week 4 – The beat I was born without.
The Beat I Was born Without follows the life of Lenny which records the Journey of a Deaf Raver, a deaf who is on her way to Holland to find the best beat. The documentary has record her journey to a deaf clubbing event which uses human being’s different senses to create the experience of a white a night club is for the deaf people. Lenny has told us the reason which causes her to this journey was she wanted to belong to the world that is constructed mostly by sounds. So she extremely hopes to find ‘a place where it doesn’t matter whether you are hearing or deaf’. Lenny has also discussed her relationship with beats, music and vibration (all she can hear from music), she said when she stands near the vibration she feels really good and she doesn’t need the lyrics and notes, she believes vibration is more complex and different as music is to the people who can hear.
I was really surprised when Lenny said she has noticed that hearing people sometimes do not communicate as well as the deaf people because they did not seem to be very friendly and expressive to strangers. This made me pondered for a long time, as one of the hearing people we are not appreciating for the ability of hearing that we own. In comparison, Lenny thought sign language is more direct which communicate what they feel. Hokin, a sign dancer who brings signing and dance together in order to bring deaf and hearing people all together. He uses body movements to interpret the music and communicate music to the deaf audience. As a dancer myself, I cannot imagine how to dance without music. Hokin said he has changed his way to dance which depends on his audience whether they are hearing people or not. For the audience are hearing people, Hokin dances by following the beats and timing. Yet when he is showing to the signing audience his movements is more fluency and he uses his gestures; facial expression and body language to interpret what the music lyrics is communicating to the audience.
To me, dancing is a really good tool which bring people together. However, I have never imagined how can signing people understand music and be a part in the dance community. Hokin has really opened a new world to me, he said as a dancer, he respects music. So he finds out a way that can bring deaf people and hearing people all together to enjoy music and dance.