see them when they come back.
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones: performed at the Frederick County Fairgrounds one perfect Saturday afternoon. I'm leery of musical terms, but I guess you could call them bluegrass jazz. Cleansing, healing, enlivening music.
Le Ballet National du Senegal: The jewel of the Senegalese (and perhaps West African) dance scene performed at George Mason University. They blended ballet and their own local moves to create energetic and lovely dances. The director of the dance spoke beforehand.
The MCI sports arena is a good venue for performances (the seating is well-designed for good views, and it's only 10 feet away from a metro stop on the red line). The only spectator sport I really follow is ice skating, and it's a great place for watching that. The night I went, I got a ticket right at showtime, and got a seat only 11 rows from the front, and watched some of my favorite and, if not favorite, famous, ice skaters (Kurt Browning, Brian Boitano, Rudy Galindo, Victor Petrenko, Ekaterina Gordeeva, Kristi Yamaguchi, Denise Bielman, Josee Chouinard, Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiul).