Last week I had the pleasure of seeing the BFA Actings fall play: Dance Nation. The following week I had the even greater pleasure of talking to cast member Zari McIntosh, who played the role of Amina. Dance Nation is about a group of young dancers, and their relationship with the sport, the team, and themselves. Watching these eclectic characters on stage, you felt like you were watching a group of kids who grew up together. Zari told me a huge element of this was the sheer amount of time they spent rehearsing, “There’s nothing like uprooting your livelihood to bring people together.” On a more personal level, I was curious about what playing this character meant to her. Zari’s role Amina was the star of the dance studio — think Maddie Ziegler type — who struggled to find the balance between fitting in with her teammates, while also accepting that standing out is what made her special. In the play’s final scene, we see a climactic monologue from Amina, this was Zari’s favorite scene to perform. When I asked her why, she told me “it’s the place where you really see more of Amina, she’s going through so many emotions and thought processes.” I asked her to elaborate on these emotions and thoughts, and she told me “when she tries, she fails, especially when it comes to building relationships with the other girls, she tries to speak out but is always spoken for…she’s finally tapping into the confidence and the fact that she stands out for being the best.” This raw frustration from a young girl was very gripping to watch from an audience’s perspective. To any girl who has experienced the plight of being 13 years old — do what you can to ingest this play somehow. Whether it be through a live production or simply just reading the script, this honest portrayal of tween girls was brilliantly refreshing. At no point did the show shy away from the not so ladylike elements of girlhood, in fact, it often dove into them headfirst. I asked Zari how she felt about some of the more risqué moments, and she told me it was interesting, especially when your mother is sitting front row. However, she said that in a way this play brought forth more understanding between her and her mother; they could both relate to these characters, as at certain times in their lives they’ve both been these characters. While the roles in this show at times feel very specific, there is a universal energy that is so beautiful. Sure, we may not have all grown up on a competitive dance team, but we have dealt with the anxieties, hopes, joys and horrors of being a pre-teen. This youthful feminine edge is what really drew me to this play and its characters. When I asked Zari what it meant to her to be in a show like this, she told me “This show meant the world to me, it gave way for people to realize just how gruff, rough, soft, amazing, nuanced, and complicated all that encompasses women and growing up is.”