Dance Nation

by Clare Barron

Somewhere in America, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plots to take over the world. And if their new routine is good enough, they'll claw their way to the top at Nationals in Tampa Bay. A play about ambition, growing up, and how to find our souls in the heat of it all.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Fiction, Read For School, Young Adult, Coming Of Age

108 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2018

About the author

Clare Barron is a playwright and actor from Wenatchee, Washington. She won the 2015 Obie Award for Playwriting for You Got Older. She was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dance Nation.

Source: Wikipedia

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Nya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish my soul was as perfect as my PUSSY

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

I pretty much detested Barron's previous play (You Got Older), and wasn't planning on reading this one, despite some rapturous reviews - but then it had to go and be a finalist for the Pulitzer...so I had to read it. It is odd that it even got nominated, since it is virtually the same play that was also a finalist for the Pulitzer in 2017: Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves - merely substituting a dance troupe for a soccer team.

All the same concerns are on tap here, including the seemingly obligatory discussion of tampons vs. pads. Barron at least reins in her more excessive and nonsensical stage directions a mite (although she still has her characters do impossible to stage things like eat light bulbs and chew gaping holes in their arms) ... but at least this made slightly more sense. One very odd decision is that the playwright states that the characters, even though all are supposedly teenagers - could be played by actors anywhere from 12 to 75 - I am sure that would be extraordinarily confusing for the audience - just saying.

It would be fun to see a production, but I will reiterate something I've said before - Bruce Norris got robbed that his stellar Downstate didn't win the Pulitzer this year - and was not even a finalist. Egregious and outrageous! :-(

[Danny Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I had words, they would be here, but I don't. Unlike anything I've read in a very long time. Read it and don't stop until you have finished the whole thing. Let it take you like a tidal wave.

[AR · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I would feel differently if I saw it staged, but this one just didn’t do it for me. There’s certainly stuff to like here, with some cool stage directions and monologues, yet I feel like it ultimately fell short of its potential. There are obvious similarities to The Wolves, but unlike that play there is no real sense of full circle. Maybe that’s the point, but it feels rushed in its execution and like we didn’t get to really see everything we needed to in order for the themes and character arcs to be effective. I don’t expect a tidy ending when reading a play, but I expect an ending that feels earned.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

dance moms but it's adults pretending to be 13

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A full-throttled, tender and vicious stunner. Captures so much of the violent possibility of being a teen—and especially a teen girl—capable of seizing the world by the throat and sinking fangs into it, facing heartbreak around the corner.

Second read, 4/30: It's still brilliant and provocative in its position about the loneliness of accomplishment. Would LOVE to see the end of the show.

[emily schacht♥️ · Rating 1 out of 5]

ew. did not enjoy at all.

[John Perine · Rating 4 out of 5]

um literally what. Kind of obsessed. Reminded me of what I love about We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry.

[juch · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10. Thanks Michelle and Daniel for organizing this play reading

Thinking about Luke’s dreamy monologue about driving, being powerful and powerless, being feral, font and formatting in plays that you read aloud, dance teacher pat of course

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'm so mixed on clare barron, like this has interesting moments but i think the result of my reading this immediately after reading THE WOLVES yesterday is that i felt like i had a better grasp on the interiority of the characters in THE WOLVES than i did in DANCE NATION, while DANCE NATION seems to be trying very hard to express that interiority, if that makes sense. i think i just tend to check out sometimes when there's a very conscious "here's a monologue about my internal THOUGHTS" departure and there's a lot of that in this play that made me feel less invested. i can imagine this being more of an experience to see it staged but i saw barron's SHHHH earlier this year and felt similarly about that, so i don't know.

[Kate Cross · Rating 4 out of 5]

honestly i thought this was kind of derivative during the first few scenes so i was delighted when it ended up being one of the most singular and bizarre pieces of theatre i've ever encountered. definitely warmed up more and more to it as it got much much weirder and grosser and meaner while also being strangely affecting. i don't even have a clue as to how you'd stage this and i don't know that i want to know.

[Samira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written and interesting but not as fleshed out as I’d like. Often felt like it was clearly written by an adult reflecting on girlhood which is fine and valid I guess.

[Pimper reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow encapsulates everything it means to be a prepubescent dancer in the competition world in the most wild ways. The stage directions are so insane I would have to see this staged.

[jamiereads92 · Rating 5 out of 5]

insane take on girlhood in competitive dance i could write an entire essay on this play

[•Qezia• · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I wish that my soul were as perfect as my pussy”
Made me understand Aristotle’s catharsis on a physical level I fear.

[Kira · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this?!?! Love a play that makes me say HUH and also WOW and that I immediately can’t stop thinking about. This takes big swings and I love it. If it’s this affecting on the page, I can only imagine what it’s like in performance. Look what happens when we center girls in pieces of art!! We learn so much about the human condition!! Very inspired by this, will be thinking about it for a long time.

[Kate Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

love! silly and intense and bloody and WEIRD about preteen girls. very emily axford "dreams get thinner once you reach puberty" core. also the undergrads hated it because of how much it talks about pussy, which is so funny

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve got complicated feelings!

[Lily Piper · Rating 4 out of 5]

i am obsessed

[Max Borowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishingly original and fresh- feels VERY of-it’s-time but in a beautiful way. I wish I heard these words for the first time live, but what a special experience to read!

[matt shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

soooo beautifulllll perfect yeahhhh

[Loane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious. Dance moms esque. I hate doing choreographed dance myself but I’m happy others like it

[laila* · Rating 5 out of 5]

big thanks to sophie for making me read this. it is the most refreshing thing i’ve read in so long oh my god

[Thalia]

so truly weird but also made me feel…

mostly sad lol

[char!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fun! So exciting! So bold! I can’t wait to stage it

[Lynn wilcox · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very reductive in regards to feminist thought.. like jokes were not funny to me on the page. Also just felt flat overall, did not capture the horror of being in a dance studio as a young girl!!

Edit: Ok the play was so much better so I’m less judgmental now 🫶

[Marina ☕️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is bonkers & outrageously hilarious 😂

[Kayla Reifel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my god wow. One of the best things I have ever read. If u are a woman alive today you need to read

[belle · Rating 4 out of 5]

holy shit this was so good!! basically yellowjackets if it was a play and they were all dancers instead of a soccer team and there was no plan crash. ashlee’s monologue lives rent-free in my head and i will definitely be using it for future auditions. i would kill to see a live production of this actually.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the formatting, annoying when the reviews r like "how r they gonna stage this" ... who cares you are not the director my friend. This is kind of so real abt doing art ... but I think it's cool when girls try to gnaw their own arms off