Dance Nation

York Theatre to May 11, 2025

Tickets from $29 at 604-251-1363 or www.thecultch.com

Posted April 27, 2025

Dance Nation, presented by The Search Party (Vancouver) and masterfully directed by Mindy Parfitt, is a first-rate production of Clare Barron’s Pulitzer Prize-finalist for Drama (2019). With excellent lighting by Itai Erdal, choreography by Amber Barton, set design by Amir Ofek, costume design by Jessica Oostergo, sound design by Kate De Lorme and a terrific cast of nine, it has everything going for it.

So why didn’t it really click for me? Many, many years ago I was a thirteen-year-old girl and some years ago my daughters were thirteen. So why didn’t Dance Nation, about a group of thirteen-year-old dance students, resonate with me?

Obviously, part of the problem is that the characters, all extremely well-defined in this production, are played by adult actors. But the-way-we-were is a slippery thing and memory is selective. Can we ever escape who we were at thirteen and can we really remember what it was like? Both are true.

In the play, six Liverpool, Ohio teens (played by Tess Degenstein, Liza Huget, Rami Kahlon, Nyiri Karakas and Amanda Sum), one boy (Nathan Kay) and their dance teacher (Todd Thomson) prepare for an upcoming national dance competition. If they win in Akron they go on to New Jersey and, finally, to Tampa Bay, Florida. The thought of going to Tampa Bay sends the group into howling, jumping-up-and-down hysterics. You’d think it was a free pass to Heaven.

But, damn, the piece they’re going to be performing, choreographed by over-bearing Dance Teacher Pat, is about the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi. Really?  For a troupe of teens? And who will be chosen to dance Gandhi? The best dancer? That would have to be Amina (Nyiri Karakas), they all agree. Oh, but there’s also going to be the Spirit of Gandhi and that’s the choice role. Enter anxiety, pressure, competition, betrayal and broken friendships.

Dance Nation also talks about masturbation (how to), onset of menstruation (right before performance and while wearing a pink leotard), their “pussies” (grab a mirror), falling in love and their loss of virginity (some time in the future).

Jennifer Copping plays all the moms and the most touching of these vignettes are Zuzu’s (Sum) hoping to dance away her mother’s cancer and Luke’s (Kay) memory of riding/sleeping in the car at night with his mom at the wheel. Interestingly, there is no mention at all of any of their fathers.

Liza Huget, as Ashlee, pulls off an amazing, lengthy celebration of teen-girl power – “I think I might be frickin’ gorgeous” and “I’m frickin’ good at math”, ending with “because you’re all my mother-frickin’ bitches”. Not in my memory is there even a smidgeon of that sense of empowerment. We were all a shivering mess of self-consciousness, trying hard to be like everyone else. Bravado came later, if at all.

Two memories of mine come to mind: my then-teenaged daughter’s sleepover at our long-ago summer cottage. Six or seven naked, skinny- dipping girls all complaining about their thin legs, their big ears, their flat chests, their hair, their knees – on and on and on. At thirteen or fourteen they didn’t know they were all absolutely beautiful. Memory #2: the girl we all wanted to be – pretty, smart, athletic and rich – telling me at a reunion years later that it had taken years of therapy to survive her teen years.  I don’t remember any of us feeling particularly powerful. Not smart enough, not pretty enough. Not enough.

I admire Dance Nation and the courage and commitment that it took to resurrect the actors’ own teenaged selves. The production is great, the performers (none of whom identifies as a dancer) carve out each character with care, humour and sensitivity. I’d recommend you take your young, dance student teenaged son or daughter but be aware the show is recommended for 15+.  For a really positive review of the play, check out the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/theater/review-dance-nation-clare-barron.html. It’s a rave.

 I’m glad I saw it and there’s much to like about it, but Dance Nation just didn’t fire on all cylinders for my once-and-never-again-thirteen self.