Dance Nation NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (114)
See it if You enjoyed The Wolves. Want to see a funny, sad, and powerful depiction of pre-teen girls' lives
Don't see it if You are easily offended by profanity, nudity, or talk about bodily functions Read more
See it if you live for Dance Moms drama or want to see a hilarious and relevant new play by a female playwright about women.
Don't see it if you're uncomfortable with discussions of bodies and all the things that preteen girls go through.
See it if You’d enjoy an insightful satire of Dance Moms exploring girls finding themselves & their power through dance.
Don't see it if Nudity, rough language, natural body functions, etc. bother you. Also girls played by women of all ages, except teen. Dance Moms on steroids
See it if you want a palate cleanser after all the Broadway (and Off Broadway) schlock that's been shoved down your throat recently
Don't see it if You hate vaginas. This play is about vaginas, and periods, and bodies, and dreams, and how we treat them. And it's GLORIOUS.
See it if you have an arts background, you like kids, you're young at heart, you're willing to be challenged at the theatre
Don't see it if you are averse to coarse language, or if you are expecting a piece of fluff, it's really fun - but it's also quite profound - I loved it
See it if You're ready to embrace raw, feminine power. Bonus chuckles and poignant moments if you were a female dancer in your youth.
Don't see it if You don't like frank talk, nudity, or womanhood.
See it if You enjoy a very original, funny and touching play that expresses the hopes, fears, imagination and confusion of adolescent girls.
Don't see it if You are embarrassed by or unwilling to hear about the things you know young girls think and talk about.
See it if you want to see a highly original play with a stellar cast and innovative staging. Claire Barron is a writer to keep your eye on!
Don't see it if you have no interest in adolescent girls slowly discovering their sexuality.
Critic Reviews (25)
“Conjures the passionate ambivalence of early adolescence with such being-there sharpness and poignancy that you’re not sure whether to cringe, cry or roar with happiness...Blazingly original and unsettlingly familiar...Cuts to the bone...A fearless cast, directed and choreographed with gloriously rough magic...The fact that the actresses playing these girls are adults...makes this latest work a memory play — and a reminder of how impossible it is to escape the way we were.”
Read more
"Ferociously funny...Barron’s riotous, rattling, sensational new play...The kids are played by adults of varying ages...They sometimes break out of their time frame to share perspectives they will have years later. The effect of this doubleness is often hilarious—the actors’ dance skills also vary—but also poignant...Wondrous ensemble cast...Sharp direction...Has a pussy-power message, it is anything but fearless. It embraces fear, hugs it tight, and channels it into a queasy kind of triumph.”
Read more
“If you were ever a 13-year-old girl, Clare Barron’s daring, raw ‘Dance Nation' will probably hit you hard. If you weren’t, the play might feel like strange, even somewhat disturbing terrain, but I’d urge you to venture in all the same...A brave, visceral, excitingly off-kilter barbaric yawp of a play. It’s angry and it’s sad. It’s brash and it’s funny. And it gets at something excruciatingly tender: the burden of modesty on young American women.”
Read more
“Fearless and funny but frustrating...Avoids the typical pitfalls when adult actors play pre-teens...The work is bold, with ample profanity and flashes of nudity. But it trips up because it's too freewheeling for its own good...Subjects are raised and quickly abandoned. The tone shifts willy nilly...It's okay for a play to be messy, but Barron's work self-sabotages...Despite flaws, the show is uniformly terrifically acted...Most effective and eloquent when it's silent.”
Read more
“The seriousness with which each battle is approached is one of the things that makes playwright Barron’s exhilarating ‘Dance Nation’ so good, especially in director/choreographer Evans' spot-on production. The point isn't to watch the play hoping they win. You just want to see them all get out of it alive...The young girls - and one boy...are all played by adults...thus we see the parallels between the issues they face as children and those that await them in adulthood.”
Read more
"What seems at first like a cutesy affectation soon comes across as the only sensible way of presenting a play about young people that includes nudity and frank discussions of puberty and sexuality...The director's skill with the material is especially fortunate, since the script has it ragged moments and dead ends, as well bits of humor that don't quite land...The cast is totally on their playwright's wavelength."
Read more
“Zuzu forgets her steps and freezes at a competition, setting up all kinds of trust and self-image conflicts that lack payoff. It's that kind of sloppiness that bothers me, along with the too-in-your-face sexuality...That said, Barron and Evans do conjure up some convincing moments...Barron has provocative things to say about how society turns many kids' formative years into nightmares...But teen bonding, peer shaming, and authority-figure bullying? You'll have a better time at 'Mean Girls.'"
Read more
“The playwright interweaves her very funny play with topics that some might find out of bounds...Be prepared to be challenged...By presenting us with a wildly non-realistic dance team, Barron can slather on layers of fun, satire and incisive social commentary. The wildly nontraditional casting works well, with director Lee Sunday Evans perfectly illuminating the lives of the characters and providing the amusingly artless choreography as well. The cast is universally fine."
Read more