With monuments and museums, Washington, D.C. is a haven for history buffs. But what do most of us really know about Virginia?

The Kathy Harty Gray Dance Theatre will combine a history lesson with dance with two performances of “Women in Virginia and Other Favorites” this weekend at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria campus.

The performance will include excerpts of the company’s touring program “Stories to Remember about Women in Virginia”, which covers 400 years of history, and transports the audience through tales of women who were born or worked in Virginia. While many of the events are truly not of our time – the settlement of Jamestown and the American Civil War, for example – the end of the program brings the audience closer to the present with the music of Patsy Cline and Ella Fitzgerald, both Virginia natives.

This Alexandria-based professional modern dance company is known for its education and outreach efforts. Artistic Director Kathy Harty Gray began researching the history of women in Virginia with the intent of preparing something for the Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of Jamestown settlement.

“We decided to do the story in chronological order and it started to be very intriguing and we kept embellishing the project,” said Gray. “I knew Patsy Cline was from Virginia but I never knew Ella Fitzgerald was from Newport News.”