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Deaf dancer will be watching Marlee Matlin on "Dancing With the Stars." - Cleveland Lifestyles – Living, Food, Health & Fitness News from The Plain Dealer
Heather Wagley was putting her best foot forward on a recent afternoon, but her instructor Larry Nemeth wanted a better best foot forward, and then another.
So Nemeth, who teaches at the American Dance Exchange in Highland Heights, led Wagley to repeat a sequence of steps here, a sequence there, allowing the music to pace them through a medley of dances, from West Coast jitterbug to fox trot to tango to cha-cha -- as other students and instructors danced around them.
Wagley, a tall, blond woman of 32, has won first place in more than 50 ballroom dancing contests, with Nemeth as her partner the last eight years or so. When the San Francisco Open DanceSport competition begins March 28, they'll be there in their dancing shoes.
The judges won't know she's deaf. They never do.
Of course, when ABC's popular reality show "Dancing With the Stars" begins its sixth season at 8 p.m. Monday, the judges will know contestant Marlee Matlin is deaf.
And so will everyone who watches the Oscar-winning actress and wonders, "How can she dance to music she can't hear?"
Wagley, a dance student for 18 years, was pleasantly surprised that Matlin was chosen for the TV competition -- and of course, she'll be watching, as usual. Communicating through sign language to instructor Tony Nunez, she predicted Matlin has her work cut out for her, though.
Matlin is hoping her appearance will shatter once and for all the misconception that deaf people can't dance. "Deaf people can do anything except hear," she said in USA Today, quoting I. King Jordan, the first deaf president of Gallaudet University, a school in Washington, D.C., for the deaf and hard of hearing.
The actress will learn the dances through sight, feel and repetition, just like Wagley, said P.J. Novarro, co-owner of the dance studio. He said the film star will have to practice at least 40 hours to learn a dance, and that's more or less true for the other participants, too.
"Everyone is born with rhythm," he said. "She may not hear the downbeat, but it's transferred to her by her teacher."
While the bass notes can be felt through wooden flooring, they are not transmitted effectively through other materials, like concrete, or wood on concrete. That's why a deaf dancer needs to count steps, or look to a partner for guidance, as Wagley does. She focuses on Nemeth's face all the while she's dancing, he said, because she reads his lips for instructions, like "quick" or "slow" to keep the rhythm.
"And I'll tell her if she leans too heavily," he said, and that would indicate she isn't maintaining proper posture, which was a problem early on. "I keep telling her to take smaller steps. And a big challenge for her is moving her hips for the Latin dancing."
And she must remember step counts. The merengue, for example, is danced on eight counts, equally timed; the rumba is quick-quick-slow; the cha-cha is cha-cha-cha, rock step, and the mambo is 1 -- hold -- 2-3-4.
Sue Bungard, director of community services at the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center, knows the drill. She is deaf and attended Gallaudet, where students held homecoming dances. "The band would play loud, and we'd have a wonderful time," she said. And they'd keep the music cranked up in the student lounge, too.
But college wasn't her first introduction to dance. "I took tap and ballet as a child, and I took line dancing," she said. "I just followed along."
Heather Wagley was putting her best foot forward on a recent afternoon, but her instructor Larry Nemeth wanted a better best foot forward, and then another.
So Nemeth, who teaches at the American Dance Exchange in Highland Heights, led Wagley to repeat a sequence of steps here, a sequence there, allowing the music to pace them through a medley of dances, from West Coast jitterbug to fox trot to tango to cha-cha -- as other students and instructors danced around them.
Wagley, a tall, blond woman of 32, has won first place in more than 50 ballroom dancing contests, with Nemeth as her partner the last eight years or so. When the San Francisco Open DanceSport competition begins March 28, they'll be there in their dancing shoes.
The judges won't know she's deaf. They never do.
Of course, when ABC's popular reality show "Dancing With the Stars" begins its sixth season at 8 p.m. Monday, the judges will know contestant Marlee Matlin is deaf.
And so will everyone who watches the Oscar-winning actress and wonders, "How can she dance to music she can't hear?"
Wagley, a dance student for 18 years, was pleasantly surprised that Matlin was chosen for the TV competition -- and of course, she'll be watching, as usual. Communicating through sign language to instructor Tony Nunez, she predicted Matlin has her work cut out for her, though.
Matlin is hoping her appearance will shatter once and for all the misconception that deaf people can't dance. "Deaf people can do anything except hear," she said in USA Today, quoting I. King Jordan, the first deaf president of Gallaudet University, a school in Washington, D.C., for the deaf and hard of hearing.
The actress will learn the dances through sight, feel and repetition, just like Wagley, said P.J. Novarro, co-owner of the dance studio. He said the film star will have to practice at least 40 hours to learn a dance, and that's more or less true for the other participants, too.
"Everyone is born with rhythm," he said. "She may not hear the downbeat, but it's transferred to her by her teacher."
While the bass notes can be felt through wooden flooring, they are not transmitted effectively through other materials, like concrete, or wood on concrete. That's why a deaf dancer needs to count steps, or look to a partner for guidance, as Wagley does. She focuses on Nemeth's face all the while she's dancing, he said, because she reads his lips for instructions, like "quick" or "slow" to keep the rhythm.
"And I'll tell her if she leans too heavily," he said, and that would indicate she isn't maintaining proper posture, which was a problem early on. "I keep telling her to take smaller steps. And a big challenge for her is moving her hips for the Latin dancing."
And she must remember step counts. The merengue, for example, is danced on eight counts, equally timed; the rumba is quick-quick-slow; the cha-cha is cha-cha-cha, rock step, and the mambo is 1 -- hold -- 2-3-4.
Sue Bungard, director of community services at the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center, knows the drill. She is deaf and attended Gallaudet, where students held homecoming dances. "The band would play loud, and we'd have a wonderful time," she said. And they'd keep the music cranked up in the student lounge, too.
But college wasn't her first introduction to dance. "I took tap and ballet as a child, and I took line dancing," she said. "I just followed along."