Review: HOPEBOYKINDANCE Presents STATES OF HOPE At The Joyce Theater

The word “hope” implies the feeling of desire in the faithful and confident anticipation of a positive occurrence. Hope is the first name of two-time “Bessie Award” winner Hope Boykin, making her Joyce debut through her evening-length work “States of Hope.”  Performed by her company HopeBoykinDance, “States of Hope” shares an enriching, fully scripted memoir on self-reflection and growth.

As the overhead lights dim into darkness, a voice washes over the ears of the audience. “I’ve been starting to think I am one of these women who think they will put up with anything, for the simple sake of wanting to be held and loved…” says Boykin. Just as the viewer adjusts to the narration in darkness, a spotlight pools over Boykin immersed in the audience. She appears to be thinking out loud as if she is surrounded by no one. Boykin makes her way through the audience to sit beside the stage for the remainder of her work.

Boykin, as narrator, is accompanied by seven vocal performers. Each dancer represents Boykin’s states of mind: the Determined, Daughter of Job, the Cynical, the Angry, the Worried, the Convinced, and the Conformist. “I do not believe I could have become this specific and particular Hope, if not for these seven states,” states Boykin in the program. Conversation begins as Jessica Amber Pinkett questions: what is my “why” and the meaning of all this? Vocal flashes of anger, worrying, and people pleasing depict senses of anxiety and self-battling thoughts, providing an opportunity for the audience to self-investigate and check in with their own inner voice. “What if I can go back, fix the mess, what’s broken?” says Terri Ayanna Wright, portraying the Worried. “What if I love, thinking less about who loves on me?” says Pinkett, portraying the Determined.  As the performers move, the audience has entered Boykin’s brain as her thoughts meticulously and boldly enter and exit the walls of her mind. A double-layer of anticipation occurs: what will each artist say next? What will each artist do next? Each segment of Boykin’s script offers new streams of thought, twists and turns, and conflict. The evident mix of brokenness and faithfulness in “States of Hope” is genuine and focus-grabbing.

What inspires an artist to share something vulnerable? In Boykin’s case, sharing can be attributed to her sense of readiness: she finally feels equipped to share herself, as who she is beyond her successful dance career. “I am who I want to be and who I want you to meet; a confident and loving Hope, encouraging to others, proud of the work I have accomplished,” says Boykin stated in the program. "States of Hope" is an ode to self-assertion and completeness incorporating the reality of an artist's mental health through Boykin’s lens.