TRIN Dance Theatre’s “The Greatest Show on Earth V.3” is unsettling. As Gia Bella sits behind a desk in a dinner jacket, she leans forward and smiles as if trying to prove something. Benny Goodman’s “Where Or When” plays to create a soothing environment, but her smile is exaggerated and nearly painful. She’s stuck. Situationally, it’s comical, but don’t let this show fool you.
Performing on Dance at the Odyssey: Summer Edition 2025, TRIN Dance Theatre unearths feelings of inadequacy that one often tries to evade. Watching the cast of characters embrace the vulnerable emotions they hide for this performance called life, it is impossible not to confront your own. No one leaves unscathed by an emotional reckoning.
TRIN Dance Theatre – “The Greatest Show on Earth V.3” – Photo Courtesy of Odyssey Theatre Ensemble/TRIN Dance Theatre.
Framed around a series of character vignettes and set to the lyrics of musicians like Patsy Cline and Kate Bush, “The Greatest Show on Earth V.3” explores the difference between the performance we put on stage for all to see and the one we keep hidden behind closed doors. It asks, “What would happen if we let people behind the curtain?” TRIN Dance Theatre’s response is a thought-provoking and heart-wrenching analysis of the human condition and the relationship we have with ourselves. Behind the façade of dancing cowboys and clowns, they reveal truths so vulnerable that it shows in the tears on their faces. Altogether, they strip away the layers to push themselves and viewers to rethink the performance they put up for the sake of comfort. Like I said, this is meant to be unsettling.
The movement transfuses gestures with grounded steps, whether it be a deep plié or a sharp turn. One gesture woven in each section is the clawing of the heart. Each dancer treats their heart like clay, pulling it away from them or jamming it back into their chests. They balance this brute, neurotic feeling with a whimsical and, at times, sensual choreography. This sweet spot they’ve achieved is made possible with the influence of drag performance. As Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” plays, the group enters in cowboy costumes, falling onto one another and creating smaller vignettes as the lead singer of the crew mouths the words, feeling every lyric as is staple to drag.
“The Greatest Show on Earth V.3” immerses viewers in a world that traverses the mid-to-late 1900s through its music (designed by SW1TCH/Keilan Stafford), set (designed by TRIN), and tone. While there are some outliers, the mood remains romantic and rugged. In one section, Mason Gray leans back into a chair and lights a cigarette. They muse over a lost love: Buffalo Wild Wings. Their favorite location shut down because of a rat infestation, something they were already aware of but couldn’t care less. They have the best wings in town. The theatrical performance, paired with the smell of cigarette smoke, transports the theater into a dingy apartment, bar or confessional of sorts. It feels comfortable.
TRIN Dance Theatre – “The Greatest Show on Earth V.3” – Photo Courtesy of Odyssey Theatre Ensemble/TRIN Dance Theatre.
The humorous, yearning confession leads to a more physical one. “Crazy” by Patsy Cline and The Jordanaires plays, and Monica Williams glides into a solo on the other side of the stage. They dance erratically, contorting their body. Williams’s passionate and elastic energy pulls them back and forth, unexpectedly encapsulating the same yearning Gray spoke of.
Leading to intermission, the crew receives a phone call. Trippy Dringman answers, explaining to the other person on the line that the performance is still in motion, with a conclusion unclear to TRIN. This tactic of admitting defeat to the imminent ending is common in performance. It’s a bold step that forces the performer to take one of two routes: use it as a cop-out and end the performance, surrendering to the creative block, or use it to dig deeper and unearth a part of themselves more vulnerable and authentic than before.
They take the latter, literally stripping away the costumes for the final half of the performance. They resume by looking back at their hands, no longer using them to pull and manipulate the emotions held close to their hearts. They pat it down.
As they transition into the final moments of the piece, TRIN resurfaces a section presented at WIP in December 2024. One by one, Bella, Gray, Williams, Trippy and Katrina Dringman rush to the front of the stage and confess into a mimicked microphone in their hands. It begins silly, like confessing to a wardrobe malfunction, and eases its way toward more vulnerable ones about withholding forgiveness. Their voices overlap into a cacophony of confessions. They can no longer hold it in.
TRIN Dance Theatre – “The Greatest Show on Earth V.3” – Photo Courtesy of Odyssey Theatre Ensemble/TRIN Dance Theatre.
All the objects of their yearning kept pent up in their chests materialize into duets and a powerful solo. Katrina and Trippy share a complex and intricate contemporary routine to “Betty and the Jets” by Elton John, reflecting on their imminent separation as sisters as Trippy prepares to start her Doctorate at Whitworth University. Gray and Williams collide into a sensual submission to each other’s romantic connection. They have an elastic pull to each other that cannot separate them from the furious passion.
Finally, Bella stands. Her truth is from within. She grounds herself in her skin, flowing smoothly until she finds a moment of stillness. With arms out wide, she looks at the audience. That yearning look from the beginning returns, but there is a level of acceptance beneath it. Take it or leave it. It’s raw and conjures feelings of self-acceptance and discovery.
“The Greatest Show on Earth V.3” wouldn’t be complete without one last performance. After admitting their heart-wrenching truths, they each put on clown makeup and don a new costume as they wipe away tears. It is a deeply emotional release that strips away the comedic coping mechanisms. There’s a newfound confidence from exposing their emotional core to the audience, and it manifests into a smooth and playful encore centered on the community they created within TRIN. Casey Shea, a dancer who had to step out of the piece for medical reasons, even takes the stage for the final moments.
TRIN Dance Theatre – “The Greatest Show on Earth V.3” – Photo Courtesy of Odyssey Theatre Ensemble/TRIN Dance Theatre.
“The Greatest Show on Earth V.3” offers viewers a piece of each member through embodied confessions that speak volumes with no words at all, not even a lyric. The show centers on the performer as a subject with an external and internal battle, often at odds with each other. The story held within is more vulnerable than the characters played on stage. What a gift it is to unleash it for all to bear witness. Here, TRIN Dance Theatre gave the performance of a lifetime, or dare I say, the greatest show on earth.
To learn more about TRIN Dance Theatre, please visit their website.
For more information about the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, please visit their website.
Written by Steven Vargas for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: TRIN Dance Theatre – “The Greatest Show on Earth V.3” – Photo Courtesy of Odyssey Theatre Ensemble/TRIN Dance Theatre.
