Thursday, January 02, 2020
Dancing While Deaf: What It's Like to Move to Music You Can't Hear
Dance Magazine: Paul Taylor rather famously never allowed mirrors in his studio, believing they fostered bad habits. But spend a few hours in the studio with Deaf and hearing-impaired dancers, and you'll never look at your reflection in the same way again.
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2 comments:
Reading this really opens my eyes to people with disabilities. I've always had a fascination with sound, noise, and hearing in general, and as someone who is really interested in pursuing sound design in some capacity, I think it's so important to know and understand the experiences of those who are hard of hearing or deaf. I'm familiar with Gallaudet, and have in fact researched the university and what they offer a lot. It's really hard for able-bodied people to understand disabilities, and I'm probably one of the worst at it! Even after reading this article, I still don't fully understand how they're able to dance without hearing the music. It's so so impressive that they can rely simply on vibrations. It's so moving to see that their disability has not deterred their passion.
I've always been interested in healthcare, and I'm trying to entertain the possibility of going to Gallaudet (you're required to learn ASL there which is really appealing) or another grad school for my AuD after undergrad!
Like the comment above, I also believe it is important that we open ourselves to other people’s experiences and how they live their lives, and articles like this help to understand how somebody with a hearing disability experiences life and sound. People who are able-bodied should push themselves to understand those with disabilities more, and this will help eliminate ignorance, and promote educational conversation and respectful understanding. The goal is not to exactly know what it is like fully, but to gain a better understanding to therefore be more conscious and educated about others.
I hope I will have an opportunity to learn asl, and I praise companies who make the effort to make their service more disability friendly. Some drive through starbucks and other food chains have enabled video chat as a way to order drive through, and and increasing amount of employees are encouraged to learn asl. Some disney world characters know sign language, promoting inclusivity and honestly, general kindness.
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