Larissa FastHorse Photo by Rick Spaulding

FastHorse is a prolific playwright and screenwriter whose plays What Would Crazy Horse Do? and The Thanksgiving Play and her revised book for the musical Peter Pan have graced Twin Cities' stages in recent years. However, her first career was as a ballet dancer, an ambition inspired by the legacy of Maria Tallchief, the world's first Native prima ballerina. In Fancy Dancer, FastHorse shares her story of overcoming extremely difficult beginnings, discovering her passion, and the arduous path and enormous reserves of resiliency that led to the fulfillment of her dream.

Fancy Dancer is a clear-eyed framing of that journey. Though many scenes depict harsh treatment and heartbreak, FastHorse does not present herself as a victim, but rather as an intrepid traveler trying to find the way over, around, or through each obstacle between her and her dream of being a ballerina. She wrote the play without ever imagining herself as the actor who would play Lara–the shortened form of Larissa she was called in the first decades of her life. She has stated that had she known she would be playing herself on stage, she might not have been able to be as brutally honest.

As we are seated, we see History Theatre's thrust stage designed as a dance studio (the functional set design is by Junghyun Georgia Lee), with just one door to enter or leave. There are dance barres on one wall and panels on the other, which, at the start, appear to be windows looking out on a stand of lush green trees, being soaked by a steady rain fall. Lara, who is now 55 years old, enters and, in a warmly conversational tone, uses the storm as a segue to take us back to the stormy beginning of her life.

She was born to a white mother and Native Lakota father in a small South Dakota town. While she is still an infant, her mother leaves the home. Her father gives her up for adoption to an older, childless couple of German heritage. From all Lara says, they are wonderful parents to her, but could not help the fact that they did not represent her Native heritage. Added to that, she was born with a congenital condition that caused her legs to be misaligned, making walking difficult. She is required to wear a heavy brace and ugly orthopedic shoes. Once she is old enough, her doctor suggests ballet lessons as a way to strengthen and straighten her legs.

Given her skeletal issues, ballet is a struggle for Lara, and she is teased mercilessly by her classmates. She likes the way her body feels when she is dancing, but the idea of her dancing in an actual ballet seems like pure fantasy. Then, while still in elementary school, Lara reads about Maria Tallchief, who was a native girl like her and, like her, faced adversity in pursuit of her dream. The thought of becoming a ballerina begins to feel like something real and the dream takes hold.

Lara's parents try their best to put her in touch with Native culture. They bring her to traditional pow wows, but must sit in the observer section, while Lara imagines herself among the participants. She is especially drawn to the "fancy dancers": women draped in long shawls and wearing jingle dresses, who create flights of fancy as they step to the beats of the pow wow drummers. She knows that this could have been part of her life, but it is out of her reach.

After years of enduring the vicious taunts of schoolmates, Lara is accepted to a college with a prestigious dance program, only to face the wrath of a dragon-lady of a teacher who tries her best to sabotage Lara's progress. Only the faith her parents maintain in her, and the knowledge that Maria Tallchief also went through hard times, keeps her going.

At last, she meets a dance teacher named Greg who has a refreshing outlook. His expectations are no less than her previous taskmasters, but he treats Lara as an individual, not merely as an anonymous cog in the wheel of the corps de ballet. His sage advice to her–"Lara, you won't be right for all people, but you will be right for some people. Go and find those people," feels like a revolutionary concept of self-actualization.

Alone on stage, FastHorse holds the audience's rapt attention throughout the play, 100 minutes without intermission. In addition to her own, natural voice, she takes on the voices of several characters in her narrative, including her mother, her father, the dragon-lady dance instructor, Greg, and Rose, a Lakota elder who gathers her community to welcome Lara into their fold, a beautiful moment in the play and a transformative moment in Lara's life.

FastHorse also dances on stage, with grace and passion. After decades away from the field (an injury forced her to retire after ten years as a professional ballerina), her dance may lack the athleticism of her prime, but she beautifully illustrates the magnetic force both ballet and fancy dancing had on her, and on her audiences. Price Suddarth provides the elegant ballet choreography and Maxine Alex choreographed the emotionally resonant fancy dance.

The staging, under Chay Yew's direction, brings fluidity to FastHorse's narrative, utilizing the entire stage so that this one-actor show feels larger, and enabling the years in Lara's life to pass by seamlessly. Caite Hevner and Ann Slote's projections, Geoff Korf's lighting design, and Robertson Witmer's sound design are among the play's many assets. The projections are particularly evocative in creating various interior and exterior settings and have an un-focused quality which gives a sense of us experiencing these scenes through the haze of the storyteller's–Lara's–memory.

Lara becomes frustrated by the feeling that she is never "enough." She is not white enough; she is not Native enough. The theme of being between two worlds and not feeling fully a part of either is woven throughout the play, not supplanting Lara's relentless pursuit of her ballet dream, but always there as a context that adds to the complexity of that pursuit.

History Theatre made an excellent choice in bringing Larissa FastHorse's beautiful play to the Twin Cities, and we are particularly fortunate that Ms. FastHorse herself is performing in it. Fancy Dancer is a rich, multi-layered play, and a generous gift from this multi-talented artist.

Fancy Dancer was first commissioned by Children's Theatre Company, here in Minnesota, and premiered a year ago in Seattle as a co-production of Seattle Repertory Company and Seattle Children's Theatre. It is certainly a play that younger audiences could embrace along with adults, and could be a springboard for probing family conversations. However, I would guide parents of younger children to consider whether descriptions of child abandonment and extreme bullying would be appropriate for their children.

Fancy Dancer runs through October 4, 2026, at History Theatre, 30 East 10th Street, Saint Paul MN. For tickets and information, please call 651-292-4323 or visit historytheatre.com.

Playwright: Larissa FastHorse; Director: Chay Yew; Associate Director: Jess Yates; Choreographer: Price Suddarth; Fancy Dance Choreographer and Dancer: Maxine Alex; Associate Choreographer: Abby Magalee; Scenic Designer: Junghyun Georgie Lee; Scenic Design Associate: Sadie Ward; Costume Design: Mary Kelsay; Lighting Design: Geoff Korf; Lighting Design Associate: Lily Mcleod; Projection Design: Caite Hevner and Ann Slote; Projection Design Associate: Leslie Ritenour; Sound Design: Robertson Witmer; Sound Design Associate: Sadie Ward; Technical Director: Gunther Gullickson; Stage Manager: Tree O'Halloran; Assistant Stage Manager: Emerson Steinbeck. Cast: Larissa FastHorse (Lara), Jalisa McKee (understudy Lara).