A story of Awareness - How can a deaf person dance?

[ErmesT]

Intro

It was the spring of 1981. Yes, 40 years ago.

The gym was a basketball court, completely empty. The guys were happily talking to each other, but when we entered everything fell silent. The teacher asked us to introduce ourselves, one at a time, and to come closer, to allow the students to touch us. Then from one of the students came the question: “How can a deaf person dance?” and everyone laughed.

This was the beginning of my second day as a volunteer photographer. I documented dance therapy activities that the association where I was volunteering was carrying out at a rehabilitation center in the province of Venice.

All the students in the class were blind, and it was inconceivable to them that a deaf person could dance. “They can’t hear the music, how can they dance?”

The day before, a similar question was posed by deaf students: “how blind people can dance?”

I can assure you that both the blind and the deaf danced, and after three days they danced TOGETHER !!!

What they all told us after this incredible experience is that they all felt LIFE

LIFE, something that we all experience every day, something that seems normal to us. We work, eat, shop, go out with friends, travel to visit new places. It is called life, and it seems normal to us that it is so.

Is it really like that for everyone? How many times in our life can we say that we have “felt life”?

The experience of forty years ago made me understand a few things:

• That not everyone has the same needs
• That “feeling life” is a very special experience
• That by helping others we give them LIFE

For this reason I wanted to dedicate this post to LIFE, and I believe that understanding the gift we make to others by contributing to accessibility is actually a gift that we make first of all to ourselves, and which also gives us the opportunity to feel that LIFE it’s a special thing.

Not everyone has the same needs

The two groups of students in my story had very different needs. This is something we should be aware of when contributing to Google Maps. A couple of days ago I was reading a friend’s review, I want to propose a part of it: "It does make an impression when you walk through the beautiful rooms on the creaky parquet floor and smell the old books”

The creaky parquet floor and smell the old books. She’s blind, sound and smell are important for her when she visits a place. I will try to keep this in mind, in my next reviews.

“Feeling life” is a very special experience

Those students of forty years ago felt LIFE, they felt born, as if the possibility of a new LIFE had appeared before them. A life in which they could feel free, more self-confident, a life in which they could face the world. Those people have never been the same after those days.

By helping others we give them LIFE

There are things, as we have already said, that many of us consider normal. We call it “living”, and it includes all those activities that are part of our “daily life”. Such as a walk in the park near home. We consider them so “normal” that we often don’t realize how “special” they may seem to others.

If we removed these “normal” things from our “daily life”, we could probably understand why, not being able to live them, is a bit of a way of “denying a part of life”

Awareness

The awareness of this, the awareness that what is at stake is the quality of life of people, if not the entire possibility of life, is the first step in being able to effectively contribute to making this world completely accessible.

It is for this reason that my project is called “Accessible Life”, to offer life, a normal life, to people who are denied a part of their life

Global Accessibility Awareness Day was two days ago, but our awareness should increase day by day, and that’s the main reason why I wanted to tell you this story, about what I was lucky enough to discover forty years ago, and which has started to make me AWARE of how much LIFE is denied, and how much LIFE we can give instead.

Share your story of Awareness

What is your experience of awareness? Telling it can help others discover how easy it is to contribute to accessibility, improving our lives while offering a better LIFE to others.

[PaulPavlinovich]

My brother is deaf and I can assure you he dances badly lol. Better than me though.

I’ve watched him and his friends. They do best when there on a wood floor. One of the group who has some hearing will bang the floor to the beat and the others can feel it.

While it makes me sad he’ll never hear music, I know that his life is full. He’s a happy dad. His wife is also dead but they’re son hears. Watching them working hard to talk for him is touching.

Paul

[ErmesT]

Thanks for sharing your personal experience, @PaulPavlinovich .

I want to think yours is a typo, and your brother’s wife is deaf.

I have always loved dance, especially modern and ballet, I studied dance and in my 20s I danced on a stage in international festivals (would you believe it?). I have known and personally met many famous dancers, including a blind dancer.

The title of my post is obviously a provocation, from personal experience I know that a deaf person can dance, and there are many examples of famous deaf dancers.
The interesting thing is that the question was asked by a group of blind people, because it makes me think about how much each of us “really knows” about the perceptions and needs of the other. I think this is a key point when we contribute as Local Guides regarding accessibility.

