The Salem witch trials, which took place from 1692 to 1693, will be forever fascinating. Modern scholarship has found explanations for this moment of mass hysteria in contexts psychological, economic, political, and gender-related. For instance, Arthur Miller’s 1953 play, The Crucible, which looks at a Puritan community of that time, uses the story as a way to dramatize McCarthyism in midcentury America. For the Scottish Ballet, the choreographer Helen Pickett created a new work based on Miller’s play. It premiered in 2019 at the Edinburgh International Festival, winning raves from The Guardian. The Scottish Ballet now brings The Crucible to the Kennedy Center, where it will have its East Coast premiere. —L.J.