1.6 Learning American Pair Dance through Sign Language (Review)

Good morning, this is Nami from Deaf Dance. January 6th was our activity day. Our representative could not attend due to their first day of work, so I left the operations to our vice-representative and the staff in charge of accounting. Therefore, this article was written mainly by Sato-san, with supplementary notes by Chiz-san.

Thank you for your hard work at the first Deaf Dance of the new year! Today, we had 5 participants—2 deaf people and 3 hearing people—plus Yoshi-sensei, making a total of 6 people.

Since the lesson was in a large meeting room, the heating wasn't very effective at first, so everyone started stretching while wearing their coats, but it warmed up once we started moving a little.

First, we started with Merengue as usual. After practicing walking for a bit, we reviewed the Foxtrot and Swing that we did in December. In the Foxtrot, in addition to the basic forward and backward movements where the leader and follower face each other, we practiced a step called the Promenade, where you turn your face and body in the direction of travel.

There were some participants who hadn't joined us in a while, and although they were confused at first, it was impressive to see them happy at the end, saying, 'Swing is the most fun!'

According to the teacher, this Swing is the most popular at parties, and it is known in Japan as Jitterbug. Today, we also challenged ourselves to let the leader dance freely without deciding the number of repetitions. I realized that the leader's way of leading is very important for pair dance.

Although we were a small group, it was easy for the teacher's guidance to reach everyone, and it was good that we were able to understand things one by one. Lessons like this are precious!

After it was over, we fully enjoyed a New Year's girls' party in the room. Since many people are usually busy and leave quickly, we were able to talk at a leisurely pace and hear how everyone was feeling.

The next session is on January 20th. For first-time participants, please contact us first so we can confirm that you understand the purpose of this gathering.
deafdancejp*gmail.com
Please change the * to a half-width at sign and send it.

Well then, let's continue to dance happily this year and liven up Deaf Dance Kansai!