According to her program note, Nicole A. Hershey’s motivation to choreograph, write and perform her solo show was the opportunity to share her uplifting story about depression and recovery. And share she does.
On a bare stage, Hershey, dressed simply in a stretchy grey camisole and calf-length black tights, with long brown hair tied back in a ponytail, alternates chronological readings from her journals (from ages 12 to 21) with corresponding danced segments that reflect her expressed feelings, which evolve rather mysteriously (at least for me, after the volume of angst expressed) from despair to hope and happiness, spurred by the lyrics of a Coldplay song (performed by Straight No Chaser) with the refrain “… lights will guide you home/And ignite your bones,/And I will try to fix you …”
Hershey’s voice and facial expression often waver with sad emotion as she reads. Her mostly modern dance style varies from vaguely scholarly, through frantic to sad to despairing (at one moment she sits motionless through the final notes of a Chopin Nocturne) and finally joyous.
Apparently this young woman, whose somewhat ominous early memories involve her mother’s knife, a “sad and angry ocean” and the pervasive feeling that “no one gives a shit,” suffers through her teenage years as a dance student with feelings of shame and inadequacy.
As she finds her way into an art form that eventually feels authentic to her, she’s often in a wobbling physical and mental effort to locate a balance in her life. Why is she a dancer? She drew appreciative chuckles from audience members by musing that it might be better to find a profession where one could eat more chocolate. She feels as if she doesn’t fit in; she has no friends; she doesn’t want to be judged for her body; she cries a lot. She hates it when choreographers change things at the last moment and work all weekend (more audience chuckles).
After she struggles with knee issues and apparently decides she is finished with dance, Hershey experiences a performance of the song “Fix You” and notices she is becoming happier. To cap it off, she receives welcome news from her advisor that she can complete her dance major after all.
Hershey is an engaging and earnest host to her tale. She is a competent dancer, with excellent control, able to display her choreography effectively. Perhaps the most touching aspect of her performance was the contrast between her sad, complaining, wavering demeanor through most of the program and an all-too-short final segment in which she dances with abandon and a glorious, infectious smile.
Read the official 32-page FRINGE FESTIVAL GUIDE here and find the full performance lineup here.
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2015.