Designing Dance Nation
Set and costume designer Jonathon Oxlade talks through the creative process behind Dance Nation, Clare Barron’s award-winning satire of ambition.
“Clare Barron has written an incredibly visceral and visual text. It jumps and cuts almost like a screenplay. Images jump off the page. It hums with the past and has the ability to timewarp into the future. It’s nimble, complex and layered. The visual design needed to capture this energy, but also give the audience something organised and regimented to hang from; something that we recognise, something we return to, something that feels grounding and safe.
We elaborated on that idea of giving the audience a safe foundation by telling the story from a singular, psychological dance studio. It becomes the training ground and the battleground — a space that transforms and shifts between the past and the future, a space that is less literal and one that sits inside a feeling and intuitive space.
When Imara, Alex and I were creating the overall aesthetic of Dance Nation, we were drawn to images from all corners; the high school in the film Carrie, American pop video clips with a cheerleader edge, lycanthropy, sports photography, and of course the television series Dance Moms.
All of these things had a thread through them. They all speak to the idea of the singular within the majority; the team, and the breaking away from it. We decided to strip away the majority of the characters ‘visual’ individual personalities, giving them a team uniform, organising them and making them part of the whole. This — hopefully — works to amplify the moment a character breaks away from that team.
Overall, the staging can take us from isolation to camaraderie, the mundane to the bizarre, all in a matter of minutes. It’s an echo of adolescence, in a way.”
Dance Nation plays at Scott Theatre from 21 Feb — 7 Mar. Tickets at https://statetheatrecompany.com.au/shows/dance-nation/
