Katherine reached out to me and Laura with her idea of deaf dancers and how even though they cannot hear the music, they create movements based on vibrations from the sound around them. I found this to be a very intriguing topic and it amazes me the capabilities of the human body, especially in disability. We all looked into other works and videos that included deaf dancers. Here is some of the videos I found interesting and useful.

Allison Becker

An audition for the American TV show So You Think You Can Dance. When asked the question, "How do you dance if you are hearing impaired?' Allison responded, '...it's just feeling the music. It's just that the vibration helps me to keep...on beat and on rhythm.' 

It's incredible and inspiring watching her talk about her story. 

Jarrell Robinson

Another audition from So You Think You Can Dance. Jarrel says that '...the only way that I can hear the music is if you really...turn the bass on.' This reinforces the importance of vibrations - something we want to incorporate if we follow this idea. 

Physically Being Me (Six Stories from Deaf and Disabled Dancers) // Foundation for Community Dance

Thousand Hands of Buddha // My Dream Chinese Deaf Dance Team

Very beautiful piece that really shows off the capabilities of deaf dancers. The movements and synchronisation are amazing.

Mark and Emilia Villaver

Consisting of Mark and his deaf mom Emilia. It's interesting to see how have a connection through dance and how she is just as perfectly able at the dance as he is - shows the capabilities. 

I really like the idea. I think it would be nice to incorporate the emotion and stories of the deaf dances into their work, as through watching these videos and interviews you can easily see the passion, commitment and dedication these people have for dance. I think it would be nice to translate this in the piece. However I am worried that this would be not be achievable - we would need to find deaf dancers, a translator etc. We are going to look further into this idea and see if it is a possibility, as well as thinking of other ideas we might want to pursue as this is early days!