DANCE NATION at Coal Mine Theatre Offers New Immersive Dance Experience in April
The production will make its professional Toronto debut beginning April 12th at the east end theatre and running to May 3rd.
This April, COAL MINE THEATRE and OUTSIDE THE MARCH are teaming up in association with Rock Bottom Movement to make immersive use of the entire COAL MINE building for the first time in the company's history. Clare Barron's 2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winner – also a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama – DANCE NATION will make its professional Toronto debut beginning April 12th at the east end theatre and running to May 3rd.
Resuming an award-winning collaboration that began with COAL MINE's 2025 production of Duncan Macmillan's PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS, DANCE NATION is directed by COAL MINE co-founder Diana Bentley with movement direction by Rock Bottom Movement's Alyssa Martin. Their production of PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS dominated the Independent Theatre Division at last year's Doras winning Outstanding Production, Direction (Diana Bentley & Alyssa Martin), Performance by an Individual (Louise Lambert), and Ensemble Dora Awards.
A groundbreaking play about an army of pre-teen competitive dancers chasing a national championship win, DANCE NATION is a ferocious and darkly hilarious exploration of ambition, friendship, and the unbridled power of adolescent women. Of the many notable features of the play, most of the characters in the play range from 11-14 years of age but are played by adults of varying ages. Starring Salvatore Antonio (The Lion King), Katherine Cullen (A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney), Oliver Dennis (Witch), Amy Keating (The Flick), Beck Lloyd (Slave Play), Annie Luján (Monks), Amy Matysio (The Bidding War), Zorana Sadiq (Comfort Food), and Jean Yoon (Infinite Life), the production will inhabit both floors of the building with Bentley and Martin working with OUTSIDE THE MARCH to develop an unforgettable immersive experience.
“I am overjoyed that OUTSIDE THE MARCH and COAL MINE THEATRE are joining forces for this immersive production of Clare Barron's DANCE NATION,” shares director Diana Bentley. “As soon as COAL MINE took the whole building over, Mitchell Cushman [OtM Artistic Director] and I started dreaming of a project that would make use of both the upstairs (now The Vault Creation Lab) and the downstairs. DANCE NATION is the perfect show for our companies to join forces on and bring this immersive dream to life.”
She continues, “And there is no play like DANCE NATION. There is absolutely nothing in the theatrical canon that is so sensitive, so vulnerable, so ecstatic, and so explosive, and that explores themes of femininity (and growing up female) so delicately and intensely as Clare Barron does. More than ever, women need a space where we can come and feel seen and witness ourselves. Alyssa and I –and this dream cast and creative team– are going to be very bold in our interpretation of this incredible play. Audiences can expect to leave this show with their jaws on the floor…out of breath…hearts opened wide.”
OUTSIDE THE MARCH Artistic Producer and DANCE NATION associate director Lucy Coren shares: “Since OtM Artistic Council members Amy Keating and Katherine Cullen first brought DANCE NATION to us several years ago now, we have been haunted by its power, its ferocity, its tenderness. In Clare Barron's staggering stream-of-consciousness form we are catapulted inside, alongside, beside a group of women haunted by their 13-year-old competitive dancer selves as they expand and contract around their experience of growing into womanhood. We are beyond excited to finally be able to share this world, led by the inimitable directorial team of Diana and Alyssa, and to immersively transform Coal Mine with our newly acquired Outfit the March equipment. We'll leave you with these words from Ashlee (who you'll soon come to know and love), ‘I wonder what would happen if I really went for it… like really went for it… what am I going to do with all this power…' Get ready. Strap in. See you soon.”
COAL MINE Artistic Director Ted Dykstra adds, “What a fantastic way to end a fantastic season. DANCE NATION is a high octane, fever dream of great humour, power, energy and insight into so many aspects of being human. In this case young and human, and mostly female. Clare Barron's brilliant idea to have older bodies play these girls is as profound as it is sometimes hilarious. And to have Diana Bentley and Alyssa reunited at the helm after their unforgettable debut as a team with People, Places, and Things last year, I couldn't be more excited. Welcome, too, of course, to the OUTSIDE THE MARCH team - we're thrilled to have your much-loved brand in our building!”
DANCE NATION received its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in May 2018 and subsequently its UK premiere at the Almeida Theatre in London. It was a 2019 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and is the recipient of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and The Relentless Award established in honour of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Clare Barron is a playwright, performer, and screenwriter from Wenatchee, Washington, whose other plays include: YOU GOT OLDER, which received two Obie Awards for Playwriting and Performance, a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Play, and was a Susan Smith Blackburn finalist and the #1 most-recommended play on the Kilroys' List; I'LL NEVER LOVE AGAIN (The Bushwick Starr); and BABY SCREAMS MIRACLE (Clubbed Thumb; Woolly Mammoth). Barron recently wrote on the acclaimed FX television adaptation of the non-fiction book SAY NOTHING.
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