The wooden floor is a fundamental element, to let a deaf person perceive music. Luckily, all dance school floors are made of wood, and they need to be very elastic. The vibrations are thus transmitted perfectly.
During our dance lessons, we placed the bass subwoofers directly downwards, on the floor, to transmit maximum vibrations.

However, a deaf person can dance even without music, especially in group dances. Being isolated from noise allows him to maintain an internal rhythm with the same precision as a metronome

The other interesting question was: “how blind people can dance?”

The fact that the blind had wondered “how do the deaf dance” already offers us an answer, but in the next reply I will try to deepen the subject.

I want to share a video that I love very much and that I believe will answer many of the questions better than my words.

Feel the Beat: Dancing While Deaf

[ErmesT]

As promised, here is the other point of view, @PaulPavlinovich , that of those who do not see.
A blind person’s perception of space is much greater than that of everyone else. However, the fact of not being able to see himself in a mirror, nor of being able to see the teacher, requires completely different learning techniques.
It also requires building a strong relationship of trust with those who guide you.
In the first phase we worked a lot on body contact, on things like “lean on me and move with me”. Very emotional, it requires a lot of trust and a lot of technical preparation, but in the end the results are there. Even a blind person feels embarrassed, thinking that others are watching you, while you express your emotions with your body. But in the end comes the awareness of being beautiful and being able to do it, and the courage to be able to do it in front of others.

Alicia Alonso was certainly the greatest blind ballet dancer. she died two years ago at the age of 98. At 19 she had become almost completely blind, but she continued to dance on the great international stages well beyond 1980, when she was already 60 years old.

Could you tell me which of the four is she?

'Pas de Quatre' - Alicia Alonso, Carla Fracci, Ghislaine Thesmar and Eva Evdokimova

[PaulPavlinovich]

These are both beautiful stories @ErmesT for different reasons. I’m so glad you’ve had these life experiences, for you and I who possess relatively normal sight and hearing its tremendously difficult for us to fathom what life is like without them.

I think possibly your blind dancer is the 3rd from the right at 1.16 and who does the major solo, but that is only from a single cue and could be totally wrong! A talented person will carry themselves through their talent.

Growing up with a deaf brother, we naturally adjusted our lives for him. I remember when he got his first car, he got me to put a ridiculous sound system in it - it was all sub woofers, no other speakers were needed. The woofers were under the four seats in the car mounted to their frames. All of our neighbours knew when Tim was coming home.

Interestingly, I have learned through him and his friends that they shy away from the tag “disabled” - most of them could get a pension and never have to work, but instead they choose to follow a normal course through life because they want to. They want to be positive contributors to society. They have learned other ways to communicate. Tim for example, even though he cannot hear anything at all (no cochlea) has found so many ways to make hearing people pay attention to him so he can get them to understand. At times I he will get frustrated at someone like a pay tv company helpdesk and I will get an angry SMS “ring these #)$&$(# and tell them what’s going on they won’t listen to me” - I always love he uses the word listen in these messages.

One thought I always have in my mind, I don’t owe a disabled person anything other than the right to have a chance to prove themselves and to be at one with us and to make sure the world will work for them in the same way it works for me. I’ve learned through years of involvement that they don’t want our pity, and they really don’t want our help but they do recognise that from time to time they need it but it has to be on their terms.

Watching Tim go down his path has always been interesting. There have been problems and challenges and sometimes these things were really bad but through sheer determination and will he made it through. He’s got more strength and guts than I do.

Paul

[PaulPavlinovich]

ps. yes she’s deaf - I could blame autocorrect, but really its just my brain and fingers that get it wrong

[ErmesT]

“Whatever you want to play just play it loud” is what Antoine Hunter say in the video, @PaulPavlinovich

That’s what we did putting the subwoofers pointed on the floor, with the vibrations passing trough the bones of everyone of us.

“One thought I always have in my mind, I don’t owe a disabled person anything other than the right to have a chance to prove themselves and to be at one with us and to make sure the world will work for them in the same way it works for me”. You are right, and "Don’t call me disable " is what Giulia said to me exactly 3 years ago.

That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to challenge myself, talking about an accessible (normal) life, thinking about a way to give to everyone a possibility to live a “normal” life, nothing more and nothing less than this.

I believe the challenge, for everyone of us as Local Guides, is to understand that there are many different ways to see the world (oh, my blind friend use the word “see” all the time) or to feel it, so to add in our reviews something helpful also for people who feel the world using other senses.

