Friends and Neighbors

Larissa Fasthorse is known today as a world-renowned playwright, with noteworthy works such as The Thanksgiving Play (recently seen on Broadway), a revised script for the current tour of Peter Pan, and For the People (which was co-written with Ty Dafoe and premiered at the Guthrie in 2023), but she got started as a ballerina. In her new autobiographical show, Fancy Dancer, Fasthorse tells her own story of chasing her dream of how working in ballet helped her find herself, and it’s an exhilarating and moving experience.

Lara (as she’s known within the play) tells of how a difficult early childhood left her with a deep sense of ambivalence about her identity – her white mother abandoned the family early in her life, and when her Lakota father brought her to his reservation in South Dakota to raise in practice this resulted in her being sent around from house to house of different family members and friends, leaving her without a sense of stability until a white couple from the nearby town offered to adopt her. They then moved to a mostly white town, and Lara began to feel more isolated until she found refuge in an unexpected place: Her family enrolled her in ballet courses as physical therapy for issues with her legs, and while initially reluctant she eventually embraces it, especially after learning about Maria Tallchief, a half-Osage woman who became the top ballerina in the country. Lara is also inspired by the Fancy Dance at the Lakota powwows her parents bring her to; if she can achieve greatness through dance, maybe she can become welcome in the community she had always felt detached from.

Of course, becoming a professional in ballet comes with its own challenges. Not only is the dance itself physically and emotionally grueling, Lara is also subject to all manner of cruelty and bullying – and not just from the other students. Fasthorse portrays this with devastating vulnerability, but despite the difficulties faced by Lara along the way, this is no parade of misery. There are always moments of humor, hope, and joy; the things Lara is able to hang on to as she pushed forward in pursuit of her dream. One particularly touching moment is when she describes an unexpected reunion with the Lakota women who helped raise her on the reservation. Lara is so moved and energized by this that she becomes inspired to do a Fancy Dance of her down, a sequence that is one of the highlights of the show.

Fasthorse, along with director Chay Yew and choreographers Price Suddarth and Maxine Alex give the show a pace that seems attuned to Lara’s emotional state. When she’s at her lowest the play slows down, in moments of panic and devastation it moves to a breakneck pace, and when she feels joy the whole theatre feels enlivened (the dynamic lighting effects by Geoff Korf and projections designed by Caite Hevner and Ann Slote also do an excellent job of setting the mood). This is a show that runs 90 minutes with no intermission, and it flies by.

This show was co-commissioned by the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis and its premiere in Washington was co-produced by the Seattle Children’s Theatre, and it’s easy to understand why: this is an excellent show for schools and families to bring their children to.  Youth who share similar feelings of ambivalence about who they are will find themselves inspired by Fasthorse’s journey,  and the themes of working towards your dreams and dealing with bullies along the way can be understood by anyone. It’s a perfect example of a story that is universal in its specificity.

Fancy Dancer is emotionally resonant and skillfully portrayed. It shows that both within her life as well as within the show itself, with the right people supporting her, one woman’s journey can become an epic story of triumph, one that could inspire many more stories of triumph to come.

FANCY DANCER plays at the History Theatre through October 4.