ROANOKE, Va. – The Roanoke Ballet Theatre is putting on a special performance for those who are deaf and hard of hearing. It is called Poetry in Motion.
This one-of-a-kind show takes the poem “Lark Ascending” and brings it to life.
While dancers are performing, their hand gestures and movements will also be a form of sign language. This adds another layer that the deaf community is able to pick up on, that the hearing community might not notice.
The goal for the performance is to have hearing and deaf audience members be able to watch and enjoy the same show but get something different out of it.
Will Smith, a dancer and choreographer with Roanoke Ballet Theatre, says, “There are all these things that a hearing person gets to enjoy their part of it, but the deaf community, they will also be able to enjoy it because there are going to be interpreters for everything and for the ballet. The poem is almost going to be sung through the bodies of the dancers.”
The hearing audience will see more of the choral work, but the deaf audience can see the variety of ballet performance.
Local choreographer, Will Smith has been working on this show for almost a year. He said he saw a need in the community to create a ballet that all people of all abilities can enjoy.
Smith says a challenge he faced when creating the show was incorporating American Sign Language into a ballet. He has been working closely with Betsy Quillen, a local deaf actress. She is attending rehearsal and helping see how dances can push American Sign Language, while keeping it understandable.
“She is the perfect person to kind of melt these two worlds together. I would choreograph a whole section and feel like this part of the poem maybe works with it and she will look at it and say ‘this part here looks like this part of American Sign Language’,” says Smith.
At the show, there will also be interpreters to help with translation, as well as a film about a deaf ballet dancer.
This is one of Will’s and his wife’s last performances as professional dancers. He said this is important to him because he wanted to leave the ballet community with a gift for those who normally don’t get to enjoy it.
Smith says, “Knowing that the end of our career is coming and with the ballet world, you never know how things will shake out. I wanted to leave the ballet world by giving something to somebody who might not be able to come into our world.”
This show is able to be put on by a grant from Roanoke City. The grant was awarded for the “Year of the Artist,” which encourages art development in the Star City.
Poetry in Motion premiers on Saturday, May 13 at the Trinkle Stage at Center in the Square at 5 p.m.