Steppenwolf Theatre presents DANCE NATION Review

Messiness on Steppenwolf’s pristine stage

The show opens with a standard tap number that the “kids” execute with age-appropriate skill. That is to say, not with so much finesse that we don’t believe them as small-town pre-teens and not so little that it’s embarrassing to watch their moves. But again, though consumed by it, DANCE NATION isn’t really about dance. The pristine wooden floor of DANCE NATION’s set fills quickly with outsized emotions and unruly bodily fluids. For all the order that ultra-serious Dance Teacher Pat (Tim Hopper) imposes on his team, messiness reigns.

In a production with sparse scenic elements, the most evocative is an illuminated moon suspended from the ceiling that enters and exits at significant moments. The power of lunar phases plays out among the young girls. Discovering their womanhood in some fairly graphic ways, one explores masturbation techniques, another gets her period just as the group goes onstage, another becomes so fraught, she bites her arm till it bleeds. Imaginations run wild, whether it’s one girl’s elaborate description of her power to fly or another girl’s detailed plan for her loss of virginity.

Strange interludes in DANCE NATION

Playwright Barron has embedded strange interludes into a basic plot that centers on preparing a dance about Gandhi and presenting it in the various stages of competition. Zuzu (Caroline Neff) isn’t the best dancer in the group but she burns with passion – both her own and her cancer-battling mother’s – and wins a solo from Dance Teacher Pat. Amina (Karen Rodriguez), on the other hand, has natural talent, enormous ambition and, most importantly, the single-mindedness necessary for success.

Neff and Rodriguez channel early adolescent mannerisms and its intensity so well, it conjured some uncomfortable memories for this viewer. Shanesia Davis as fellow dancer Ashlee has an out-there monologue about her beauty and brains that could only come from a mind supercharged on pubescent hormones.

DANCE NATION has a lurid wackiness that, in this reviewer’s opinion, might not appeal to all tastes. Girls discovering the power of their pussies is a very big theme. The heartless ignoring of physical and emotional injuries is constant. Departures from reality come without explanation. But there’s no doubt about the bigness of DANCE NATION’s vision. Gripped by nature, the young people onstage are starting life with a shriek.