By Cara Leahy, Student Reporter

It began with an iPod on shuffle mode.

That is when Kat Bailey first had the inspiration for Friday night’s dance show, Free.

“I was actually driving home from school and praying in my car,” said Bailey, sophomore theatre major from Sugarland. “And this idea came to me, and the order on my iPod came on in the order I ended up using for the dance show.”

Free is an hour-long show that will feature dances, songs and monologues depicting the burdens of secret sins. Depression, alcoholism, drugs and lust are only a few of the issues dealt with during the course of the show; some of the topics are taken directly from Bailey’s personal experiences.

“I’ve seen every struggle in this show either in myself or my best friends or my family,” Bailey said. “I’ve seen people struggle with these things and see how it completely overpowered them – mind, body and soul.”

The show, which is entirely student produced, includes 11 dances choreographed by Bailey, as well as original monologues written by Emily Rankin, sophomore theatre major from Abilene.

“It’s a very dark show but it’s about having God, that you can’t do it alone,” Bailey said.

Ashley Padovani, senior theatre major from Mansfield and a dancer in the show, not only experiences that darkness but also succumbs to it. Her character struggles with alcoholism in a dance to Kelly Clarkson’s song Sober.

“In the song, I’m constantly struggling with whether or not to take that first drink,” Padovani said.

The alternative is represented in a can of nails present throughout the performance. The nails, meant to symbolize God’s grace, are a counterweight to the burdens each character carries.

“That grace is always there, available to us, but we don’t see it; we don’t take it,” Padovani said. “We don’t ever go there because our brokenness and our desire for our sin keeps us from receiving it.”

However, the darkness is part of the journey toward an ending that promises redemption, she said.

“It’s more than being changed; it’s that we’re going to keep fighting,” Padovani said. “We’re going to keep pressing forward until we are victorious again.”

In the end, it is that sense of hope Bailey said she wants the audience to take home.

“You’re not alone in what you struggle with,” she said. “You really can be set free from it – there really is a way out.”

Free will be showing in the Williams Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. on Friday, and admission is free.