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Feeling the music, deaf performers make mark in Inland ballet class and 'Dancing With the Stars' | Inland News | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California
Her crisp jumps and graceful glides set 10-year-old Alana Smith apart as one of better ballerinas in her dance class.
If it weren't for her hearing aids, no one would guess that she hears only some of the music. She cannot hear her teacher at all.
Many hearing people struggle to match their movements to the music when dancing, but not Alana, who was born deaf. She dances skillfully.
The Riverside girl finds weekly inspiration and a role model in Marlee Matlin, the deaf actress who has wowed television audiences this season with her moves on "Dancing With the Stars." Smith and other students at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside are rooting for Matlin to win.
"When I watch Marlee, I'm thinking, 'I can do that. I can do it,' " Alana said through a sign language interpreter.
Matlin is entering her third week on the show, which pairs celebrities with professional ballroom dancers. The pairs compete for TV viewers' votes and try to impress a panel of judges.
The Academy Award-winning actress communicates on the show through sign language interpreters, explaining how learning dance is different for her. Matlin rehearses more, watches closely and follows the lead of her hearing dance partner. She also cracks jokes. On the first show, she quipped that she hears nothing, but sleeps great at night.
Matlin's moves and her insights are changing hearing people's perceptions of deaf people, say students at the School for the Deaf.
"I feel very, very proud about it, and that hearing people are watching and can see that deaf people can do these things," student Kevin Santos said through an interpreter. Santos, an 18-year-old from San Bernardino, said he watches every episode with his family.
Changing Perceptions
Most hearing people are surprised that deaf people can move rhythmically to music, said Jacqueline Barajas, 16, of Riverside. She likes to dance to hip-hop and reggaeton music because both have strong beats and thumping bass. She can hear those lower-frequency sounds pretty well, she said.
"A lot of people are looking at me because they are surprised I can dance," she said through a sign language interpreter.
Classmate Josue Andrade, 18, said deaf culture is very physical because you are always communicating with your hands and body. He likes dancing and picks out the music's beat by feeling vibrations in the floor and watching others, he said.
In the past, he occasionally watched "Dancing With the Stars," but now he is riveted. All the students in his dormitory crowd together in front of the television on Mondays and Tuesdays to watch Matlin, he said.
Love of Music
When Alana's mother, Debbie Smith, learned her baby had been born deaf, she felt sad, thinking her daughter would never develop a love for music.
Smith, an opera singer with a degree in music education, said she had noticed that lullabies soothed Alana only when the baby was pressed close and could feel the vibrations of her voice.
No one else in the family is deaf, and it surprised her and her husband, Jeff Smith, to discover that Alana could hear only very loud low-frequency sounds, she said.
Now, with two hearing aids that wrap around each ear, Alana can hear some music, and a little singing but very little talking. Still, she does a lot with what she can hear.
She has studied ballet for more than four years. She has taken piano lessons for two years and enjoys music.
Alana walks around the house singing all the time, even though she cannot always form the words correctly, the girl's father said.
"She just does it because she wants to do it," he said of Alana's music and dance. "We have never had her say, 'I can't do that because I am deaf.' That's just not her personality."
Alana's sister, who is three years older and can hear, was the first to start ballet and piano lessons, and Alana wanted to do so, too.
Alana has to work harder or pay closer attention sometimes, she said.
"My sister is really, really skilled at piano, and it's because she can hear and she has more experience and has practiced a lot. I can't copy what my sister does," Alana said. "But I don't mind."
In class at the Ballet Theatre School of Dance in Moreno Valley, Alana watches intently when teacher Sheree Skiles demonstrates movements for the class. Sometimes Skiles bangs the floor with a walking stick to keep the girls on beat, and the noise and vibrations help Alana too.
Alana has taught some of the other girls signs so they can communicate with her. When the girls break into groups to practice combinations, a few gesture to Alana, and she shows them how to do a jump they have forgotten.
"She does amazingly well. She does well if not better than the other kids," Skiles said, adding that Alana probably pays more attention than the others. "She is not a quitter."
All trained dancers develop an internal sense of rhythm, but because of her deafness, Alana will have to rely even more on "that metronome inside herself," Skiles said.
Alana said learning new moves can be frustrating, but she tries again and again until she gets it. It's worth it because she loves the feeling of dancing, she said.
"I feel like another person," she said. "I feel very, very proud of myself when I am dancing."
Alana said she hopes to continue dancing through college.
Jonathan Kovacs, an alumnus of California School for the Deaf in Riverside, did just that. He founded Rathskellar, a group of deaf performers who mix dance, American Sign Language, music, sound and poetry.
The group will perform April 12 at the DeafNation Expo at the Fairplex in Pomona.
Kovacs said he hopes Matlin's performance will expand horizons for deaf youngsters.
