 Company presents Clare Barron's Dance Nation at the Alderney Landing Theatre in May.){kind=link}
Do you remember what it was like to be 13? Playwright Clare Barron does, and she wants you to relive the post-tween year with Dance Nation, coming to Dartmouth’s Alderney Landing in May from Halifax’s Keep Good (Theatre) Company.
It puts competition under a microscope and really talks about the nature of competition and its effects on us. – Laura Vingoe-Cram
In Dance Nation, a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in drama, Barron explores the complexities of early adolescence as she delves into the world of competitive dance by drawing inspiration from the reality TV show Dance Moms to tell the story of seven young competition dancers, all played by adults, as they prepare for a national dance final.
“It puts competition under a microscope and really talks about the nature of competition and its effects on us,” says the show’s director, Laura Vingoe-Cram.
“I think it’s about excellence and what it costs, and our relationship with excellence and what that word means and who gets to decide what it means,” adds actor Jade Douris-O’Hara.
Douris-O’Hara, who plays Amina, a young dancer grappling with the pressures of competition, brings a unique perspective to the play as she draws from her real-life experience as a competitive figure skater. “As a very young lady, I was in a very similar world,” she says. “And I think that is what is so beautiful about the play, as it captures so accurately what it feels like to be the person in it.”
Vingoe-Cram remembers the pressure to succeed, even at 13. “I remember doing a lot of musical theatre at that time and wanting the star roles,” she says. “The message I was receiving from society was you needed to get the starring part; otherwise, you’re not going to succeed in this business.”
Despite being based on the television reality show Dance Moms, Vingoe-Cram and Douris-O’Hara emphasized that prior knowledge of that show is unnecessary to appreciate the play. “You absolutely do not have to know the show Dance Moms to enjoy this,” says Vingoe-Cram. “Instead, the play offers a universal exploration of the teenage experience, regardless of your familiarity with the source material.”
Featuring a slate of actors aged 20 to 69, Vingoe-Cram says that tapping into their teenage psyche requires the cast to revisit personal experiences and emotions from that time. “The idea is that it’s a ghost play, and their older selves are haunting their younger bodies,” she says. ” I imagine it like being astral projected back to that time in their lives.”
For Douris-O’Hara, her approach involved stripping away adult perspectives and immersing herself in the text and music reminiscent of her adolescence. “Interestingly, I’d forgotten a lot about what it was like to be 13 until I started working on this play,” she says. “I think there’s something about that tumultuous time in life that causes us to forget.”
Vingoe-Cram says that the cast’s range of ages brings a different perspective from each actor. “I was talking with Mauralea [Austin], who is 69 and plays Maeve in the play, and she talked about how her experience of being 13 in the 70s is a lot different from Jade’s experience as a 13-year-old in the 90s.”
Not the first play to center on the teenage experience, other shows like The Wolves, Dry Land, Mean Girls and even The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee have all contributed to a growing recognition of the theatrical potential in exploring the complexities of adolescence.
“These topics were not deemed worthy of our stages, so it is great to see them flourish because it is such a tumultuous time in one’s life, so full of emotion and contradictions and ups and downs and extremes, and I think that’s why it’s so theatrical to explore them,” says Vingoe-Cram.
Because shows like Dance Nation reflect the teen experience, they delve into some heavy themes, including sexual assault, self-harm, suicide and mental illness. “I’m not saying 13-year-olds shouldn’t see it as it could be very enlightening, but it’s for anyone who’s been 13 and as an adult now looking back on that time in their life,” says Vingoe-Cram.
Calling it “a joyful and fierce disruption of the patriarchy and the systems that tell us we need to achieve in order to be worthy,” Vingoe-Cram and Douris-O’Hara both agree it will not only make you laugh and cry, audiences will also “experience a lot of joy.”
“It’s going to be one of the most exciting, interesting, and joyful nights you will have at the theatre,” says Douris-O’Hara.
Halifax’s Keep Good (Theatre) Company presents Clare Barron’s Dance Nation at the Alderney Landing Theatre from May 22-26. Visit keepgoodtheatrecompany.com for tickets and information.