Patrick Jordan’s barebones productions hasn’t shied away from visceral drama, but it has its hands full with Dance Nation, Clare Barron’s smart, funny and insightful play about the many sides of adolescence.
That stage of life when childhood slips away as hormones kick in is a time a lot of us would rather forget. However, Barron won’t let us, recreating it through the lives of six 13-year-old girls and one boy desperately trying to win dance competitions. They’re being whipped into shape by Dance Teacher Pat, who makes Abby Lee Miller look like a pussycat. (Be advised that the word “pussy” is a basic element of the play’s language.)
None of the actors is 13, though. Instead some are pushing 60, when the hopes and dreams of adolescence are only memories. As the dancers first assemble in Pat’s studio, the effect is disconcerting. What are veterans Lissa Brennan (Ashlee) and Cary Ann Spear (Maeve) doing here in their leotards?
The answer is that they are doing believable versions of teen girls. Brennan’s powerful and profane speech about the life force that surges through her young body rings out loudly in its possibilities, Spear’s moment comes in a quieter soliloquy touching on childhood magic and fantasy where she imagines flying. It’s Peter Pan mixing with Superwoman.
Barron captures these fleeting moments with sharpness and understanding. It’s tough to recall another example in the theater of her wise view of the hopes and dreams – and disappointments — of youth.
She knows that there’s always kids who are better than the rest and favored by the coaches, teachers and other adults. Dance Teacher Pat favors Amina, the lithe Liron Blumenthal, over the hard-working, less talented Zuzu, played by a poignant Hope Anthony whose confidence is fading as Amina is moved ahead.
As Pat, veteran David Conrad elevates Dance Nation a notch with a polished performance full of exaggerated seriousness about how the power of dance can transform his callow troupe into national stars. He stresses this lofty mission by creating a routine based on the life of Gandhi, somebody these kids barely heard of and, well, faintly ridiculous.
Barron structured her play with short scenes switching between the groups and solo moments, focusing on each dancer. Mei Lu Barnum and Mita Ghosal, hilarious in a Gandhi moustache, give us their private stories with strong emotional effect.
No story of a dance company is complete without mothers. Nancy McNulty plays a bunch, among them Zazu’s mom who has it out with Pat. She and Jerreme Rodriguez (Luke), the only guy in the class, have a tender moment in their car when it’s clear he’s still a child.
Director Melissa Martin keeps the actors on their toes, and not just mentally–she has smart choreography from Tome Cousin, a major player in the dance community here. Martin shows a sympathetic understanding of the struggles of young girls and it translates across the stage and into the audience.
Dance Nation is a great play that gets praiseworthy treatment from barebones.
Dance Nation plays at barebones productions’ Black Box Theater, 1211 Braddock Ave, Braddock through Dec. 15. Wednesday-Saturday, 8 p.m. Sunday, 3 p.m. For tickets and other information, visit barebones’ homepage.
Bob Hoover retired from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as its full-time book editor and drama editor in 2011 after 28 years with the newspaper. He continued to write part-time for the PG reviewing books, theater, and articles on literary, historical and local topics until 2014. Hoover has reviewed myriad entertainment productions from the circus to children’s theater in Pittsburgh, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Canada. As a book editor, he reviewed an average of 50 books a year, wrote regular columns on the local and national literary scene and organized and edited the newspaper’s weekly book section. He provided extensive coverage of Pittsburgh’s literary community as well as reporting on events, readings, and festivals around the country. Hoover was a theater journalism fellow at the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California and the winner of state and local writing awards.
Categories: Archived Reviews