"I believe the interest falls on each individual's passion to do something with their life. Most importantly, they ought to do something they enjoy rather than being "part" of the hearing world," Kovacs wrote in an e-mail. "
Her crisp jumps and graceful glides set 10-year-old Alana Smith apart as one of better ballerinas in her dance class.
If it weren't for her hearing aids, no one would guess that she hears only some of the music. She cannot hear her teacher at all.
Many hearing people struggle to match their movements to the music when dancing, but not Alana, who was born deaf. She dances skillfully.
The Riverside girl finds weekly inspiration and a role model in Marlee Matlin, the deaf actress who has wowed television audiences this season with her moves on "Dancing With the Stars." Smith and other students at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside are rooting for Matlin to win.
"When I watch Marlee, I'm thinking, 'I can do that. I can do it,' " Alana said through a sign language interpreter.
Matlin is entering her third week on the show, which pairs celebrities with professional ballroom dancers. The pairs compete for TV viewers' votes and try to impress a panel of judges.
The Academy Award-winning actress communicates on the show through sign language interpreters, explaining how learning dance is different for her. Matlin rehearses more, watches closely and follows the lead of her hearing dance partner. She also cracks jokes. On the first show, she quipped that she hears nothing, but sleeps great at night.
Matlin's moves and her insights are changing hearing people's perceptions of deaf people, say students at the School for the Deaf.
"I feel very, very proud about it, and that hearing people are watching and can see that deaf people can do these things," student Kevin Santos said through an interpreter. Santos, an 18-year-old from San Bernardino, said he watches every episode with his family.
Changing Perceptions
Most hearing people are surprised that deaf people can move rhythmically to music, said Jacqueline Barajas, 16, of Riverside. She likes to dance to hip-hop and reggaeton music because both have strong beats and thumping bass. She can hear those lower-frequency sounds pretty well, she said.
"A lot of people are looking at me because they are surprised I can dance," she said through a sign language interpreter.
Classmate Josue Andrade, 18, said deaf culture is very physical because you are always communicating with your hands and body. He likes dancing and picks out the music's beat by feeling vibrations in the floor and watching others, he said.
In the past, he occasionally watched "Dancing With the Stars," but now he is riveted. All the students in his dormitory crowd together in front of the television on Mondays and Tuesdays to watch Matlin, he said.
Love of Music
When Alana's mother, Debbie Smith, learned her baby had been born deaf, she felt sad, thinking her daughter would never develop a love for music.
Smith, an opera singer with a degree in music education, said she had noticed that lullabies soothed Alana only when the baby was pressed close and could feel the vibrations of her voice.
No one else in the family is deaf, and it surprised her and her husband, Jeff Smith, to discover that Alana could hear only very loud low-frequency sounds, she said.
Now, with two hearing aids that wrap around each ear, Alana can hear some music, and a little singing but very little talking. Still, she does a lot with what she can hear.
She has studied ballet for more than four years. She has taken piano lessons for two years and enjoys music.
Alana walks around the house singing all the time, even though she cannot always form the words correctly, the girl's father said.
"She just does it because she wants to do it," he said of Alana's music and dance. "We have never had her say, 'I can't do that because I am deaf.' That's just not her personality."
Alana's sister, who is three years older and can hear, was the first to start ballet and piano lessons, and Alana wanted to do so, too.
Alana has to work harder or pay closer attention sometimes, she said.
"My sister is really, really skilled at piano, and it's because she can hear and she has more experience and has practiced a lot. I can't copy what my sister does," Alana said. "But I don't mind."
In class at the Ballet Theatre School of Dance in Moreno Valley, Alana watches intently when teacher Sheree Skiles demonstrates movements for the class. Sometimes Skiles bangs the floor with a walking stick to keep the girls on beat, and the noise and vibrations help Alana too.
Alana has taught some of the other girls signs so they can communicate with her. When the girls break into groups to practice combinations, a few gesture to Alana, and she shows them how to do a jump they have forgotten.
"She does amazingly well. She does well if not better than the other kids," Skiles said, adding that Alana probably pays more attention than the others. "She is not a quitter."
All trained dancers develop an internal sense of rhythm, but because of her deafness, Alana will have to rely even more on "that metronome inside herself," Skiles said.
Alana said learning new moves can be frustrating, but she tries again and again until she gets it. It's worth it because she loves the feeling of dancing, she said.
"I feel like another person," she said. "I feel very, very proud of myself when I am dancing."
Alana said she hopes to continue dancing through college.
Jonathan Kovacs, an alumnus of California School for the Deaf in Riverside, did just that. He founded Rathskellar, a group of deaf performers who mix dance, American Sign Language, music, sound and poetry.
The group will perform April 12 at the DeafNation Expo at the Fairplex in Pomona.
Kovacs said he hopes Matlin's performance will expand horizons for deaf youngsters.
"I believe the interest falls on each individual's passion to do something with their life. Most importantly, they ought to do something they enjoy rather than being "part" of the hearing world," Kovacs wrote in an e-mail. "