The curtain never rises on Clare Barron’s ferocious, Pulitzer-finalist play Dance Nation. The lights come on and they are simply there, so many of them: sailors, tapping their hearts out with militant glee, their eyes piercing the space like periscopes looking farther into a landscape than their age or experience would seem to allow and undaunted by whatever lies in the darkness ahead. The unison is heartstopping, almost terrifying. They have trained long for this moment, and whether they succeed or fail, their courage will be remembered. But they are not seamen or soldiers. They are 13-year-old girls (mostly) on the Liverpool Dance Works team (that’s Liverpool, Ohio), and they are (sometimes) winners. One moment of silence for the fallen, here named Vanessa (Audrey Francis, who also plays all the moms), whom we will never see again.
Ellen Maddow as Maeve, the oldest member of the cast, still has the fragility of a teen scolded for forgetting her hair clips, still has the ambition to be an astrophysicist, and still contains the memory of what it is to fly. Ashlee (Shanésia Davis) roars with the savage energy of a phenomenal woman under the sheen of sweat of a girl not sure whether she’s allowed to find herself beautiful. And the drama that occurs when Zuzu gets cast as the soloist over her more gifted friend is only the beginning of the pain of an adult world of ambition and achievement.
Through 2/2: Tue 7:30 PM, Wed 2 and 7:30 PM, Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Sun 12/29 and ⅕, 7:30 PM; no shows Tue 12/24, Wed 12/25, or Wed 1/1, Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted, 312-335-1650, steppenwolf.org, $20-$94.
