Music from the soul builds bridges

24 October, 2008, 05:44

It turns out the pleasure of music is not confined to people of hearing. Deaf-mute performers have gathered in the city of Tver for the Festival of Gesture Singing, using their hands instead of their voices.

Some of them have been deaf from birth and have never heard the music they performed to.

Emma Zherdyenko is the head of the Mime and Gesture Theatre and the organiser of the festival. She says the festival helps create a bridge between the worlds of silence and of sound.

So how can deaf-mute people actually sing?

“In every band there’s someone who can hear. He or she beats to time for the rest of the team – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,” Emma Zherdyenko says. “They choose a song and translate all of the words into sign language. Sometimes, the viewers don’t even realise that the artists are deaf because they articulate things so clearly. They sing with their souls.”
 
Weeks of rehearsals are needed just to stage one song.

Around 13 million people in Russia are deaf or hard of hearing in Russia and there are only 900 sign language interpreters. Aleksey is one of them. Partially loosing his hearing following a childhood illness, he now works in a gesture-translation centre and helps to organise various events for deaf people. He is always there when people need help visiting a doctor or a lawyer. He is also a European football champion, a dancer and a singer.

The festival was held in the city of Tver as it was too expensive to organise the event in Moscow. The artists didn’t want to think about the problems they face, such as unemployment, a lack of educational programmes and poor state support, because this was their day.

There are only three higher education institutions in Russia which accept the deaf. People with hearing problems can only count on a poorly-paid physical work, such as loaders, packers or couriers. Events like this festival help them show the rest of the world that they are just like everyone else.

“After ordinary people see what we can do, they thank us. Finally, they realise that we are not worse then they are. Normally, other people don’t accept us. They think that if someone has a disability, they're a fool. This festival allows them to understand that we are not worse off, but better,” Svetlana Ibragimova from the Russian Community of Deaf People explains with gestures.