In June, Nashville Story Garden pulled off one of the best productions of the year with Clare Barron’s Dance Nation, the story of a group of teenage girls (and one boy) in a dance class who awkwardly, hilariously figure out how to find their power. Directed by New York’s Rachel Dart, Dance Nation was an after-school special wrapped in a feminist zine folded in a soiled maxi pad — because there’s no shame in bleeding when you’re surrounded by your friends. Every member of the cast dazzled me: Jessica Anderson, Lauren Berst, Alicia Haymer, Melodie Madden Adams, Sejal Mehta, Evelyn O’Neal, Tamiko Robinson Steele, James Rudolph, Tamara Todres and Ted Welch. ERICA CICCARONE
