The music starts. The three kids stand straight with feet in a V. Their eyes are on the lady who very subtly counts on her fingers and mouths with her lips---"five, six"--- the toes point ---"seven, eight!" And off they go to the tune of an Irish fiddle: a tune that they cannot hear.
My friend (who has helped me with a lot of the info for this website incidentally) is practicing for a show with members of the school "Ceili Club". She works at a school for exceptional children, and her little troupe are all deaf.
I had one question for her: How?
"Since they can't hear anything but very loud environmental sounds, they learn the rhythm patterns of Irish dance. I'm the music. They watch me, they get the counts. They learn 3's and 7's, the basic movements, just as any prospective Irish dancer does. Once they internalize the rhythm pattern, they can dance."
OK. How do you learn rhythm patterns if you can't hear music?
"We all have a rhythm pattern before we're born. The heartbeat is probably the first thing a developing human being perceives. There are tempos all around us, and the beat is part of the music. Music had to have grown out of our pleasure in the combination of tempo and sound patterns, don't you think?"
Do you always dance with them?
"I usually do the ceili or figure dances with them. They get involved with the intricacies of the figures and forget to look. If I'm right there, it keeps them on time. The ones who have danced a while can follow my hand signals."
She signs something to a group of boys who have sat down and are (naturally) flirting with some of the girls. They get up and line up across the back of the stage. Looks familiar. She signs something and they nod. Then she turns on the boombox, and that Irish accordian fills the room. I can see that she's counting, and on the sixth count comes the pointed toe. The first boy starts, eyes on her hands which move like a conductor counting out staccato. The grinning boy finishes his step and grins and steps back. The next boy steps out. They are on time, they are dancing.
"We've got to work on crossed feet and pointed toes, but they have the rhythm."
You bet.
|
|
Deaf Dancers |
The Feisfood Pyramid |
| |