Ellen Maddow Videos

Steppenwolf Theatre Company presents the Chicago premiere production of Pulitzer Prize Finalist Dance Nation by Clare Barron, directed and choreographed by Lee Sunday Evans.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is now in rehearsals with Pulitzer Prize Finalist Dance Nation by Clare Barron, directed and choreographed by Lee Sunday Evans. Steppenwolf's production features ensemble members Audrey Francis (The Moms/Vanessa), Tim Hopper (Dance Teacher Pat), Caroline Neff (Zuzu), and Karen Rodriguez (Amina) with Ariana Burks (Sofia), Adithi Chandrashekar (Connie), Shanésia Davis (Ashlee), Torrey Hanson (Luke) and Ellen Maddow (Maeve). A success-driven pre-teen dance troupe finds themselves trying to understand their ambition, insecurities, changing bodies, rivalries and friendships while exploring the desires, confusion and sometimes feral nature of adolescence.

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 the Boogie Down Grand Prix in Tampa Bay. But in Clare Barron's raucous pageant of ambition and ferocity, these young dancers have more than choreography on their minds, because every plie andjete is a step toward finding themselves, and a fight to unleash their power.