Forrest Hershey is a recent graduate of The Ohio State University (OSU) where they received their MFA in Dance. While at OSU, Forrest received the Graduate Associate Teaching Award, led a curation team for the international dance film festival DANCE@30FPS, and received over $10,000 in funding for their graduate thesis work from the Helen P. Alkire Scholarship Fund and the Alumni Grants for Graduate Research and Scholarship.
Prior to attending OSU, Forrest was a member of the West Virginia Dance Company (WVDC) for five seasons, touring throughout West Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic region. With WVDC, they danced in multicultural STEAM performances, taught arts-integrated workshops for over ten thousand students in K-12 schools yearly, and assisted with the company’s marketing.
Forrest is a Florida native and received their AA from Valencia College and BFA from Florida State University, both in dance. They have worked at the American Dance Festival (ADF) for seven summers as the Audience Services Assistant and have taught stretch classes at ADF’s Samuel H. Scripps Studios. Forrest has been on faculty at The Ohio State University (2020-2023), Heartfelt Pole Studio (2022-2023), Valley Dance Studio (2016-2021), and the Academy of Arts at January’s (2020-2021), teaching dance classes in ballet, contemporary, jazz, social dance, movement analysis, stretch & conditioning, and improvisation. Forrest continues to teach master classes and set choreography on performing companies throughout the U.S..
Forrest’s award-winning choreography has been presented at the West Virginia Dance Festival, the Huntington Dance Festival, and at various dance competitions. Forrest has performed works by renowned choreographers including Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey, Jon Lehrer, Talley Beatty, David Parsons, Pearl Primus, Bebe Miller, Gerri Houlihan and Doug Varone. They have appeared as a guest performer with Beckley Dance Theatre, Huntington Dance Theatre, Legacy Dance Company, Valencia College and on Season 16 of So You Think You Can Dance.
Forrest Hershey 