I chose not to read the trigger warnings listed on the Coal Mine website for Dance Nation.
I don’t have experience with professional dance competitions, so I can’t speak to what might be going on behind the scenes. However, I have seen other adults in the school setting who speak to youth in a manner comparable to the narcissistic, belittling Dance Teacher Pat (Salvatore Antonio). He pushes these fragile young people in the play to do what he believes is best, as did those teacher(s) from my instructional days.
The connecting and unsettling similarities are remarkable. That’s what I bring with me to this production.
Under Diana Bentley’s sensational direction, Clare Barron’s blistering satirical Middle America comedy Dance Nation focuses on a local dance troupe of thirteen-year-olds as they prepare a new routine to get to the State Finals in Tampa Bay, Florida. There are seven young girls, with a token boy, Luke, whom the girls treat as one of them.
The performance begins in The Vault, upstairs from Coal Mine’s downstairs theatre. Nick Blais cleverly designs and vibrantly lights two distinct sets. In The Vault, he creates an elongated runway that spans the length of the playing space, with two openings at each end for actors to enter. Downstairs, Blais designs a circular set for the dance competition. It’s a tight squeeze upstairs and downstairs, but the entire space is fully occupied in both. The stage is circular. Kathleen Black designs appropriate dancewear for all the characters. Miquelon Rodriguez’s selection of music for the show is top-notch, especially in the second act with the dance routine of ‘World on Fire’.
Amid the comic moments, there are some extremely dark elements. The play opens with the performers tap dancing in sailors’ costumes. Their feet and arms swing wildly. One of the ‘kids’ goes down as she’s suffered a severe compound fracture that is graphic to watch from my seat in the house. What happens? The others leave her because they’re grossed out by the sight of their ‘friend’s’ injury, leaving the poor young person alone, trying to breathe before help arrives.
Some of Toronto’s finest artists capture “the spirit of a 13-year-old still inside them,” as Clare Barron says. She also says in the programme that her play is about how being a teenager “affects one’s life and how much the peers and adults you meet as a teenager shape you.”
Director Bentley and Movement Director Alyssa Martin marvellously bring out the nitty-gritty, rawness of the 13-year-old spirit in this terrific cast, who beautifully embody the play’s demands, showing that competitive dance requires everything from its participants, often to the point of exhaustion and body-shaming from adults and peers. The cast’s performance of the competition dance in the second act is often ridiculous. It’s captured with joyful glee because the actors know they’re not thirteen and that it’s okay to perform with youthful abandon. This terrific ensemble never loses that youthful vulnerability amid the dance’s hilarity.
The strong, genuine-sounding ensemble work is most definitely worthy of a standing ovation at the curtain call. When the girls are in the locker room, their discussions range from the graphic talk kids usually have, but they appear to be in a normal tone and on a normal subject for them. From an audience perspective, it’s quite colourful, so please be aware. What made me smile is the placement of the lone boy, Luke (Oliver Dennis), who’s set apart from the other girls. When you see the show, you will get the humour behind why Luke is placed where he is.
After seeing Dance Nation, I spoke with some people involved in dance competitions and asked whether that kind of treatment exists.
I was met with a resounding YES.
Now that I know, Dance Nation takes on new meaning for me. Antonio’s Pat serves as a sharp satirical element, highlighting what might need to be fixed in adults who believe they are doing what is best for kids.
It also makes me realize how important and valid background checks are for adults who should not be working with young people at all.
Dance Nation is one of the best plays in Toronto right now.
Please see it.
Running time: approximately two hours and 15 minutes with one interval/intermission
Dance Nation runs to May 10 at Coal Mine Theatre, 2076 Danforth Avenue, Toronto. For tickets: coalminetheatre.com.
COAL MINE THEATRE, ROCK BOTTOM MOVEMENT and OUTSIDE THE MARCH present
Dance Nation by Clare Barron
Directed by Diana Bentley
Set and Lighting Design: Nick Blais
Costume Design: Kathleen Black
Sound Design: Miquelon Rodriquez
Intimacy Director: Chala Hunter
Movement Director: Alyssa Martin
Stage Manager: Katie Fitz-Gerald
Performers: Salvatore Antonio, Katherine Cullen, Oliver Dennis, Amy Keating, Beck Lloyd, Amy Matysio, Zorana Sadiq, Jean Yoon
