The Dance-ASL Project: Bringing Us All Together Through Dance
Kerry Thompson is the Founding Executive Director for Silent Rhythms, Inc. You can follow her on Instagram at @KerryMovesForward and on Twitter @KerrySpeaksUp.
Like so many of you, the COVID-19 pandemic turned my world upside down. Many of us have struggled with the isolation that has accompanied social/physical distancing.
We fight this feeling of isolation by reaching out to loved ones, learning new skills, staying busy with work (if we are blessed to be able to still work), and perhaps binge-watching Netflix. However, isolation is not a new concept for me as an individual who is DeafBlind. One of the ways I have fought isolation over the years is by dancing. Dancing side by side with people without disabilities taught them to see the world through my view and together my world and theirs became smaller and more connected.
So great was my love for dancing and the feeling of inclusion that it brought me, I began teaching small dance classes for the Deaf community. Since 2008, I have taught more than 5,000 people with disabilities and more than 10,000 people without disabilities how to dance through the establishment of Silent Rhythms, Inc. – a 501c3 nonprofit that works to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in the arts and dance while using the arts to promote our inclusion in society.
Silent Rhythms offered groundbreaking inclusion programs such as the Salsa-ASL classes where seasoned dancers and new dancers (with and without disabilities) learned side by side a salsa lesson they never forgot. We introduced our second groundbreaking program – Salsa for the DeafBlind and Friends – where people learned about the various ways that people who are DeafBlind communicate and those who are DeafBlind were able to learn dance through tactile/touch methods. This new reality of where “touch” is banned means that people with DeafBlindness have lost one of their primary means of being able to communicate.
As the pandemic causes us to step backwards into isolation, there is now a third kind of distancing that people who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing/DeafBlind grapple with – communication distancing. Social/physical distancing has led to many virtual dance classes and other online learning opportunities. Without captioning or sign language, many of these online webinars and classes are inaccessible for those who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or DeafBlind.
We do not want to see a world where people with disabilities are pushed further into isolation so Silent Rhythms is inviting you all to our new dance initiative – The DANCE & ASL Project.
During these difficult days, I truly hope that this project will bring us all closer together and give us a moment or two of joy while supporting our health and well-being.
What is the Dance & ASL Project?
Silent Rhythms has invited local dance teachers to teach a 30-minute dance lesson while live streaming with a split screen – the dance teacher’s and that of an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. Side by side, we hope that these dance lessons can be enjoyed by all people from the safety of your home.
Goals of The Dance & ASL Project
1) Offer an accessible way for people with and without disabilities to learn a new dance skill
2) Educate the dance community on how to be inclusive and accessible in dance space
3) Provide a fun activity for families to do together at home – learn dance, sign language, or both
4) Introduce different genres of dance – salsa, bachata, cha-cha, ballroom, swing, hip-hop, and contemporary
5) Support the dancers and dance teachers for whom studio and theater closures have meant lost income
How will the Project work?
We will be offering two types of online classes:
• A Facebook Live Class on Silent Rhythms’ Facebook page (with an ASL interpreter)
• A pre-recorded video that will be shared on Silent Rhythms’ social media platforms (this may either include a dance teacher who signs or a split screen with a dance teacher and an ASL interpreter)
For those who are DeafBlind or Blind only, a detailed description will be provided shortly after the class ends.
Our plan is to upload both pre-recorded videos and Facebook Live videos to YouTube where we will also enable the closed-captioning.
This project is in unchartered territory as there are not many, if any, dance classes that are offered online with ASL so we ask your patience as we keep evolving to make each class even better and more accessible than before. You can also email us at info@silentrhythmsboston.org if you would like to offer feedback on making the classes more accessible.
For those of you who love the idea of this project and would like to make a donation to help us offer more accessible online dance classes, please click the below donate button. Your donation will be used towards paying guest dance instructors and ASL interpreters.
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