Blind Dancer is Inspiration on Stage
The following article appeared in the March 2, 2008 edition of the Mon Valley Sunday and features Jessica Fordyce, a senior at Bentworth High School.
Blind dancer is inspiration on stage
By Les Harvath
For the Tribune ReviewDuring one of Bentworth's dance rehearsals for this year's musical, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," senior Jessica Fordyce accidentally kicked her dance partner, freshman Joe Molek, in the head.
Unfazed, Molek, who has dance experience as a member of the Junior Tamburitzans in Cokeburg, calmly instructed Fordyce to lift her leg higher.
"After that, everything with that move was fine," he said. "If Jess misses a step, she'll just say, 'Aw darn, we'll get it right next time' and she does."
The final performance of the show will be held at 2 p.m. today at the school.
Bentworth English teacher and musical director Jacqui Gurdish said Fordyce "will have the dances after trying them once or twice. She is a good listener. Recently, Jess was out with an illness and was three-and-one-half dances behind, but she practiced the dances at home and caught up quickly. Our other students are always there to help. They all work well together."
What doesn't matter is that Fordyce has been blind since birth. And specialists have been at a loss to explain any causes.
"I was born like this and doctors said the cause is a mystery," Fordyce explained. "Doctors do not know why I cannot see. My retina is attached, the optic nerve is fine, and there is no difference between my eyes and the eyes of a person who has normal vision, except I have what doctors call 'pepper spots' on the retina. No one else in my family is blind and nothing has changed since I was born. Doctors have called this a unique case. They have no answers, but they said it may change all of a sudden, for no reason."
(Continue reading the entire article at the Tribune-Review website.)