Oh, yes, the Alicia Alonso is the third one from right. On her story as a blind dancer there is a word that is extremely important: Trust

One of the most beautiful part of a ballet is when, in a pas de deux, the ballerina jump, and the partner must catch her on the fly. If you can’t see where the partner is, you need a lot of trust to jump in the air. Legend has it that it once happened that the partner was not where she expected it to be, and that she fell tumbling to the ground, only to get up and ask the orchestra to repeat the part once more.

[Jesi]

Hi @ErmesT , I loved getting to know how you became aware of how important accessibility is. It was almost like reading a poem

My story of awareness isn’t as poetic, or I just can’t write that way, and I think came at different points of my life.

When I was a kid I had this book that I loved, about a kid my age who was in a wheelchair because of some disease that made him paralyzed from the waist down. In the book, he mentioned some things like how his house was adapted so he could roam without a problem. But mostly, the book was about him talking about how he didn’t like the social aspects of him being on a wheelchair, how kids or everyone would look at him differently than others or ask weird questions, and he couldn’t do some things everyone could, like play some games. In the book he met a girl on an anonymous chat, and he was very nervous to meet her in real life as he never told her he was on a wheelchair (but it turned out fine).

Even though that story made me aware of some aspects of accessibility, I only recalled it in some occasions and I don’t think I was completely aware of it until some time after my first Local Guides meet-up, which was about accessibility. In that meet-up we walked through an area that ended up being not accessible at all, and I immediately felt the injustice there. Since that day I became aware of how important accessibility was for wheelchair users, and then over time, learning here in Connect, meet-ups, or just in the internet by experiences shared by people with disabilities, I became aware of the importance of more areas of accessibility. I still think I’m learning more and being more aware of different aspects of it everyday.

Hopefully we will be able to read other people’s replies soon!

[KattyGeltmeyer]

Hi @ErmesT and co I often am impressed by the fact how inflexible people without disability are (sorry if I insult you all). Some years ago, I was having a cooking workshop with a organisation for women and after finishing the cleaning of the kitchens etc. we went outside. One of the women in the company told the group it was already dark outside and she complained about this. I had no hinder of the darkness, but asked her if she had a gsm or smartphone with her. When she answered affirmative, I asked her if there was no light =lamp built in. Another issue: my mom can’t find the key hole of the door without light, and can’t put the key into it. She has fingers and can feel the key hole, but isn’t able to switch between her senses. I constantly must switch between auditive info, smells, etc. while finding my way. It costs much energy for going outside and have a travel. Going out for a walk is relaxing when I can do this acompagnied by a seeing person. I’m thankfull that you would pay attention to smells and sounds etc. but you also need to be aware of the acoustics of a room etc. if the music is too loud, I can’t find my way in a room (that’s why I avoid parties with loud music). If vibrations are too heavy, this also can be a disturbance and even cause me feeling unconfortable. Being aware of the issues of others is only possible after having a chat with someone. I really understand people in wheel chairs are feeling unconfortable in social life, because many people talk to them as if they are kids “A, Berty, you are a proud uncle aren’t you? Oh the kid is so a cuty, …” Bert was more than 20 years old at the time someone talked to him in this way. Please, people with disabilities are people, not their disability, they aren’t strange animals, they won’t bite you if you inaccidentally say something wrong or embarassing, they can answer questions for themselves and they often are as intelligent as you are. People with disabilities don’t have paranormal skills (I made fun about this with my classmates), we just need some extra info or a little bit of help. And we want to help you too. That’s why I started to contribute to crowdsource https://crowdsource.google.com I really would be glad if accessibility is not considered as usefull for a limited group of users, but is considered as a tool for making the world more inclusive. Sincerely, Katty

[ErmesT]

Disability is not something you choose to know, @KattyGeltmeyer , @Jesi , and well, what make poetic a story is the way you choose to write it.

However, disability can impact everyone of us, soon or later. We all become old, with less mobility, we may loose our view, we can hear less.

In the last two year my mom lost 100% in one eye, and 50% in the other one. She was completely deft in one side, and 50% in the other. In wheelchair.

I have assisted her in the last 10 years of her life, experiencing her difficulty in moving around, her difficulty in relating to others, her joy in being able to go to the street market to do the shopping, the joy of being able to say " I did it myself ".
Therefore, by contributing to a more accessible world, I believe we are creating a life opportunity for the future.

