At Theater, Sound Knows No Bounds

When Ian Sanborn was five, he wanted desperately to join a dance class. But when he and his mother approached the teacher of a dance studio in New Hampshire, she took a look at his hearing aid and asked his mother, "Are you kidding me?"

Ian Sanborn is deaf, but his mother, a French immigrant, wouldn't hear of his exclusion. "I came to the U.S. and learned American Sign Language, and I'm a mother to a deaf child. You can be a teacher to a deaf child," Sanborn remembered his mother saying.

Sanborn is now a member of the National Theatre of the Deaf, which came to Columbia on Tuesday to give a workshop sponsored by the Office of Disability Services. The workshop, intended to educate anyone interested in deaf culture about ASL and deaf theater, was attended by deaf and hearing people from all over New York City, including students from Teachers College's deaf education program and students from LaGuardia Community College's ASL interpretation program.

The theater, established in 1967, has toured the world and, according to Sanborn, every continent except for Antarctica. Not that deaf people from all over the world understand them-every country has its own sign language. "I speak a little French Sign Language. I was in Germany for a while, but German Sign is really different," Sanborn explained through an interpreter. He also stressed that "ASL is just as deep as English," explaining how signers inflect their gestures with meaning and emotion and use facial expressions in the same way that the hearing use tone of voice. Making big gestures is the equivalent of talking very loudly, and making very small ones is the equivalent of whispering.

The troupe, the members of which come from across the United States, performed a scene from its play, Fingers Around the World-Next Stop: Africa, which incorporates rhythm through drums and shouts. "Vibrations are very important to the deaf," explained Sanborn, who noted that he often sees deaf children stand in the corners of tiled bathrooms and scream to feel the sounds. After the performance, the members answered questions about their involvement in the troupe. "I love to use my hands. I'm born to a deaf family," signed Suzette Bartholomee. "So I'm very proud to be deaf."

Sanborn did eventually make it into that dance class. When children made fun of him because of his lack of rhythm, his mother gave him a balloon. "I was the only kid holding a balloon," he signed, grinning. "But balloons are really good at picking up high and low frequencies, so all of a sudden I could hear the rhythm. Nothing is impossible for the deaf."