You Want Fries With That Sashay?
    by John Louis Bryant

Ready for a hearty order of fast food dancing?

BURGER NATION is here!

Conceived by MidGetDance Co-Artistic Directors Martha Williams and Pascal Rekoert, BURGER NATION , an exciting new dance/theater project, will premiere from May 13-16, 2004 at The Flea Theater, located at 41 White Street (between Church and Broadway). Inspired by Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Burger, BURGER NATION is designed to rip through the fabric of fast food franchising, the impact of conformity on the human experience and the simple over-consumption of the same burger being served to over a million people in the world everyday.

Ms. Williams commented, "As far as we can tell, fast food has transformed the face of America, whether it is our roadways, neighborhoods or the once thin faces of our neighbors. Food executives, advertising agencies and our fellow citizens have shaped and maintained a widespread fast food culture around the world. The result being that you can get the same familiar hamburger in Thailand that you got in Tennessee. You can find the same décor, the same smells, the same smiling underpaid worker.”

In BURGER NATION, Ms. Williams and Mr. Rekoert come together with their dancers to navigate through the hallways of time, with stripped voices of movement and music touching our most basic instinct of survival from the overgrowth of strip malls, chains and yet another Burger King. The purpose: to regain breath and simply sing with the body uniting in hope and humor as the audience, perched observers, witnesses burger to bun, frying fries and other happy “Happy Meal” moments. And it is the raw experience of dance that will arouse viewers to feel.

In helping you to feel the gurgle of too many whoppers, the performance space fills with imported manufactured aromas of fries and meat and the stage breathes fierce movement that utilizes the full spectrum of our brilliant cast. Ultimately, we are giving you a fiery glimpse into this engrained way of life. The audience is invited to sit down and enjoy the sumptuous meals of now and find their own flavor. A creative kryptonite called unbridled growth at the cost of the slave-like laborer must find its own heart again. Now is the time to enjoy the sultry dripping of dance made by heart and foot – not machine.