This is a beautiful story. I posted the transcript of this video from the facebook comments below it, so you all can read as well as hear and feel every word.
[music]
Shaheem Sanchez: My body feels like, when I dance, it feels like an earthquake. You go with the flow. You feel vibrations under your feet: boom, boom, boom.
[music]
TITLE CARD:
Untold America
Deaf in America
Feeling the Music
Shaheem: My name is Shaheem. I’m a Deaf dancer. I sign music and I’m an actor.
Lower Third: Shaheem Sanchez, Deaf Dancer
Shaheem: I’m proud to be Deaf. Yes, I’m proud to be deaf. You know why? So I don’t have to hear the negative around me. I grew up speaking. I talk first, before I do ASL. ASL means American Sign Language. ASL – Deaf people communicate with sign, with our hands. Like hearing people speak, Deaf people sign with their hands. Right now, I’m trying to start a dance trend for ASL sign language, dancing combined together. You’ve never seen it before.
[music]
[Visual description: Shaheem dancing]
Shaheem: Music makes me feel happy, makes me feel free. My favorite song is “Climax” by Usher.
[music from Usher’s song “Climax” – “Going nowhere fast, we’ve reached…”]
Shaheem: I’ve taught Usher to spell his name. I met him maybe two years ago, because my brother, he works for Usher. He dances, he’s a backup dancer for Usher. When I was 16, I taught my brother how to dance. His name is Kida the Great.
[music]
[Visual description: Shaheem dancing with Kida as kids. Footage of Kida at age 5, age 9 and age 10]
Shaheem: He was on “So You Think You Can Dance” TV show. He won that show.
[I’m] proud. He learned from a Deaf brother. [laughs]
[music]
[Visual description: Shaheem dancing with Kida as kids]
Shaheem: Deaf people want to listen to music, too. People say, “No, you can’t, you’re deaf, you can’t hear anything.” Go to a concert, you can feel it. Boom, boom. Deaf people can feel it too, you don’t have to hear the words. We all can vibe together.
[music]
[Visual description: Shot of Shaheem and his hearing aid in his ear.]
Shaheem: I have a hearing aid. It helps me hear a little bit, but not everything, not all. You know how I listen to music? I put my hand on the speaker, I feel it, memorize the beat, over again, then again. Then what’s next? Study the words, the lyrics, again, again, again. Then next, dance. Put it together and one. I work hard. People think that I cannot be Deaf because I’m so good. Practice makes perfect, right?
[Visual description: Shaheem teaching a dance class]
[music from Usher’s song “Climax” – “Going nowhere fast, we’ve reached…”]
TEXT: Shaheem is a teacher at ASL music camp. The camp trains hearing and Deaf students to interpret music at concerts.
Lower Thirds: ASL Music Camp Co-Founders // Rocco Lauricella, Kelly Kurdi, Amber Galloway Gallego
Amber Galloway Gallego: We are an instrument. We are a part of their band. And then you’re providing and opening up so many doors for Deaf people, who’ve already been fighting for this access daily.
[Visual description: Rocco signing in an interview on the left side of the screen. Kelly Kurdi signing at a concert on the right side of the screen. Footage courtesy of Jeffrey Greene. The shot of Kelly changes to a shot of Amber Galloway Gallego signing at a concert.]
Rocco Lauricella: The first time I went to a concert and I saw them two interpreting onstage, I was like – that’s when I was like, I understand how the Deaf culture can really be involved with the concerts and be able to go to festivals and really appreciate and enjoy that. Just like the hearing community.
Shaheem: At the age of 4, I lost my hearing because of a bad nerve in my inner ear. I got sick. High school year, they put me in a Deaf program. Freshman year of high school, I started learning ASL and meeting Deaf people there. It was cool, I started liking it, I felt happy. I was like wow, I could communicate, I could understand, I’m not alone anymore. But what inspires me to dance? My dad. My dad was a dancer too. He died before I was born. I would never have thought he was a dancer. My family showed me a video of him, and I was like wow, he’s so good. I wanna be like that.
[Visual description: Shaheem teaching a dance class]
Shaheem: “5-6-7-8.” “You gotta hit it!”
What motivates me to teach? Because I want to bridge the gap between the Deaf and the hearing community. Why not teach the world’s kids a new kind of dancing they never experienced before? Deaf people feel a connection with me because I’m Deaf and I sign, so it’s easy for them to understand.
[Visual description: Jessica Vallejo dancing]
Lower Third: Jessica Vallejo, Deaf Student
Jessica Vallejo: When I go to my dance class, we have loud beats of dancing, because we have to feel the beat. So yeah, it was really fun, because you get to have those feelings up through your body, so it’s like I’m ready to dance.
Shaheem: My dream in the future, I want to do choreography with sign for other artists. I would [be a] backup dancer for a singer or rapper, but behind that, we dance for him in sign language. That’s what I want.
[Visual description: Shaheem and other young people dancing]
Shaheem: I just want some help being a role model in the Deaf community.
See, you should never give up. Show the world Deaf people can.
AJ+ Producer: This video is part of a larger series on the Deaf community. Here are some of the incredible people featured in this series. Follow our Watch page to catch all of these stories on this season of Untold America. And let us know what community we should cover next.
Senior Producer
Maggie Beidelman
Producers
Emily Gibson
Jun Stinson
Camera / Video Editor
Michael Nguyen
Animator
Marisa Cruz
Executive Producer
Sarah Nasr
Interpreters:
David Smith
Justin Kirk
Additional Camera
Maggie Beidelman
Archive Material
Shaheem Sanchez
Kristina Tutt
Special Thanks
Justin Kirk
ASL Music Camp
Story Consultant
Melissa Elmira Yingst
Jogo Corpo Fechado 