You are not insulting us, Katty, don’t worry, you are helping us to better understand. There is a big lack of awareness in the world. That’s why in this post I wanted to mention examples of people that were (are) famous dancers, not because disabled but because of what they do, or they did. People. Perceptions.

Well, you write here about how much disorienting can be a place with loud music, or with a lot of people, and how the vibrations can confuse you. Do you remember what I told you last Saturday, about the reason why a deft can dance? Because they feel the vibrations, loud music for them is life.

Again, that’s why I want to talk about awareness, because awareness is the first step is to understand that the world is not divided in “people without disability” and “people with disability”. Just as there is no stereotype of a “person with a disability”, there is no stereotype of a “person without a disability”. There are people, each with their own needs, each with their own limits. And there is a world, which limits some people access to resources that should be a right for everyone. @sashabg77 is one of the persons who helped me to understand this. Another is one of my best friends, @KarenVChin .

You can help a lot us, @KattyGeltmeyer , because you can show us what we cannot see. Inclusion is the right world, Katty, the only one that make sense. Thanks for writing, and for being you

[Jesi]

@KattyGeltmeyer I learned many things from your comment, for instance how you switch to a certain sense. I don’t think people are aware of the energy it takes to gather information when you are switching between senses. Your comment also made me aware of how very loud places shouldn’t be considered accessible.

Like Ermes said, don’t worry about insulting us, saying things like that help us be more aware.
I’m excited to know you share the same objectives to me when it comes to Crowdsource, which are also about making the internet inclusive, and so also the world hopefully our contributions there will make a true difference soon. I know there are already projects Google has, that are a good start.
Thank you for sharing your point of view and experiences with us, it was very insightful and I’m looking forward to learning more from you!

[KattyGeltmeyer]

Hi @Jesi nd @LuigiZ @Ermest I both switch and combine info from senses, I must be concentrating all the time when walking outside on my own. Concerning disabilities: you can become disabled during every moment of your life. One of my acquaintances became blind at the age of 18, because someone pulled the chair away he was going to sit on. The man fell, became blind and had to go to a revalidation center for a year. After this period he went to high school and managed it to finish an course for becoming a translator. Car accidents, tumors in the brain, … there are so many causes for becoming a person with a handicap. So, creating an inclusive world isn’t only needed for disabled people, it’s needed for all of us: for the future, for the current time. You told me I showed how to see? No, you already know how to see, you really have to learn how to look at things. If you go outside and you pay attention to the birds you hear, the flowers you smell, … you’ll enjoy your environment much more

Concerning #Googlecrowdsource: if you want to be of help for many users, please, contribute for several subjects. By using smartcamera you’ll train lookout by Google: if you contribute more info to smartcamera and don’t accept the vague descriptions “is this “flower”? or “plant”?” but indicate which flower, plant, … you filmed, the description can become more detailed and by doing so, you lent us your eyes. Perhaps, there are other subjects within crowdsource that can be of help for other disabled users, if I can be of help by using my ears e.g. please, tell me. We all have talents and skills, if we combine them for helping each other, we can improve Google’s services for everyone.

Indeed, all people with disabilities are different, we all have our needs, talents, interests, preferences. I e.g. am afraid of dogs, so I don’t own a guiding dog. Just one example.

Best, Katty

[LuigiZ]

Hi @ErmesT ,

this is a very nice story which should be told more and more often. Awareness is always the key to bring sensibility towards a special topic, and much more in this specific topic. As you say Life is something normal, usual, standard… for us, and we often don’t see, and don’t hear, that it is not for someone else. Only when we come to the point of feeling this sensibility we become aware of it.

I really liked the example of the dancer who jumps and needs to trust the partner who will take it, this is a real prove of the trust you have in the feeling around you. We often did small games with children at the church for the specific matter of the full trust, I think those are very effective way to stimulate something, one of the most common game which I’m sure you know is the blind running (see below an example of what I mean)

Corsa al buio - Gioco di fiducia

It does look like a very simple game, it is definitely not at all! If you are completely blinded it is absolutely not easy to start and run without knowing what you have in front of you and the direction you take. This is of course an assisted example but even knowing that it isn’t easy to start running and keep doing it.

Thank you!